I've just returned to my hotel after filing my story on Eastern Washington's season-ending loss to Montana in the Big Sky conference baksetball semifinals. In the end, the script played out the same as two previous Eagle losses to the Griz, who kept pounding the ball inside, drawing fouls and going to the line. Thirty-two times.

I caught up with the Eastern Washington men's basketball team at their practice Sunday evening, and they feel tournament-tested after their big win Saturday afternoon over Idaho State. Look for a preview of the gam in Tuesday's paper. The team left for Missoula this morning to prepare for their Big Sky semifinal game at Montana Tuesday night at 7,300-seat Dahlberg Arena, which can be a pretty intimidating place:

Collin Chiverton scored a game-high 25 points and four of his teammates also finished in double figures Thursday night as Eastern Washington University blew away NCAA Division III Linfield College 102-54 at Reese  Court.

You can get an early look at the game story that will appear in Friday morning's S-R here.

Collin Civerton scored 13 points, Cliff Colimon added 12 and Cliff Ederaine chipped in 12 at Eastern Washington cruised to a 52-29 halftime lead over NCAA Division III Linfield College at Reese Court Thursday night.

This one was over early as Eastern scored at will inside against the smaller, slower Wildcats, who got 12 of their 29 first-half points from Zach Anerson.

The Eagles shot 52.5 percent (21-40) from the field in the opening period and turned the ball over only twice.  The only Eastern starter who did not score in the first half was Laron Griffin, who picked up a couple of early fouls and took only one shot in the eight minutes he was on the floor.

You can get an early look at the S-R game story on Eastern Washington's non-conference men's basketball win over vistin UC Davis on Sunday here. 

And by the way … this could be a pretty special year for the Eags.

Senior forward Cliff Ederaine scored a career-high 23 points and added a career-high seven assists, eight rebounds and three blocks in leading Eastern Washington to a 79-59 non-conference men's basketball win over UC Davis at Reese Court Sunday afternoon.

Cliff Colimon and Tremayne Johnson each added 13 points for the Eagles. 

Check back later for link to game story that will appear in Monday morning's S-R.

Eastern Washington looked sharp in building an early 17-9 lead in its non-conference matchup against UC Davis at Reese Court Sunday afternoon.

But shortly after Cliff Ederaine scored his 11th point less than 7 minutes into the game, the Eagles' offense flatlined, letting the Aggies to storm back to take a brief 24-23 lead.

Still, Eastern managed to regain a slim 31-29 advantage at intermission, thanks to a 3-pointer by Kevin Winford and a pair of free throws by Collin Chiverton in the final 3 minutes of the opening period.

Ederaine finished the first half with 12 points  and three rebounds, but no other Eagle scored more than seven.

UC Davis got eight first-half points from Josh Richart, and outrebounded Eastern 15-12.

Eastern Washington knocked off visiting South Dakota 70-61 in its home opener at Reese Court Saturday night, give first-year head coach Jim Hayford his first NCAA Division I victory.  You can get an early look at the game story that will appear in Tuesday morning' s S-R here.

Cliff Ederaine scored five of his nine first-half points during a 10-2 run Eastern Washington University used to close the opening period of its its home opener against South Dakota at Reese Court Tuesday night.

That run gave the Eagles, who got a game-high 11 first-half point from first-year JC transfer Collin Chiverton, a 38-24 halftime lead over the visiting Coyotes, who were paced offensively by Louie Krogman's nine points.

Eastern, after making only one of its first seven shots, finished the first half shooting 42.9 percent (15-35) from the field and forced 13 USD turnovers.

Eastern Washington's new men's basketball coach Jim Hayford continues to add size and talent to the Eagles' roster.

The latest addition is University of Oregon transfer Martin Seiferth, a 6-foot-10, 220-pound center from Berlin, German, who will sit out the 2011-12 season under the NCAA's transfer rule.  You can read more on Seiferth here.

Despite an earlier announcement that he was staying at Eastern Washington to play basketball under new head coach Jim Hayford, Eagles sophomore guard Glen Dean has decided to transfer to the University of Utah.

You can get an early look at the story that will appear in Friday morning's S-R — along with the complete statement Dean emailed about his decision — here.

Eastern Washington's new head men's basketball coach Jim Hayford signed his first recruit on Wednesday, landing Collin Chiverton, a 6-foot-6 win out of City College of San Francisco.  You can read more here.

Matt Logie, the  will be oficially introduced as Whitworth University's new men's basketball coach at a Tuesday morning press conference. You can read more here.

Eastern Washington's new head men's basketball coach Jim Hayford announced Tuesday afternoon that he has hired former NBA player Craig Ehlo, Craig Fortier and Shantay Legans as his assistants.

You can get an early look at the story that will run in Wednesday morning's S-R here, and you get additional details in this story that was posted by EWU's sports information department.

The WIAA just announced at a meeting in Renton a couple of tweaks to the boys and girls state basketball formats, but nothing major. You can read a story by Doug Pacey of the Tacoma News Tribune here. Here is the Seattle Times' story by Sandy Ringer.

Here's essentially what was decided:

- Regional games, as they will be called in the future, are single elimination. So as a higher-seeded team you can't lose the first game and still come back and WIN a state championship.

- Boys will play on Friday and girls will play on Saturday with the format alternating every year.

- WIAA head cheese Mike Colbrese would like to see Saturday consolation trophy games eliminated. But the board sez that's too big of a change after the change from a year ago.

EWU's sophomore point guard Glen Dean, after considering the possibility of transferring, announce Thursday afternoon that he will remain with the Eagles and play for Coach Jim Hayford, who was hired late last month to replace Kirk Earlywine, the man who first convinced Dean to come to Eastern.

You can read more here.  And be sure to check back for updates.

EWU sophomore point guard Glen Dean may be transferring.  Or maybe not.

Check here for story that will run in Thursday morining's S-R.

Eastern Washington University used the Spokane Club as the venue to officially introduce Jim Hayford as its new men's basketball coach.  The press conference was attended by many of the friends Hayford made during his 10 years as the head coach at Whitworth University, and it is EWU athletic director Bill Chaves' hope that many of those friends will now become Eagles fans.

You can get an early look at the story that will appear in Wednesday morning's S-R here, and you can read what EWU's sports information department posted about the new hire and view a video of Tuesday's press conference, as well, right here.

Feel free to leave any comments you might have.

throw there  

Eastern Washington has hired Jim Hayford, Whitworth University ultra-successful head coach, to head its men's basketball program.  You can read more here, and stay turned for any updates that become available.

As promised, we've got an update on the firing of Eastern Washington men's basketball coach Kirk Earlywine.  You can read the latest version of the story — complete with comments from Eagles atheltic director Bill Chaves — that is scheduled to run in Tuesday morning S-R here, and you can see what EWU's sports information deparment released on the matter here.

Stay tuned for updates as they develop.  And feel free to let us know how you feel about Chaves' decision.