Boise St., Idaho St. At Eastern Washington

The Eagles (3-7) start Big Sky Conference play with two home games, against Boise State (9-2) tonight and Idaho State (9-2) on Saturday. Tipoff for both is 7:05 p.m. at Reese Court in Cheney.

At a glance

Eastern has shown improvement lately, particularly on offense, but figures to need season-best performances to stay with conference favorites BSU and ISU. The Eagles handled a smallish Whitman team Tuesday night, although defense was a weakness in the 90-78 home win. “We let them catch and shoot the 3, and we can’t let (teams) do that,” EWU coach John Wade said. Boise State is coming off a victory over Rice University last Saturday, a game in which 7-foot center John Coker scored 22 points. “Boise, they’re a strange team to play,” said EWU wing Josh Lewis, whose 26 points and seven assists Tuesday were career bests. “They’re not going to scare the crap out of you, but they’ll beat the hell out of you if you don’t play well. They’re beatable if we play well.” Idaho State visits Cheney after tonight’s conference opener at Idaho. In the Bengals’ last six wins - they’re 6-1 since Dec. 7 - the average margin of victory has been 26.8 points. Eastern was swept by BSU and ISU last season, when the Eagles were 0-14 in the conference.

Eastern: Kevin Groves, 13.9 points, 5.2 rebounds per game; Josh Lewis, 12 ppg; D’mitri Rideout, 11.2 ppg; Craig Stinnett, 9.5 ppg; Curtis Porter, 8.3 ppg; Melvin Lewis, 8.1 ppg, 7.5 rpg. Boise State (tonight): John Coker, 18 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg; Sherman Morris, 10.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg; Darnell Woods, 9.4 ppg, 3.5 apg, 2.5 spg; Damon Archibald, 9.3 ppg, 3.5 apg, 2.4 spg. Idaho State (Saturday): Jim Potter, 16.9 ppg, 8.7 rpg; Donnell Morgan, 16.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg; Lorenzo Watkins, 11.4 ppg; Nate Green, 10.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg; Shabaka Lands, 9.9 ppg, 4.2 apg, 2.7 spg.

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