Improved Eagles Win Another One Eastern Washington Men Start 2-0 For The First Since 1985-86 Season

Coaches, players, and fans who support Eastern Washington University men’s basketball must like what they’re seeing from this Eagles team, still in the embryonic stage of the season.

Saturday night in Reese Court, the Eagles put together a convincing 69-52 victory over San Diego State University, just one year after the Aztecs of the Western Athletic Conference humiliated Eastern in San Diego 80-55.

Saturday’s triumph also marked the first time since the 1985-86 season the Eagles have started the season at 2-0. That winter they were 4-0 before losing to Fresno State.

“Nobody likes how they did us last year,” said EWU senior forward Karim Scott, one of three starters back from last season’s team. “Even the new guys don’t like how they did us last year.”

This year’s rematch featured a team effort from the old and the new.

Senior Jon Berger led the Eagles with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting and Scott added 12 on 6-of-16 shooting. Sophomore transfer Shannon Taylor chipped in with 14 points.

Another sophomore transfer, Jason Humbert, pulled in a game-high 14 rebounds. The Eagles outrebounded the Aztecs 59-42 after both teams had 21 rebounds in the first half.

“I was pleased with the way we dominated the boards,” Eastern coach Steve Aggers said. “That’s one of the things we hadn’t been doing very well.”

Point guard Deon Williams, still another new Eastern player, contributed by stopping SDSU’s Jason Richey. The Aztec’s best shooter, who averaged 17.6 points per game last year, was held to 12 points.

Eastern has only beaten a WAC opponent twice. San Diego State has been the victim both times with EWU’s prior victory coming in the 1985-86 season.

Aggers also was pleased by his team’s defense. The Eagles failed to hold an opponent to 52 points last season. In fact, they turned in their best defensive effort since the 1994-85 season, when they held Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to 40 points, a span of 71 games. The Cal Poly game was played during the pre-Aggers era.

“To hold a team to under 60 points, I was just pleased with the way we played defense and rebounded,” said Aggers, who is beginning his third year.

Eastern jumped out to an 8-0 lead and kept it up from wire to wire.

San Diego State (0-2) cut the lead to 28-26 with 57 seconds left in the half when Josko Visnjic hit his second 3-pointer in a 1-minute span. Humbert, a 6-foot-10 center, scored in the final seconds to give the Eagles a 30-26 halftime lead.

Eastern began the second half on an 18-7 run. The Aztecs cut the lead to 63-52 on Marcelo Correa’s layup with 2:23 left, but they never made in into single digits.

After an Eagles timeout, Eastern roared back on Scott’s rim-hanging slam dunk, his second in the game.

E. Washington 69, San Diego St. 52

San Diego State (0-2) -Betts 1-1 0-0 2, Visnjic 3-10 2-2 11, Kruiswyk 4-10 2-2 10, Richey 4-20 3-3 12, Watts 5-22 1-5 12, Kaplansky 0-1 0-0 0, Correa 2-4 0-0 4, Clark 0-2 1-2 1. Totals 19-70 9-14 52.

Eastern Washington (2-0) - Berger 6-12 3-4 15, Scott 6-16 0-0 12, Humbert 4-10 1-3 9, Williams 3-8 0-0 7, Taylor 4-14 3-8 14, Stone 0-1 0-0 0, McGee 2-3 0-0 4, Claus 0-0 0-2 0, Sims 1-2 0-0 2, M. Lewis 1-1 4-4 6, K. Lewis 0-1 0-0 0, White 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 27-68 11-22 69.

Halftime-E. Washington 30, San Diego St. 26. 3-Point goals-San Diego St. 5-26 (Visnjic 3-8, Richey 1-7, Watts 1-11), E. Washington 4-13 (Williams 1-2, Taylor 3-10, McGee 0-1) Fouled out-None. Rebounds-San Diego St. 42 (Kruiswyk 11), E. Washington 59 (Humbert 14). Assists-San Diego St. 9 (Richey and Watts 3), E. Washington 16 (Williams 6). Total fouls-San Diego St. 18, E. Washington 18. A-969.

, DataTimes