Eastern Headed For Tournament, But Not Satisfied

When Steve Aggers took over the Eastern Washington men’s basketball program three years ago, he realized the rebuilding process would require time.

“This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” he warned EWU followers shortly after inheriting a team that had won only 25 games in the previous four seasons.

But less than three years later, the former Kansas State assistant has his Eagles (11-9 overall, 5-5 in the Big Sky Conference) poised to earn their first Big Sky tournament berth since 1990 when they finished 18-11 under Bob Hofman.

One Eastern Washington victory or one loss each by Idaho State and Cal State Sacramento clinches a tournament berth for the Eagles. With six games remaining, Aggers hopes his team can clinch one of the six spots by knocking off either Cal State Northridge (8-12, 4-6) tonight in Los Angeles or at Northern Arizona (13-7, 7-3) on Saturday.

Even if the Eagles don’t win another regular-season game, they could still make the tournament if Idaho State (5-17, 1-11) and Cal State Sacramento (1-19, 0-10), two of the teams behind them in the standings, lose at least one of their remaining games.

Still, Aggers doesn’t want his team to back into the tournament, which will be played March 5-7 at the site of the regular-season champion.

“We still have some work to do,” Aggers said earlier this week before leaving for Northridge. “Our goal all along has been a winning season and to get into post-season play. We need to approach every game as crucial and try to keep our competitive edge and focus.

“We need to finish as high in the standings as we can to get the highest possible seed. Once you get into the tournament, everybody is 0-0 and anything can happen.”

Eastern is currently sixth in the Big Sky standings, but league-leading Portland State (13-8, 8-2), which resurrected its men’s program just last season, is not yet eligible for post-season play.

Standings scrambled

By losing twice at home last week, Montana State let several teams back into the Big Sky title picture.

Portland State, even though it is ineligible for post-season play, took advantage of MSU’s swoon to sneak into first place with an 8-2 league record. The Vikings have six games left, however, and four of those are on the road, where they are 3-7.

MSU (9-3) plays all four of its remaining games on the road and three of those are against teams currently in the first division.

Defending champion Northern Arizona and Weber State are 7-3 with six games left, and Montana remains a long shot at 7-5.

3-pointers

Defending Big Sky champion Northern Arizona (13-7, 7-3) needs one more victory to assure itself of back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1985-86… . With its 18 3-pointers in last Saturday’s 98-76 rout of Idaho State, Portland State shattered the single-game Big Sky record of 15, which was held jointly by Weber State (vs. EWU, 1996) and NAU (vs. Weber, 1997)… . Twelve of PSU’s 3-pointers were made by Briane Towne, who finished with a career-high 40 points - the most by a Big Sky player since 1993 when Idaho’s Orlando Lightfoot lit up Gonzaga for 50… . Cal State Sacramento’s Sedessa Fisher is averaging just over 14 points per game, but scored 32 in each of the Hornets’ losses to EWU this season.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AREA LEADERS Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt Avg. Avery Curry, UI 137-308 92-126 28 19.7 Bakari Hendrix, GU 166-308 106-140 4 18.4 Jovann Johnson, NIC 80-163 81-117 3 17.4 Carlos Daniel, WSU 134-278 103-154 1 16.9 Karim Scott, EWU 137-255 47-72 11 16.6 Matt Santangelo, GU 140-313 67-88 58 16.2 Modesto Spencer, CCS 126-278 52-64 34 15.4 Ben Heimerman, Whwth 55-78 53-60 5 15.3 Johnny Goodman, NIC 122-259 36-47 52 15.1 Nathaniel Bailey, NIC 121-291 75-118 30 14.5 Jeff Mix, Whwth 94-184 45-68 2 13.1 Richie Frahm, GU 101-208 48-60 56 12.8 Shannon Taylor, EWU 82-221 39-61 43 12.3 Chris Crosby, WSU 97-226 36-52 38 12.2 Ryan Nelson, Whwth 70-144 31-39 58 12.1 Rebounding Daniel, WSU, 10.2 (225); Cedrick Day, CCS, 7.7 (178); Heimerman, Whwth, 6.8 (75); Scott, EWU, 6.7 (133); Johnson, NIC, 6.3 (88). Assists Deon Williams, EWU, 5.8 (115); Tyler Jordan, Whwth, 4.5 (86); Bailey, NIC, 4.3 (104); Blake Pengelly, WSU, 4.3 (94); Santangelo, GU, 3.9 (98). Steals Bailey, NIC, 3.7 (84); Johnson, NIC, 3.1 (40); Goodman, NIC, 2.5 (52); Scott, EWU, 2.2 (43); Jordan, Whwth, 2.0 (28).

Schedule Thursday Idaho at North Texas, 5:35 p.m.; Oregon at WSU, 7:05; EWU at Cal State Northridge, 7:05 p.m.; Treasure Valley at NIC, 7:30 p.m. Friday Pacific Lutheran at Whitworth, 8 p.m. Saturday Oregon State at WSU, 3:05 p.m.; Idaho at New Mexico State, 6:05 p.m.; EWU at Northern Arizona, 6:05 p.m.; GU at Portland, 7:30 p.m.; Southern Idaho at NIC, 7:30 p.m.; Lewis & Clark at Whitworth, 8 p.m.; Walla Walla vs. CCS at SFCC, 8 p.m. Wednesday CCS at Yakima Valley, 8 p.m.