Eastern Catches The Fever Football Team Helps Ignite Eagles Past Montana, 77-66

The good times, athletically, seem to be contagious at Eastern Washington University, where the success of the Eagles’ drive to the semifinals of the Division-I football playoffs last fall has spilled over onto the basketball court.

Literally.

With a rowdy, vocal band of footballers leading cheers from the front row of the bleachers and, at times, from a step or two within the sideline boundaries Eastern outlasted undermanned Montana 77-66 Saturday night in a Reese Court men’s basketball showdown that could have a major impact on seedings for the Big Sky Conference tournament, which starts March 5.

Karim Scott scored 19 points to lead a quartet of double-figure scorers and the Eagles (14-10, 8-6 in the Big Sky) withstood a late field-goal drought and some shaky foul shooting in the final minutes to slip past the Grizzlies (15-13, 8-7) into fourth place in the Big Sky standings.

Montana played without its leading scorer and assist leader J.R. Camel, who was sent back to Missoula with flu symptoms, and backup point guard Eric Bowie, who is nursing an ankle sprain. In addition, starting center Bob Olson played only 13 minutes after suffering an apparent hip pointer early in the game.

But none of that could detract from Eastern’s fifth win in its last six games and a rare home sweep of Montana and Thursday night victim Montana State. Third-place MSU (17-9, 9-6) also fell at Portland State in triple overtime Saturday night and now leads EWU by just a half-game in the battle for the No. 3 seed in the tournament, which will be hosted by the regular-season champion.

“This was a great win,” Eastern coach Steve Aggers said, after watching his team delight a season-best crowd of 1,812 that included Buffalo Bills safety Kurt Schulz, one of six former Eagle athletes inducted into the Nextlink Hall of Fame this weekend.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve beaten Montana and Montana State on the same weekend. It’s a real big confidence builder to beat two of the perennial top teams in our league.”

Aggers also had praise for Montana, which nearly played through its personnel deficiencies, thanks to great heart and even greater shooting by sophomore guard Mike Warhank, who made a school-record nine 3-pointers while scoring a career-high 33 points.

Warhank, a native of Great Falls, Mont., and former ballboy for Aggers when he coached at College of Great Falls in the early 1980s, was 9 for 12 from 3-point range before missing his final three attempts after the Grizzlies had whittled an 18-point deficit to 72-66 with just more than a minute left.

“He just had a monster game,” Aggers said. “They did a good thing with (Camel) out of there. They ran all of their offense to Warhank. But really, one guy isn’t going to beat you, normally, and we did a decent job on everybody else.”

Jared Buckmaster scored 13 points for Montana and Ryan Dick added 11, but they couldn’t compensate for the balance of Eastern, which got 17 points from Shannon Taylor and 12 each from Kevin and Michael Lewis.

“J.R. is obviously a factor in a lot of things we do and (his illness) changes the game,” Grizzly coach Blaine Taylor said of Camel, who is averaging 11.9 points, 5.9 assists and 3.1 steals per game. “But I thought our kids adjusted well and tried to make the most of it.

“Mike Warhank obviously picked up the slack, but it would have been nice it he’d have had a little more help.”

Taylor scored his 17 for Eastern despite playing only 15 minutes because of foul trouble. Scott pulled down 11 rebounds to give him his third double-double of the season. And the Eagles beat the Grizzlies for the first time in 11 meetings.

EWU 77, Montana 66

Montana (15-13) - Buckmaster 5-10 2-2 13, Dick 5-13 1-2 11, Olson 1-2 0-0 2, Reiser 0-9 2-2 2, Warhank 11-17 2-2 33, Seidensticker 1-7 1-2 3, Williams 0-0 0-1 0, Sil 0-4 0-0 0, Davis 0-2 2-2 2. Totals 23-64 10-13 66.

Eastern Washington (14-10) - Berger 1-3 0-0 2, Scott 8-20 3-5 19, K. Lewis 6-10 0-0 12, Williams 3-7 1-5 9, M. Lewis 3-7 4-4 12, Stone 0-0 0-0 0, McGee 0-1 0-0 0, Claus 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor 6-9 0-0 17, Sims 1-3 0-0 2, White 0-0 2-2 2, Humbert 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 28-60 12-18 77.

Halftime-E. Washington 37, Montana 32. 3-Point goals- Montana 10-26 (Buckmaster 1-3, Reiser 0-5, Warhank 9-15, Seidensticker 0-2, Sil 0-1), E. Washington 9-13 (Scott 0-1, Williams 2-4, M. Lewis 2-2, Taylor 5-6). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Montana 42 (Seidensticker 10), E. Washington 36 (Scott 11). Assists-Montana 19 (Warhank 6), E. Washington 20 (Williams 7). Total fouls-Montana 17, E. Washington 16. A-1,812.

, DataTimes