One More Tough Trip For Ewu

Eastern Washington continues grinding through the most difficult portion of its Big Sky Conference men’s basketball schedule tonight when it opens its annual road swing through Montana with a 6:35 matchup against Montana State in Bozeman.

The Eagles (8-6 overall, 2-2 in the Big Sky) haven’t played at home since Jan. 5, when they tripped Cal State Northridge 85-77, and they won’t return until Friday, Jan. 23, when they entertain red-hot Weber State.

They split two road games last week and would probably be elated with a similar outcome this weekend.

Montana State (11-4, 3-1), one of the preseason favorites to win the regular-season title, has won 10 straight against Eastern and hasn’t lost to the Eagles in Breeden Fieldhouse since 1990. Montana (8-9, 1-3), which provides the opposition for Saturday’s 1:05 p.m. matchup in Missoula, has won nine straight against EWU and also hasn’t lost to the Eagles at home since 1990.

“This is a tough road trip,” admitted third-year Eastern coach Steve Aggers, whose Eagles are coming off a 97-81 loss at Weber State last Saturday. “But our team isn’t going to fold. Hopefully, we learned (from the Weber loss), and we’re going to grow, mature and get better.”

Berger healing

Aggers received some much-needed good news on the injury front earlier this week when power forward Jon Berger was cleared to make the trip to Montana. Berger had missed Eastern’s last 11 games with a broken foot.

It is not known how much - or even if - the 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior will play. But he is recovering more quickly than expected after having a metal rod implanted in his injured foot.

Berger was averaging 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds at the time of his injury. His absence has been magnified by the recent loss of sophomore center Jason Humbert, who is expected to miss the next five weeks with a broken hand.

A class of its own

Portland State has to be the nation’s best league-leading, 9-5 team that has no chance of advancing to postseason play.

The Vikings have opened Big Sky play at 4-0, but are not eligible for either the conference or NCAA tournaments because of an NCAA-mandated two-year qualifying period. The waiting period began last season, when PSU brought its men’s basketball program out of mothballs. The Vikings had not played since the 1980-81 season.

Oh, shoot

There is no deep, hidden secret behind the success of the teams atop the Big Sky Conference standings. The best can shoot the basketball.

League-leading PSU (4-0) also tops the Big Sky in field-goal percentage, having shot 53.6 percent (98-183) against conference foes.

Montana State (51.3 percent), Northern Arizona (47.7) and Weber State (45.4) are tied for second in the standings at 3-1 and rank second, third and fourth, respectively, in shooting. Even fifth-place EWU (2-2) maintains that same spot in the league’s field-goal percentage ratings at 44.4 percent.

3-pointers

EWU has not had eight victories this early in the season since 1989-90 when it finished 18-11 and recorded its last winning season… . Montana State’s Damon Ollie is the only Big Sky player averaging double figures in both scoring (14.7 ppg) and rebounding (10.3 rpg)… . After coming off academic suspension last week, Cal State Sacramento’s Sean Houston celebrated with 20 points and 14 rebounds against EWU and 26 points and 11 rebounds two nights later against Portland State… . EWU guard Shannon Taylor’s scoring average of 16.8 points per game against Big Sky opponents includes an 0 for 8 shooting night and zero points in the Eagles’ 84-48 loss to NAU in their conference opener.

NAU 87, ISU 60

In Pocatello, Idaho, Casey Frank scored 18 points Wednesday to lead Northern Arizona over Idaho State.

The Lumberjacks (10-5 overall, 4-1 Big Sky) took their biggest lead at 87-58 with 47 seconds left.

The Bengals (4-11, 0-5) came no closer than 57-41 during the second half. Idaho State scored only 27 points in the half.

Johnny Mitchell had a career-high 23 points for the Bengals, but also had six turnovers. Tywan Meadows added 19 points for ISU. The Bengals hit only only four of 15 3-pointers.

, DataTimes