EWU keeps Idaho without win

MOSCOW, Idaho – The closer Idaho got, the better Eastern Washington played.

The visiting Eagles built an early lead and spent the rest of the night turning away numerous Idaho minirallies to claim a 68-55 non-conference men’s basketball victory Wednesday in front of 2,695 at the Cowan Spectrum.

EWU, fueled by Rodney Stuckey’s 18 points and Jake Beitinger’s 16, improved to 2-3. Idaho, which had won the last two games in this series, slipped to 0-4. The Vandals, who entertain Southern Utah on Saturday, opened the 2004-05 season 0-7 before breaking into the win column.

“That’s a huge win for us,” Eagles coach Mike Burns said. “One of the things we’ve been talking to these guys about is having the ability to grind and tonight we did that late in the game. I’m proud of their effort.”

The Eagles broke from a 47-all tie with a decisive 13-1 run. Moscow High product Matt Penoncello started it with a tip-in and then stole the ball from Brett Ledbetter. His outlet pass appeared to be within the reach of two Vandals, but it snuck through, leading to a Paul Butorac layup. Stuckey added a pair of free throws and Beitinger connected on a 9-foot jumper.

Butorac fed Beitinger for an easy layup to hike EWU’s lead to 57-47. Idaho finally snapped a 5-minute scoring drought with an Igor Vrzina free throw, but Rhett Humphrey hit the dagger, a 3-pointer with time dwindling on the shot clock to give EWU a 60-48 lead with 3 minutes remaining.

“The breakdowns we had defensively … those were mental breakdowns,” Idaho coach Leonard Perry said of EWU’s late surge.

Reserve guard Matt Forge made Idaho’s first field goal in more than 8 minutes – a 3-pointer – but the Vandals never cut the margin to single digits.

“They kept it close until the 8-minute mark, but it was our resiliency and our ability to grind it out,” Beitinger said. “It was a crucial win for our confidence going into December.”

All five EWU starters scored in the first 4 minutes as Eagles built an 11-4 advantage. Eastern’s lead grew to 21-8 before 5-foot-10 freshman Keoni Watson, Vrzina and Ledbetter spurred an Idaho run.

Watson made a pair of tough jumpers over EWU the 6-4 Stuckey, Vrzina provided a couple of post-up buckets and Ledbetter hit a pair of late 3-pointers as Idaho trailed 31-28 at half. While Idaho made 8 of its last 13 shots, EWU managed just 10 points in the final 12 minutes.

Idaho played primarily man-to-man defense, despite the 5-10 Watson, 5-11 Tanoris Shepard and 6-1 Nebojsa Jakovljevic being outsized by their EWU counterparts by 5, 5 and 4 inches. Shepard, the only Vandal who averages in double figures, picked up two fouls early trying to defend Stuckey and went to the bench with 14 minutes left in the first half.

Stuckey had 12 points in the opening half, but made just 4 of 12 from the floor and 1 of 5 3-pointers.

Note

Sophomore guard Jerod Haynes left Idaho’s team earlier this week, apparently unhappy over playing time. Haynes started 20 games last season and played 690 minutes, second most among four returning players.