Eastern falls to UMKC
Eastern Washington University, hoping to close its busy pre-holiday schedule with a bang, fizzled in its first of three tests Thursday night, dropping a 68-61 non-conference men’s basketball decision to Missouri-Kansas City at Reese Court.
The loss was the second straight for the Eagles (6-4) and came despite the efforts of junior center Brandon Moore, who finished with a team-high 16 points, and senior guard Andy Genao, who added 14.
Missouri-KC (5-8) was paced by Spencer Johnson, who tossed in a game-high 23 points and pulled down 11 rebounds before fouling out with 16 seconds left in the game, which was played in front of a reported crowd of 1,042.
The loss left second-year Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine upset with his team’s effort.
“We were outrebounded (36-35) by a team with a 6-foot-6 center,” Earlywine said. “We took 14 3-pointers when we had such a huge size advantage, and all we had to do was keep pounding it into the post.
“More than anything else, we had a couple of guys whose minds weren’t right. When you have guys on the floor who aren’t on the same page with the coach and the rest of the team, it is pretty difficult to win.”
Eastern, after forging a 35-32 halftime lead behind the scoring of Moore and Genao, who both went into intermission with 12 points, bumped its advantage to 41-32 on 3-pointers by Milan Stanojevic and Trey Gross to open the second half.
But Missouri-KC scrapped back to take a 46-45 lead on a free throw by Bakari Lewis, who finished with 14 points, with 11:21 remaining.
The teams swapped leads on the next few possessions and EWU tied the game at 59 on a pair of free throws by Moore with 2:30 left. But the Eagles failed miserably in their attempt to close the deal, letting the Kangaroos loose on a 9-2 run to close the game.
Eastern shot a respectable 42.6 percent (20 of 47) from the field, but got only two points from leading scorer Benny Valentine, who went 1 for 9 from the floor and missed all five 3-pointers he attempted. In addition, the Eagles turned the ball over 12 times, while the Kangaroos gave it up on only five occasions. EWU made only 18 of 32 free-throw tries.
“One of the factors was the fact that we had eight turnovers in the first 8 minutes of the second half,” Earlywine said.
Eastern travels to Seattle to take on the University of Washington on Saturday, before returning home to cap its pre-holiday schedule with a Reese Court matchup against Evergreen State on Monday.
•Brockman probable: Washington star forward Jon Brockman remains probable for Saturday’s home game against Eastern Washington with a sprained ankle.
A Huskies spokesman said the nation’s leading returning rebounder from last season was limited in practice on Thursday. He did strength and conditioning work on Wednesday. He missed the previous two practice days and the Huskies’ win over Portland State on Sunday. He sprained the ankle in practice last weekend.
Mo.-Kansas City 68, EWU 61
Missouri-Kansas City (5-8)–Mushatt 1-4 7-8 9, Johnson 9-15 2-2 23, Brumagin 4-11 0-2 9, Lewis 4-9 6-9 14, Ford 1-5 0-0 3, Dibble 1-3 1-2 4, Akinpetide 0-1 0-0 0, McKinney-Jones 1-2 1-2 4, Hamilton 0-5 2-2 2, Brady 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 19-27 68.
Eastern Washington (6-4)–Gross 1-1 0-0 3, Dunn 1-3 3-4 5, Moore 6-8 4-7 16, Gibson 0-0 0-0 0, Stanojevic 2-7 0-0 6, Busch 1-5 4-10 6, Valentine 1-9 0-0 2, DeLeon 3-7 0-2 6, Christensen 0-0 0-0 0, Genao 4-6 6-7 14, Brunell 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 20-47 18-32 61.
Halftime—Eastern Washington 35, Missouri-Kansas City 32. 3-Point Goals—Missouri-Kansas City 7-24 (Johnson 3-5, McKinney-Jones 1-1, Dibble 1-1, Ford 1-3, Brumagin 1-6, Akinpetide 0-1, Lewis 0-2, Mushatt 0-2, Hamilton 0-3), Eastern Washington 3-14 (Stanojevic 2-6, Gross 1-1, Busch 0-1, DeLeon 0-1, Valentine 0-5). Fouled Out—Johnson. Rebounds—Missouri-Kansas City 36 (Johnson 11), Eastern Washington 35 (DeLeon 6). Assists—Missouri-Kansas City 14 (Lewis 8), Eastern Washington 11 (Valentine 4). Total Fouls—Missouri-Kansas City 27, Eastern Washington 23. A—1,142.