Eagles succumb to Broncos
Earlywine misses Eastern’s fourth loss in five games
BOISE – Eastern Washington University, hoping later this week to re-enter Big Sky Conference play on a bit of roll, ended up getting rolled by Boise State on Monday night.
The Eagles (7-6 overall, 1-0 in the BSC), who get back into league play in earnest on Friday when they travel to Flagstaff, Ariz., to take on Northern Arizona, proved to be no match for the Broncos (9-4), who got a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double from Mark Sanchez and another 14 points from Paul Noonan in cruising to a 57-48 non-conference victory in Taco Bell Arena.
Sanchez scored 10 of his points in the opening period, propelling BSU to a 32-22 halftime lead, and the Broncos coasted home from there, handing EWU its fourth defeat in five games.
Kirk Earlywine, Eastern’s second-year head coach, did not attend the game because of a “personal matter,” according to school officials, and associate head coach Jamie Matthews orchestrated things from the Eagles’ bench.
Junior point guard Benny Valentine paced EWU with 13 points and four assists, while junior center Brandon Moore added 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end of the court.
The Eagles, despite chasing down 18 offensive boards, trailed 57-41 with just over a minute left in the game, but closed with seven unanswered points to make the final score deceivingly close.
They shot just 31.7 percent (19 of 60) from the field and made only 6 of 14 free throw attempts. BSU, on the other hand, made 41.7 percent (20 of 48) of its basket tries and finished 15-of-19 from the foul line.
“To sum it up, it came down to our inability to make shots,” Matthews said. “Our No. 1 objective is to make it a half-court game, and I thought we did a good job in transition to make it hard for them to score.
“But our shooting made our defensive breakdowns magnified. You can’t absorb defensive mistakes when you shoot 32 percent.”
The Broncos, despite losing the rebounding battle 38-29, never seemed in danger of losing control of the game and closed the non-conference portion of their schedule in style, heading into their Western Athletic Conference opener at Hawaii on Saturday.
Still, Matthews saw some positives in Monday’s loss heading back into Big Sky play.
“Anytime you can assert yourself physically going into league play, you are off to the right start,” he said. “We got back to guarding the way we want to guard, especially in the second half.
“The best thing we did was to control tempo, and that’s what we’ll have to do to win the league.”
The Eagles continue their three-game road trip in a seven-day span with the resumption of league play on Friday at Northern Arizona, followed by Sunday’s game at Sacramento State.
Eastern’s next home game is Jan. 8 versus Idaho State.
Eastern is 1-0 in the Big Sky thanks to a 61-55 victory over Montana State on Dec. 6, which represents EWU’s last win over a NCAA Division I opponent.
Boise St. 57, Eastern Washington 48
Eastern Washington (7-6)—Busch 3-5 0-0 6, Genao 2-12 0-0 4, Moore 5-13 2-8 12, Valentine 5-16 0-0 13, Stanojevic 2-7 1-1 6, Christensen 0-2 2-2 2, Gibson 2-3 1-1 5, Brunell 0-0 0-0 0, Dunn 0-2 0-2 0. Totals 19-60 6-14 48.
Boise State (9-3)—Okoye 4-7 1-2 9, Noonan 5-9 4-5 14, Sanchez 4-9 6-6 14, Greene 0-2 1-2 1, Thomas 1-6 0-0 2, Rouse 2-3 0-0 4, Garner 2-4 0-0 6, Larsen 0-1 0-0 0, Imadiyi 0-1 0-0 0, Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, Moritz 0-2 0-0 0, Cunningham 2-2 3-4 7. Totals 20-48 15-19 57.
Halftime—Boise St. 32-22. 3-Point Goals—E. Washington 4-17 (Valentine 3-9, Stanojevic 1-4, Christensen 0-1, Gibson 0-1, Genao 0-2), Boise St. 2-11 (Garner 2-3, Anderson 0-1, Sanchez 0-1, Greene 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Noonan 0-4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—E. Washington 43 (Moore 9), Boise St. 32 (Sanchez 13). Assists—E. Washington 7 (Valentine 4), Boise St. 11 (Thomas 6). Total Fouls—E. Washington 17, Boise St. 15. A—3,069.