First-place Weber State strolls past EWU
Eagles drop to seventh place in Big Sky
OGDEN, Utah – Steve Panos scored a career-high 22 points as Weber State defeated Eastern Washington 74-57 on Thursday night at Dee Events Center, giving the Wildcats their seventh straight Big Sky Conference victory.
Daviin Davis finished with 19 points and Damian Lillard scored 15 for the Wildcats (16-8 overall, 10-1 Big Sky).
Adris DeLeon led the Eagles (11-14, 5-8) with 15 points, while teammate Brandon Moore scored 11. Eastern suffered its fifth consecutive road setback in the conference.
Panos scored on a three-point play and hit a pair of free throws less than 30 seconds later to give Weber State a 60-41 lead with 8:52 remaining.
Davis’ 3-pointer with a minute left gave the Wildcats their biggest lead of the game, 72-52. Weber State’s Josh Cottle hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left to complete an 8-0 run.
Milan Stanojevic’s 3-pointer 30 seconds into the game gave Eastern Washington a 3-0 lead, its only advantage of the game.
Weber State outscored the Eagles 24-12 from the line. The Wildcats shot 47 percent from the field while Eastern shot 35 percent.
“At the end of the day, the name of the game is to put the ball in the hole,” Eastern head coach Kirk Earlywine said. “We only did it 35 percent of the time – that makes it tough.”
The Eagles took a hit in their goal to make the conference tournament, which includes the top six teams from the Big Sky. Eastern dropped to seventh place, one game behind Montana State and Idaho State – the Eagles’ opponent Saturday on the road.
Eastern has won 18 of the past 25 meetings against Idaho State, but is just 9-18 in Pocatello.
Eastern has just three conference games remaining.
“We are all kind of fighting it out to get into the conference tournament,” Earlywine said. “Obviously, a head-to-head matchup with any of those teams is huge.”
Moore added seven rebounds as the Eagles tied the Wildcats in rebounding with 32 apiece.
Eastern’s Benny Valentine, the second-leading scorer in the Big Sky, was held to seven points. He was limited to 22 minutes because of foul trouble and shot just 3 of 9 from the floor.
Weber St. 74, E. Washington 57
Eastern Washington (11-14, 5-8) – Genao 3-7 0-0 7, Dunn 1-3 0-0 2, Moore 3-8 5-6 11, Gibson 1-2 4-4 6, Stanojevic 2-6 0-0 5, Busch 1-5 0-2 2, Valentine 3-9 0-0 7, DeLeon 4-12 3-4 15, Christensen 0-1 0-0 0, Brunell 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 19-54 12-16 57.
Weber State (16-8, 10-1) – Bullinger 2-4 1-2 7, Hansen 1-3 0-0 3, Panos 7-10 8-8 22, Lillard 4-8 4-4 15, McCoy 1-8 1-2 3, Cottle 0-0 2-2 2, Benson 0-0 0-0 0, Ramos 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 5-9 7-8 19, Mahoney 0-2 1-2 1, Morris 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-45 24-28 74. Halftime – Weber St. 36-26. 3-Point Goals – E. Washington 7-23 (DeLeon 4-10, Genao 1-1, Valentine 1-3, Stanojevic 1-4, Dunn 0-1, Christensen 0-1, Busch 0-3), Weber St. 8-20 (Lillard 3-7, Bullinger 2-3, Davis 2-4, Hansen 1-3, McCoy 0-3). Fouled Out – None. Rebounds – E. Washington 32 (Moore 7), Weber St. 32 (Mahoney, Panos 7). Assists – E. Washington 8 (Valentine 4), Weber St. 9 (McCoy 4). Total Fouls – E. Washington 22, Weber St. 14. A – 4,881.