Eastern outplayed down stretch, loses to N. Colorado

GREELEY, Colo. – Jabril Banks scored 23 points, including four crucial points in the final minute, and pulled down 10 rebounds as Northern Colorado pulled away late to down Eastern Washington 75-68 on Thursday night in a Big Sky Conference men’s basketball game.

Will Figures pitched in 22 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Bears (7-11 overall, 3-2 Big Sky Conference). Neal Kingman had 10 points for Northern Colorado, which shot 48 percent from the field.

Eastern Washington (9-9, 3-3) shot 41 percent from the field and was led by Benny Valentine with 31 points, including 11 of 16 field goals and 5 of 9 from 3-point range.

Milan Stanojevic recorded 13 points and five rebounds for the Eagles, while teammate Brandon Moore had 10 points and nine rebounds.

The win marks the first time in its three years in the league that Northern Colorado has had a Big Sky record better than .500 this late in the season.

Valentine, the Big Sky Conference’s leading scorer entering the game with a 16.7 average, scored 22 points in the first half, but the Eagles trailed 40-37 at halftime.

Banks scored 23 points, including a rebound dunk and two free throws in the final 32 seconds, as Eastern missed two shots with the game on the line.

“Down the stretch we were out-toughed,” Eagles head coach Kirk Earlywine said. “We would get got a stop but missed block-outs, and we were beaten to loose balls. There were eight or nine balls that were on the floor and they got them all.”

The Eagles are now 1-5 when allowing at least 75 points or more. Eastern is 7-0 when scoring at least 70 points, but missed that mark by two points.

Eastern actually had the same number of field goals (22) as the Bears, and made 10 of 23 3-pointers in the game. But the Eagles were outscored 24-14 at the free-throw line – the third time in EWU’s past four games it has been outscored from the line by double digits.

Valentine made five 3-pointers and Stanojevic hit three.