Skid ends at 7

After struggling through perhaps the least productive 38 minutes of his still-infant college basketball career Friday night, Glen Dean figured out how to be Glen Dean again.

And although the discovery came late, it still paid huge dividends for Eastern Washington University, which rode its freshman point guard’s big finish to a 74-69 Big Sky Conference win over Montana State.

Dean scored seven of his 12 points in the final 66 seconds as the Eagles (7-18, 3-8 Big Sky) snapped a seven-game losing streak in front of a Reese Court crowd of 1,471. The victory was Eastern’s first since its 75-73 road win over MSU (12-12, 7-6) on Jan.10 and helped breathe a bit of life back into the Eagles’ hopes of earning one of the six berths in the Big Sky tournament.

“I just figured I couldn’t play any worse,” said Dean, who made four free throws and a huge 3-pointer from the left wing to fuel EWU’s much-needed, late-game surge. “Whatever happened before, whatever I had done wrong, I was going to make up for it with something better down the stretch.”

The Eagles needed everything Dean could give them after blowing another large second-half lead that had some of the players – Dean included – thinking back to the 14-point second-half lead they spit away in an 85-77 home loss to Portland State two weeks earlier.

Redshirt freshman guard Kevin Winford, who finished with 19 points to lead a quintet of double-figure scorers for Eastern, admitted to harboring some concern after the Bobcats used a 17-1 run to erase a 55-43 Eagles’ lead and take a 60-56 advantage with five minutes remaining.

“At first, I was thinking, ‘Oh, no. Not again,’ ” he said. “But this time we kept our composure at the end, which is something we haven’t done throughout the season. I think that’s a sign that we’re maturing.”

It was Winford who knocked down a shot-clock-beating 3-pointer to end MSU’s big run. He finished 5 of 10 from the field – including 3 of 8 from 3-point range – and made all six free throws he attempted.

Jeffrey Forbes, another freshman guard, finished with 17 points for Eastern, which also got 11 from senior center Brandon Moore and 10 from senior forward Mark Dunn.

“Obviously, our guys are really happy,” Eagles third-year head coach Kirk Earlywine said. “And I’m not only happy, but proud of them, too. It’s just such a fine line between winning a game like that and losing a game like that … and we’ve been on the wrong side of that line six out of our last seven outings.

“I thought the character of our guys showed, not only in building a 12-point lead from a four-point halftime deficit, but then after we lost the lead to have the wherewithal to come back and do the things we had to do down the stretch to win the game.”

Eastern will attempt to build on Friday night’s win on Sunday, when it entertains streaking Montana (18-7, 9-4) in a matinee that tips off at 1:05 p.m.

“This feels amazing right now,” Winford said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, and everything, but it was nice to finally get a win again.

“It’s been a long stretch.”

EWU 74, Montana St. 69

 Montana St. (12-12, 7-6)- Howard 8-15 1-5 18, Johnson 4-8 2-4 13, Navarre 1-8 7-8 9, Bynum 3-6 5-6 11, Rush 2-7 0-0 4, Brown 1-3 2-2 4, Henderson 0-2 0-0 0, Louff 0-0 0-0 0, Piepoli 0-3 2-2 2, Anderson 3-5 0-0 8. Totals 22-57 19-27 69.

E. Washington (7-18, 3-8)- Dunn 4-5 0-0 10, Moore 4-7 3-4 11, Dean 2-9 7-8 12, Forbes 6-14 2-2 17, Winford 5-10 6-6 19, Valentine 1-2 2-2 5, Gibbs 0-0 0-0 0, Gibson 0-1 0-0 0, Griffin 0-4 0-0 0, Brunell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-52 20-22 74.

Halftime—Montana St. 32-28. 3-Point Goals—Montana St. 6-23 (Johnson 3-7, Anderson 2-3, Howard 1-5, Brown 0-1, Navarre 0-1, Bynum 0-1, Rush 0-2, Piepoli 0-3), E. Washington 10-26 (Winford 3-8, Forbes 3-9, Dunn 2-3, Valentine 1-2, Dean 1-4). Fouled Out—Navarre. Rebounds—Montana St. 33 (Johnson 9), E. Washington 38 (Moore 8). Assists—Montana St. 11 (Bynum 4), E. Washington 14 (Dean, Valentine 4). Total Fouls—Montana St. 17, E. Washington 21. A—1,471.