EWU drops 4th in row

OGDEN, Utah – Damian Lillard scored a career-high 36 points, including 25 in the first half, to lead Big Sky-leading Weber State to an 89-67 basketball win over Eastern Washington on Saturday, the Eagles’ fourth straight loss.

The sophomore scored the first eight points of the game as the Wildcats (13-7, 7-1 Big Sky) jumped out to an 18-5 lead.

Lillard hit 10 of 11 shots from the field on the night, including 6 of 7 3-pointers, and made 10 of 11 free throws.

“With his size, he has the ability to look right above the top of our guards,” Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine said. “There is not much more we can do – it’s partly him being the best player in the league, so that’s going to happen sometimes. But three or four of his baskets were as a direct result of mistakes we made. That’s the hard part and hard to take.”

Steve Panos added 19 points for Weber State, and Lindsey Hughey and Trevor Morris each finished with 10.

Freshman Glen Dean led the Eagles (6-15, 2-6) with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Laron Griffin had a career-high 11 points and five rebounds and freshman Jeffery Forbes added 10 points.

Eastern Washington fell to 3-25 against the Wildcats in Ogden.

Eastern Washington pulled within 34-30 on a basket by Forbes with 4:37 left in the first half. But Lillard took over again, scoring 12 points in the next 2 minutes to give the Wildcats a 46-32 lead.

“We withstood that first five minutes when we didn’t play very well – we dug and clawed and got back in the game,” Earlywine said. “But on back-to-back ball screens for Lillard, we made mistakes. They were mistakes by a couple of seniors – I don’t know what to attribute that to.

“Before tonight we started four consecutive games really well,” he added, regarding his team’s slow start. “When you aren’t real sharp on defense, and you have empty possessions time after time, it makes it hard.”

After leading 50-34 at halftime, Weber State stretched its lead to 61-39 early in the second half and never trailed by less than 12 points the rest of the game.

“They are the No. 1 defensive team in the league and we knew that nothing would come easy on the offensive end of the floor,” Earlywine said. “But when you give up 50 points in the first half, it’s going to be hard to win.”

Weber State shot 56 percent, while Eastern Washington shot 43 percent.