Eastern’s volleyball season ends with loss in Big Sky semifinals

Top-seeded Northern Colorado (21-8) ended Eastern Washington’s volleyball season with a 3-0 sweep in a semifinal match of the Big Sky tournament at Portland. Shelby Puckett had 14 kills and Cora Kellerman 10 for the fourth-seeded Eagles (13-15).

Northern Colorado plays No. 2 seed Portland State (18-12), a 3-1 winner over Sacramento State (17-15), tonight for the championship.

Kellerman was chosen first-team all-conference in the selections announced Friday. Puckett is on the second team.

• Washington State (12-20, 4-18 Pac-12) won the first two sets but the Washington Huskies (23-7, 15-7) rallied to take the final three for the victory in a regular-season Pac-12 finale in Pullman by scores of 21-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-19, 15-4.

Megan Ganzer led WSU with 20 kills while Krista Vansant paced UW with 25.

• Idaho’s Allison Walker was chosen to the WAC all-tournament team. Idaho was eliminated in the semifinals of the tournament that concluded Wednesday.

Women’s basketball

The Michigan Wolverines (6-0) dominated Washington State 69-39 on the second day of the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

No Cougar scored in double figures as WSU (3-3) shot just 32.7 percent while the Wolverines made 51.1 percent of their shots, hitting 56.3 from 3-point range. Courtney Boylan scored 17 points for Michigan.

The tournament concludes today as WSU plays Prairie View.

• The Idaho Vandals fell to Pepperdine 57-48 in the opening round of the New Mexico Thanksgiving tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.

Idaho (1-4) trailed the 2-3 Waves 33-13 at the half.

Alyssa Charlston had 15 points and 15 rebounds for Idaho.

The Vandals will play Morehead State this afternoon at 4 in the second round.

• North Idaho College (3-1) ruled the boards and took a 71-52 victory over CC Spokane (2-2) on the opening day of the NIC Thanksgiving Classic in Coeur d’Alene.

The Cardinals didn’t have anyone in double figures in rebounds but still held a 42-25 advantage over the Sasquatch.

NIC’s Julia Salmio had 16 points to lead all scorers with Amanda Buttrey (Coeur d’Alene) scoring 15 for CCS.

Today, CCS plays Williston at 1:30 p.m. with North Idaho facing Wenatchee Valley College at 5:30.

Men’s basketball

Whitworth warmed up in the second half to pull away for a 67-53 victory over Cal Lutheran in the opening game of the NWC-SCIAC Challenge at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Calif.

The Pirates (3-0) had a two-point lead over the Kingsmen (1-1) at the half despite making only 26 percent of their shots, but then made 61 percent in the second half.

Idris Lasisi led the Pirates with 16 points.

Whitworth plays Chapman this morning at 10.

• CCS rode a 15-point halftime lead to a 95-79 victory over Everett in both team’s regular-season opener at the Red Devils Classic in Longview, Wash.

DeAngelo Jones (Cheney) led the Sasquatch with 21 points with Preston Wynne (Wellpinit) adding 12. CCS overcame 28 turnovers by shooting 46.4 percent to the Trojans’ 35.5.

The Sasquatch play host Lower Columbia at 8 tonight in the semifinals.

• Michael Middlebrooks scored 16 points and Edrico McGregor 15 to lead five Cardinals in double figures as North Idaho College defeated the Salish-Kootenai Bison 97-69 in the NIC Thanksgiving Classic at Coeur d’Alene.

NIC (5-0) plays Williston at 7:30 tonight.

Hockey

Colton Schell had a hat trick as the Nelson Leafs (16-9-0-2) defeated the Spokane Braves 8-6 in a KIJHL game played at Eagles Ice-A-Rena. Nick Redding had two goals and two assists for the Braves (10-14-1-0), who play the Leafs again tonight, this time in Nelson, B.C.