Four Corners: Eagles scrapped in final conference game

You can find almost anything in a box score, but not what we like to call “hustle plays.”

Eastern Washington unofficially dominated that stat in Tuesday’s big 77-64 victory over Idaho State.

Almost every loose ball wound up in the hands of the Eagles, most of whom were seniors who didn’t want their careers to end on Senior Night.

“What you want on a senior night is for your seniors to step up,” coach Jim Hayford said.

They did that, but they also dove, scraped and clawed.

In a 2-minute span late in the first half, senior Cliff Ederaine emerged from a six-player scrum to drive the lane and draw a foul, then classmate Laron Griffin leaped improbably for an offensive rebound.

Also unofficially, the Eagles set a team record for collisions into press row, the most memorable being guards Cliff Colimon and Jeffrey Forbes flying after a loose ball at midcourt early in the second half. No laptops were damaged.

Lacy ready to go

DaVonte Lacy has battled a couple of nagging injuries the past few weeks, but the freshman guard should be OK to play tonight against the UCLA Bruins.

Lacy dislocated a finger in Saturday’s loss to Washington and also left the game with what coach Ken Bone termed at the time as a sprained ankle. But Bone said this week that it was actually a calf problem.

Either way, it shouldn’t prevent Lacy from playing.

Change of venues

With historic Pauley Pavilion undergoing renovation, the Bruins have played their home games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena this season.

That might be a welcome change for WSU, which is 2-52 against UCLA in Los Angeles.

Then again, maybe it won’t matter at all.

“At my age, I’m not sure the guys really appreciate and respect what UCLA was back in the day,” Bone said. “When I say back in the day, I mean when they won all those national championships year in and year out. I look at them still as they’re a national powerhouse because I saw those teams play.

“What I’m saying is, I’m not sure that’s played a part in the psyche with our kids. At the end of the day, they have not won national championships like they did back in the ’60s and ’70s, but they have continued to have a tremendous amount of talent on all those teams.”

Staff reporters Jim Allen (jima@spokesman.com)

and Christian Caple (christianc@spokesman.com) contributed to this report.