EWU’s Colimon on All-Big Sky first team

A pair of Eastern Washington University men’s basketball players with a combined 23 performances with 20 points or more have been selected to the All-Big Sky Conference squad selected by the Big Sky’s nine head coaches.

Senior point guard Cliff Colimon earned first team All-Big Sky honors, while junior forward Collin Chiverton earned honorable mention and was the league’s Newcomer of the Year. The high-scoring duo has led Eastern in scoring in 27 of 30 EWU games this season, with Colimon scoring at least 20 on 11 occasions and Chiverton hitting that mark 12 times.

Colimon, a 6-foot senior guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., earned his first Big Sky Player of the Week honor this week after continuing his late-season magic for the Eagles. He averaged 17.9 points and 4.8 assists in 16 league games, including a career-high 28-point performance on Senior Night on Tuesday in a 77-64 win over Idaho State. He has averaged 15.9 points and 5.0 assists in 30 games overall.

“We’re really excited for Cliff – it’s been five years since we’ve had somebody on the first team,” Eastern coach Jim Hayford said. “He deserves a lot of credit because this is his third coach in three years – the poor kid has to adjust to a new staff each year. He’s done very well, and we’re extremely proud of Cliff and happy for him.”

Chiverton, a 6-foot-6 transfer from City College of San Francisco, has averaged 14.7 points and 2.9 3-pointers per game this season. But foot and back injuries during the league season limited him to averages of 11.2 points and 2.3 3s in league play. He is originally from San Jose, Calif.

“Collin was the first signee we had, and to be recognized as the Newcomer of the Year in the conference says a lot,” Hayford said. “And he did that battling injuries the whole season – he hasn’t played a whole game healthy this entire year. For him to be as productive as he has been this year makes us excited to see what his senior season can be like.”

Colimon and Chiverton have led Eastern to a 14-16 record overall and 8-8 mark in the Big Sky – Eastern’s first non-losing Big Sky campaign since the 2006-07 season. The Eagles host Idaho State on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. in a quarterfinal game in the Big Sky Conference Championships.