Four corners: Eastern Washington Eagles
Coming up: Tonight at Southern Utah, 6:05; Saturday at Northern Arizona, 1:05.
Outlook: Healing but humbled by their first home loss of the year, the first-place Eagles face a tough road trip against two teams that are fighting for a spot in the postseason. First up is Southern Utah, which finished last in the Sky last season but is coming off a road sweep at Weber and Idaho State. The T-Birds like to foul – 22.9 times per contest, seventh most in Division 1 – while preferring to slow the tempo. “We need to kill them at the free-throw line … and offensively we need to keep our identity,” said EWU coach Jim Hayford, whose team is averaging a conference-leading 80.9 points in conference play. After a 6-hour bus ride to Flagstaff, Arizona, the Eagles face a fourth-place NAU team that’s second in the conference in scoring defense (66.1ppg) and field-goal percentage defense (43.4 percent). The Lumberjacks’ balanced offense is led by senior guard Quinton Upshur (17.8 ppg) and sophomore forward Kris Yanku (16.1 ppg).
Leaders
Scoring: Tyler Harvey, 23.4 ppg
Rebounding: Drew Brandon, 7.2 rpg
Assists: Brandon, 5.1 apg
@SRJimAllen
Big Sky | Overall | |||
W | L | W | L | |
E. Washington | 10 | 2 | 19 | 6 |
Sacramento St. | 10 | 3 | 16 | 8 |
Montana | 10 | 3 | 14 | 10 |
N. Arizona | 8 | 4 | 13 | 12 |
N. Colorado | 7 | 6 | 12 | 12 |
Idaho | 6 | 6 | 11 | 12 |
Portland St. | 6 | 7 | 12 | 11 |
Weber St. | 5 | 8 | 10 | 14 |
S. Utah | 4 | 8 | 7 | 16 |
N. Dakota | 4 | 9 | 8 | 16 |
Idaho St. | 3 | 10 | 6 | 19 |
Montana St. | 3 | 10 | 6 | 19 |