Four corners: Eastern Washington Eagles
Coming up: Tonight vs. Montana State, 6; Saturday vs. Montana, 2
Outlook: The bar keeps rising for the Eagles, who’ve won 20 games for the first time as a Division I school, but may need to win their last four to have chance to host the Big Sky Conference postseason tournament. Tonight the Eagles face a potential trap game against 11th-place MSU, which is fighting for its postseason life. The Bobcats put a scare into Eastern three weeks ago in Bozeman, but EWU held MSU to 32.7 percent shooting to offset a poor shooting night of its own. The Bobcats are the worst shooting team in the league at 41.3 percent, and turn the ball over 13.3 times a game in league play. The bigger challenge comes Saturday when EWU faces Montana. Eastern won the first meeting in Missoula without national scoring leader Tyler Harvey, and with star forward Venky Jois still on the mend from an ankle injury. However, the Grizzlies come in with the best defense in the Sky (62.7 ppg) and have an impressive inside-out game with post Martin Breunig (17.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and guard Jordan Gregory (16.4 ppg, 3.8 apg).
Leaders
Scoring: Tyler Harvey, 22.8
Rebounding: Drew Brandon, 7.0
Assists: Brandon, 5.0
@SRJimAllen
Big Sky | Overall | |||
W | L | W | L | |
Sacramento St. | 12 | 3 | 18 | 8 |
Montana | 12 | 3 | 16 | 10 |
E. Washington | 11 | 3 | 20 | 7 |
N. Arizona | 10 | 4 | 15 | 12 |
Portland St. | 8 | 7 | 14 | 11 |
N. Colorado | 7 | 8 | 12 | 14 |
Idaho | 6 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
Weber St. | 6 | 9 | 11 | 15 |
S. Utah | 5 | 9 | 8 | 17 |
N. Dakota | 4 | 11 | 8 | 18 |
Montana St.. | 4 | 11 | 7 | 20 |
Idaho St. | 3 | 12 | 6 | 21 |