Seattle U avenges earlier loss to Eastern

SEATTLE – It wasn’t easy, but the Redhawks avoided their worst start in 14 years.

With a gritty 58-52 victory over cross-state rival Eastern Washington, the Seattle University men’s basketball team collected its first win of the season Monday night in front of 3,129 at KeyArena.

Despite three straight losses, coach Cameron Dollar believed the young Redhawks, who are getting acclimated with three new starters, were headed in the right direction.

“Even without the ‘W’ the guys got better,” he said. “But it’s obviously always good to have that ‘W’ on it to validate the improvement.”

With the win, Seattle U avenged a 76-70 loss to Eastern Washington five days earlier at Reese Court.

In the rematch, neither team led by more than seven points while the score was tied 12 times and the lead changed eight times. The Redhawks trailed 22-19 at halftime and outscored the Eagles 39-30 in the second half.

The difference this time was SU’s defense that held Eastern Washington scoreless over the final two minutes and 57 seconds.

“Even though it was close at the end, we knew we could get stops and it was a matter of making a bucket here or there,” senior co-captain Jack Crook said. “And we managed to do that.”

With the score tied 52-52, junior guard Brendan Westendorf found Crook under the basket and the 6-foot-11 center muscled in a layup despite being fouled. He sank the ensuing free throw to give SU a three-point lead with 48.5 seconds left.

“I should have gone straight up a lot more during the game,” said Crook, who finished with a season-high 17 points and eight rebounds. “I tried to learn from my mistakes early on.”

On the ensuing possession, sophomore guard Jadon Cohee dove to the floor for a steal and the play that symbolized an aggressive Redhawks defense that forced a season-high 18 turnovers.

The Redhawks had a wide disparity from the free throw line, hitting 15 of 30 while the Eagles were just 3 of 5.

Venky Jois scored a team-high 14 points while Austin McBroom and Bogdan Bliznyuk had 11 apiece for Eastern (2-2).