Austin McBroom leads red-hot EWU past Northern Colorado

Reese Court is seeing a lot of heroics this season, just not the last-second variety – and that’s OK with Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford.

“Our players are just really dialed-in on our game plans, our scouting reports and our execution,” Hayford said after the Eagles dispatched Northern Colorado 97-80 in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday afternoon.

The game played out almost identically to EWU’s win over North Dakota two nights earlier: the Eagles used hard-nosed defense and crisp shooting to take a 20-point lead and coasted to another comfortable win by hitting their foul shots.

“We recruit to shoot – I’m not surprised by our great shooting nights,” said Hayford, whose team shot 56 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc.

In the process, they improved to 15-10 overall and 9-4 in the Big Sky going into Thursday’s game at Sacramento State. Currently in third place with five regular-season games left, the Eagles hope to finish at least fourth and earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament in Reno, Nevada.

“It’s been a consistent theme,” said Hayford, whose club is 10-0 at home this season. “When other teams have to scout us, they have to pick their poison – what do they want to take away? Our team is doing a really smart job of realizing what that opens up.”

On Saturday, it was the perimeter game. As the Bears (8-17 overall, 5-8 Big Sky) collapsed on EWU forward Venky Jois, he kicked the ball to his shooters. The main beneficiary was point guard Austin McBroom, who shot 62 percent from the field – including 7-for-12 from long range – and finished with 37 points.

That broke his career mark of 35, set less than 48 hours earlier.

Asked whether he was feeling “in the zone,” McBroom smiled and said, “I’m shooting it pretty well, and I’m getting a lot of shots, so I’m more confident, definitely.”

Eastern abounded in confidence at both ends of the court. Halfway through the first half, the Eagles led 31-11 after shooting 11-for-16 from the field; by then McBroom already had 11 points.

The Eagles also shut down Northern Colorado guard Jordan Wilson, who scored 26 points on the Eagles in a 96-90 defeat in Greeley, Colorado, on New Year’s Eve. This time he was held to 3 points before fouling out late in the game.

As a team, UNC missed 10 of its first 13 shots.

“It starts with our defense – we’re really buying into it,” said McBroom, who had six rebounds.

The lead was up to 28 before the Bears rallied late in the first half. Trailing 51-31 at intermission, UNC rode Anthony Johnson’s 37 points and twice cut the EWU lead to 16.

However, the Eagles’ inside-outside game regained its rhythm early in the second half. McBroom hit back-to-back threes and Jois got loose inside for two free throws and a hard-earned layup that pushed the lead to 67-43 with 14 ½ minutes left.

Seemingly everything Jois did was earned the hard way; he finished with 14 points and 10 boards despite aggressive fouling from the Bears. Late in the game, an after-the-play push to the face brought strong reactions from Jois and Hayford.

“I doubt there was a possession that Venky didn’t get physically pushed, moved or hit the whole night,” Hayford said. “I know he was extremely frustrated. But he kept his cool all the way through and still had a double-double.”

UNC never got closer than 15 the rest of the way, but the second half was marred by 27 fouls.

“It was getting kind of rough,” said McBroom, who hit nine free throws in the second half. “I was just trying to get out of there.”