EWU rolls past Linfield in season opener

It wasn’t by design, but Linfield gave Eastern Washington the ultimate confidence-booster Friday afternoon at Reese Court.

For 40 minutes, the Wildcats stayed in their zone while the Eagles’ sharpshooters found their comfort zone in a 70-47 season-opening win.

“We cherish those moments,” senior forward Felix Von Hofe said after scoring a game-high 21 points while going 7 for 12 from 3-point range.

“When they play zone the whole time, I just have to do my job and make them,” said Cody Benzel, who finished with 17 points and set the tone with several crucial 3-pointers in the first half.

Seconds later, Von Hofe allowed that the open looks won’t come as easily on Monday at Northwestern, or three days later at Texas.

For now, the Eagles will build on a solid win that could have been even more emphatic but for several factors: a minor shoulder injury to wing Julian Harrell; a plain-vanilla game plan designed to give away as little as possible to future opponents; and 21 turnovers that Hayford blamed on “overpassing.”

After noting his team’s 53 percent shooting from the field (25 for 47) and 50 percent from long range (16 for 32), Hayford said, “We did everything but take care of the ball and it was because we were just trying to be a little too fancy.

“So that has my attention.”

In some ways, the game against Division III Linfield played out much like the 80-69 exhibition win over Saint Martin’s on Oct. 29. The Eagles jumped out early and coasted late in the first half as Hayford substituted en masse before pulling away.

A 3-pointer from Benzel put the Eagles up 24-12 barely 8 minutes into the game, but the lead was down to 26-21 when Hayford called timeout.

EWU was still clinging to a 30-23 lead late in the half before Benzel hit two more 3-pointers sandwiched around Jacob Wiley’s layup to make it 39-23 at halftime.

The Eagles picked up the pace in the second half, soaring to a 60-33 lead on yet another Benzel 3-pointer with 10 minutes left.

Meanwhile, Linfield went more than 8 minutes without scoring. During that span, the Wildcats were 0 for 11 from the field.

Eastern forced 13 turnovers.

The Eagles fly to Chicago this weekend, presumably with a more aggressive game plan.

“Last year Northwestern played some zone and everybody will be looking at this tape, so it’s all kind of the cat and mouse today,” Hayford said.

“I could have helped our guys out more by taking advantage of the zone, but I thought we could grind through this one and be tougher. And I did think our defense was tough today,” Hayford said.

Eastern returns to Reese Court on Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 for a four-team subregional in the Legends Classic presented by the Gazelle Group.