Grip on Sports: Eastern’s win, high school hoops give us more than enough to digest Thursday

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Even with Gonzaga and Washington State not playing on a Thursday night, yesterday was a busy one for basketball in the area. So instead of a pithy remark or two, we’ll just get right into the hoop news. Read on.

••••••••••

• Coaches love to say a basketball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Good thing, too, for the Eastern Washington Eagles.

Early on in the Big Sky season, teams like Weber State and North Dakota sprinted away from Eastern. It looked as if a conference title was out of the question.

But like Abebe Bikila, the Eagles are flying down the home stretch. They won at Southern Utah last night, 91-75, to raise the conference mark to 13-4. That’s pretty good, and as good as anyone in the Big Sky these days.

That’s because North Dakota couldn’t figure out how to beat Sacramento State at home last night, falling 57-53. The soon-to-leave-the-conference Fighting Hawks are also 13-4, though they hold the Big Sky tournament tiebreakers on the Eagles.

Of course, there is still one more regular season game left. North Dakota hosts Portland State on Saturday. EWU travels to Northern Arizona, which lost to Idaho last night.

If Eastern wins, the Eagles will claim a share of their second conference title in three years. That’s not something that looked all that likely when they were slow to get off the line back in January.

• State basketball tournaments are going on all over Washington and in the Boise area.

There are always upsets in state hoops, but none seem much larger than Central Valley’s girls losing yesterday in a quarterfinal matchup with Bellarmine Prep. The defending State 4A titlists were working on a 52-game winning streak but couldn’t get through turnovers, missed free throws and foul trouble in a 56-55 loss.

There were also thrilling wins as well involving local schools, with Post Falls scoring at the buzzer to advance to the 5A semifinals in Nampa, and two league matchups at the Arena, with St. George’s boys finally getting the better of defending 2B champion Northwest Christian and 1B defending champs Almira/Coulee-Hartline defeating Odessa-Harrington for the fourth time this season.

•••

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs still haven’t played since the upset loss to BYU – there was this interesting letter in the Gonzaga Bulletin about the game this week – which means GU has had about a week to fine-tune some elements before their first WCC tournament game tomorrow night. And we’ve had some time to prepare for the week in Las Vegas. That means lots of stories today, with Jim Meehan writing about the basketball aspects and homecomings for Nigel Williams-Goss and Zach Collins. … John Blanchette has a column that serves as a history lesson of sorts. … Editor Rob Curley, who lived in Las Vegas a while, has a tourists’ primer. … The Zags are also the subject of other stories as well. …  The Gonzaga women are in Las Vegas as well, though they know they have to win the tournament to get an NCAA bid. Jim Allen has a tournament advance and Whitney Ogden has more on the subject. … There were tournament games last night, with the USF and Saint Mary’s women advancing to the quarterfinals, where BYU and Gonzaga await. … On the men’s side, USD may have had some awful losses, but no changes are planned.

WSU: The Cougar women opened Pac-12 tournament play yesterday with a comeback win over Colorado, 79-78. WSU trailed by as many as 14 points in the first quarter. … Around the Pac-12 last night, California needed a big effort in Salt Lake City and got just the opposite. Utah won, 74-44. … Colorado, which worked on sharing the ball more this week, defeated Stanford 91-72. … Oregon State is trying to put this year in the rear-view mirror but first the Beavers must face Oregon once again. … Arizona relies heavily on a freshman, while USC is relying heavily on a few more wins to make the NCAAs. … In football, Willie Taggart is getting ready for spring ball, which is also on the horizon for the mountain schools.

EWU: We mentioned the Eagles’ win in Cedar City above. And North Dakota’s loss at home to Sacramento State. Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Weber State’s late-season slide continued with a home loss to Montana. … Montana State continued its hot streak with a win at Idaho State. … Portland State lost at Northern Colorado. … Sacramento State is closing in on a new athletic director.

Idaho: The Vandals received a boost with Victor Sanders being able to play and his 21 points helped them hold off host Northern Arizona, 77-75.

Whitworth: The Pirates may be looking past its first-round NCAA Division III playoff opponent, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, tonight. After all, if they win, they should face top-ranked Whitman for the fourth time this season. Jim Allen has a playoff advance.

Empire: Spokane makes its first road trip of the IFL season, headed to the Texas metropolis of Wichita Falls for tonight’s game.

Preps: Though Greg Lee had to cover Central Valley’s upset loss, he also got to write about Gonzaga Prep’s throttling of Enumclaw, 53-30. … Post Falls is in the semifinals of the 5A tournament again and the Trojans are joined by Lewiston. … Over at the Arena, we can share stories from the 1B boys and the 2B girls. There are also pictures from Tyler Tjomsland and Jesse Tinsley from the 1B boys and girls and the 2B girls. … In the 1A boys, Freeman moved into the semifinals with a win over Warden while Pullman lost to Foss in 2A play.

Mariners: The M’s won again yesterday, 6-2 over the Brewers, but that’s never the biggest news from spring training. There is always news about roster shuffles due to trades. And there is always a look at someone new expected to help. Plus this year there is the World Baseball Classic, which will cost the M’s the services of many of their key players for a while.

Seahawks: Yesterday, Pete Carroll spoke at the combine and, surprise, he was really positive about the Hawks. The offensive line will be fine, maybe even better than that. And he’s sure Richard Sherman will work things out with the media. Plus all the injured guys will be ready to go come the season. All is well.

Sounders: Seattle is a bit healthier, with Jordan Morris ready for the season opener tomorrow. There are games to win and story lines to watch.

•••       

• One more (short) day of filling in for Dennis Patchin on 700 ESPN, which is also broadcast on 105.3 FM. I’ll join Rick Lukens for 90 minutes today, starting at 3 p.m. You can listen here if you like. Until then …