Eastern Washington falls to Weber State in Big Sky semifinal

RENO, Nev. – This is why Jacob Wiley came to Cheney in the first place.

To compete against the best – in this case, the gold standard of the Big Sky Conference.

Unfortunately for Wiley and his Eastern Washington teammates, Weber State rose to that standard on Friday night, outlasting the Eagles 80-72 in a Big Sky Conference semifinal at the Reno Events Center.

“That was the goal, to come to Reno and leave it all out there,” said Wiley, who combined with Bogdan Bliznyuk for 56 of the Eagles’ 72 points.

And that was the problem.

“We just didn’t get enough support for these guys,” said coach Jim Hayford, who watched the Eagles shoot just 5-for-18 from long range and give up 20 points off turnovers.

The game completed a terrible trifecta, a Black Friday of sorts for mid-major basketball for the Inland Northwest, as the Idaho men and Eastern women were eliminated earlier in the day.

However, getting this far and going 22-11 will mean that the season isn’t over for Wiley and the Eagles.

“The devils in the details and who do you trust, but I can confidently say that we’ll be playing in the CBI,” Hayford said.

“I’m pretty confident that this season will be rewarded with postseason play,” Hayford said.

However, that it won’t be rewarded with an NCAA Tournament berth had more to do with Weber State’s ability to adjust to Wiley and Bliznyuk inside.

Trailing 14-2 out of the gate, the defending tournament champion Wildcats made some adjustments and clawed back to tie the game at 34 at halftime.

“This was a toughness game for us,” said Weber coach Randy Rahe, whose team will play North Dakota for the title on Saturday.

In a classic matchup of brawn against speed, the Wildcats finally pulled away in the last three minutes. Ironically, the decisive push came after a slam-dunk by Wiley that pulled Eastern to within 66-65 with 4:13 to play.

Ryan Richardson’s layin was followed by a 3-point play from Jeremy Senglin. Meanwhile, the Eagles came up empty on four straight possessions and suddenly trailed 74-65 with 3:13 left.

“We made a few more plays than they did at the end,” said Rahe, who leads a program that’s won a conference-leading 10 tournament titles.

Bliznyuk, who finished with a game-high 32 points, sliced the gap to five points with a pair of layups, but Weber closed out the Eagles with six foul shots in the last one minute, 18 seconds.

The Eagles got eight rebounds each from Wiley and Bliznyuk and outboarded the Wildcats 36 to 26. However, they committed 13 turnovers, seven by Wiley.

“They were very physical with Jake,” Hayford said. “They went at him and that’s why he had seven turnovers.”

Weber State consistently hurt the Eagles with its drive game, led by Senglin, and the outside shooting of Dusty Baker (5-for-6 from the field, for 17 points) and Richardson.

Eastern hit five of its first six shots to take a 14-2 lead on a jumper by Wiley, but Weber State quickly stormed back to within four.

Both teams shot just over 50 percent in the first half.