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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Eastern Washington, Idaho earn postseason bids

Head coach Jim Hayford and the Eagles will play at Wyoming on Wednesday. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Allen jima@spokesman.com

The basketball season isn’t over at Eastern Washington and Idaho, which received postseason bids Sunday night.

The Eagles will play for the second straight year in the College Basketball Invitational. They’re at Wyoming in a first-round game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT.

Idaho earned a spot in the Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), and will host Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Eastern and Idaho both lost on Friday in the Big Sky Conference semifinals in Reno, Nevada, but both programs were hopeful of postseason bids.

Those hopes were answered on Sunday.

The Eagles, 22-11 and Big Sky regular-season runners-up, take on a Wyoming team that’s 18-14, but has dropped five of its last seven games.

The Cowboys are led by guard James Justin, who averages 15.7 points and shoots 43.5 percent from 3-point range.

Wyoming, which defeated Eastern 78-71 in Laramie on March 19, 2003, in the National Invitation Tournament, lost to Air Force 83-68 on Wednesday in the Mountain West Tournament.

The winner will play Green Bay or Missouri-Kansas City in the quarterfinals on March 20. Teams will be rebracketed before the semifinals on March 22. The best-of-three finals will be contested on campus sites from March 27-31.

Last year, Eastern beat Pepperdine in a first-round CBI game in Cheney, but lost in the second round at Nevada.

The Vandals (18-13 overall and tied for third at 12-6 in the Big Sky regular season) have won four of their last five, losing in Reno to eventual Big Sky champ North Dakota, 69-64.

Stephen F. Austin 18-14 following a semifinal loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland Conference tournament.

These teams have met just one common opponent in 2016-17, Sam Houston State. The Vandals fell to the Bearkats on the road, while the ‘Jacks split their two meetings.

The Lumberjacks have the best recent pedigree in the CIT field, reaching the NCAA Tournament three straight years until this season.

Last season, No. 14 Stephen F. Austin upset No. 3 West Virginia in the first round before falling to No. 6 Notre Dame by one in the second round.

The CIT is a 32-team tournament hosted by local sites. The tournament is reseeded after each round. All first round games will be carried via Facebook Live.