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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Portland State leads wire-to-wire in win over Eastern Washington

Associated Press

PORTLAND – Holland Woods scored a career-high 29 points on a school-record 10-for-10 shooting and Portland State defeated Eastern Washington 94-81 in a Big Sky men’s basketball game Saturday afternoon.

Cody Benzel hit seven 3-pointers and scored 21 points for Eastern Washington (12-12, 7-4). Bogdan Bliznyuk, coming off a 40-point game, had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

Portland State, which scored the first six points and never trailed, led 39-32 at halftime. The Vikings held a double-digit lead for most of the second half until EWU drew within 73-66 on a layup by Benas Griciunas with 5:14 remaining. Portland State quickly extended the lead back to double digits and was not threatened again.

“I haven’t said it too many times this season that our energy wasn’t where it needed to be,” Eagles coach Shantay Legans said. “We didn’t play the way we should have been playing. It’s tough. We just didn’t execute what we wanted to do.”

Traylin Farris and Deante Strickland each added 13 points for the Vikings (14-9, 4-6 Big Sky Conference), who ended a three-game losing skid and stopped the Eagles’ three-game winning streak. Brandon Hollins and Michael Mayhew scored 12 apiece.

Portland State shot 53 percent in the first half to take a 39-32 lead and then made 6 of 12 3-pointers, 20 of 32 shots overall (62.5 percent) in the second half to avenge an 81-74 loss in the first meeting.