Grad senior Straton Rogers pours in 17, leads EWU men to first win; Eastern women top Cal Poly
Even though Straton Rogers was playing his first home game at Eastern Washington, the opponent he and the Eagles faced on Monday night at Reese Court was a familiar one.
During his four years at the College of Idaho, Rogers played Eastern Oregon seven times.
Now a grad senior with the Eagles, Rogers scored a career-high 17 points and added 10 rebounds for Eastern’s first double-double of the season in the team’s first win, 91-73 over the Mountaineers.
“It feels good to be back home,” Rogers said. “We played a tough four games on the road. Quite the experience and stuff, but this week we focused on defense. It wasn’t the best today, but we got the job done.”
Eastern Washington (1-4 overall) shot 52.2% from the field while Eastern Oregon (3-1) made 44.9%. But the Eagles had a big edge at the free throw line, where they made 13 of 17 and the Mountaineers made 3 of 4.
Playing without redshirt sophomore Emmett Marquardt, who sat with a minor injury, the Eagles featured a starting lineup with four newcomers. Redshirt senior Isaiah Moses led the scoring with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting; he also made a team-high 4 of 7 3s.
Another redshirt senior, Kiree Huie, had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and a 4-for-5 effort at the line, and junior transfer Alton Hamilton IV had 10 points to go with five assists, matching Moses for the team-high.
All told, 81 of Eastern’s 91 points were scored by players new to the team this year.
“We’re pretty old on this team compared to last year. We have a lot of experience,” Rogers said. “We have a couple guys who are hurt, but we need guys to step up for that and play for them. We’re all winners.”
The Eagles led all game and by as many as 22 points. Jojo Anderson, a transfer from Idaho who played before that at Whitworth, added 13 points off the bench, making 5 of 7 shots.
The Eagles are back on the road next weekend to play Central Arkansas on Sunday and then at North Texas on Tuesday. Their next home game is Dec. 6 against Kansas City.
Women
Eastern Washington 78, Cal Poly 67: A glaring weakness of the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team last season was its 3-point shooting, a category in which the Eagles finished second to last in the Big Sky Conference.
Four games so far this season make for a small sample size. But largely because of two newcomers, freshman Elyn Bowers and redshirt sophomore transfer guard Caitie Gingras, the Eagles appear to have addressed it.
On Monday, Gingras made 4 of 5 3-point attempts and 6 of 8 shots overall, while Bowers made 4 of 6 shots and sank 10 of 11 free-throw attempts to help the Eagles grind out a 78-67 victory over Cal Poly at Reese Court in Cheney.
“One of the main reasons we brought (Gingras) in was to try to stretch the floor for us,” EWU head coach Joddie Gleason said. “… You just can’t leave her open, and so I thought that our players did a nice job of finding her in transition or in our different sets, and she was able to knock them down tonight.”
The 16 points were a career high for Gingras, topping her previous high of 15 set last year when she played at Cal State Bakersfield.
“As soon as (associate head coach) Skip (Gleason) and Joddie called it felt like home, and the girls are amazing,” said Gingras, who is originally from Vernon, British Columbia. “I’m super blessed to be here, and I love it.”
Bowers, who finished with a team-high 19 points on Monday, is a true freshman from Pinedale, Wyoming. She has started all four games and leads the Eagles in scoring at 16.8 points per game while making a team-high 9 of 17 3-point shots.
“She just knows how to play,” Gleason said of Bowers. “She sees the court and has great vision and is unselfish. She can set her teammates up and also score herself. She is a great player who has a huge upside for us.”
Eastern (2-2) led Cal Poly the whole way, stretching its lead to 15 points in the third quarter. The game was riddled with fouls: Eastern was whistled for 26, more than in all but one game last season. Cal Poly was called for 31 fouls and had three players foul out, including Gonzaga Prep graduate Gillian Bears, who finished with six points and five rebounds for the Mustangs (1-3).
The Eagles attempted 41 free throws and made 29, the eighth-most in a game in team history. Sophomore Kourtney Grossman finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season, and sophomore Jaecy Eggers had 15 points and eight rebounds.