Eastern Plans Emotional Farewell Seniors And Deceased Player To Be Honored Friday Night

Friday’s Senior Night at Reese Court will be more moving than most.

Along with honoring the five seniors on its men’s basketball roster, Eastern Washington will celebrate the memory of a sixth - point guard Rod McClure, who was killed last winter by a drunk driver.

McClure would have been a member of this year’s senior class, which has helped the Eagles emerge as one of the surprise teams in the Big Sky Conference. He died on Dec. 26, 1996, in a two-car accident in his hometown of Las Vegas. He was on his way to the airport to fly back to Spokane following Christmas break.

McClure’s mother, Hester Addison, will attend Friday’s 7:35 regular-season finale against Portland State, which will be televised live on Fox Sports Northwest. She will participate in a pregame ceremony honoring McClure and Eastern’s other seniors.

“It will be an emotional evening, for sure,” third-year Eagles coach Steve Aggers said Tuesday from Pocatello, Idaho, where his Eagles face Idaho State tonight in their final regular-season road game. “It’s something she’s been talking about for a long time. This would have been Rod’s Senior Night and she just wanted to be with his teammates.

“I think it’s probably part of the catharsis of the healing process for her.”

This year’s senior class, consisting of center Kevin Lewis, forwards Jon Berger and Karim Scott and guards Michael Lewis and Zac Claus, will occupy a special place in Aggers’ memory for more than just the tragedy it endured.

Its members opted to ignore Eastern’s abysmal recent history, which includes seven consecutive seasons with seven or fewer wins, and buy into the upbeat philosophy Aggers was selling. They have helped manufacture one of college basketball’s biggest two-year turnarounds and assure EWU of its first winning record and Big Sky tournament berth since 1990.

Eastern enters tonight’s game against ISU at 14-10 overall and 8-6 in the Big Sky. A win over the Bengals (6-18, 2-12) would further nourish the Eagles’ slim chance of overtaking Montana State (17-9, 9-6) for the No. 3 seed in the tournament, which opens March 5 at the home of the yet-to-be-determined regular-season champion.

Four seniors, including Kevin Lewis, who followed Aggers - then a Kansas State assistant - from Manhattan three years ago, are scheduled to start.

Lewis and Claus, a backup point guard who transferred from Nebraska, are the only two seniors who have been at Eastern as long as Aggers. Scott, Berger and Michael Lewis were junior-college transfers who arrived last year and played major roles on a 7-19 team that started 4-3 but won only three games after McClure’s death.

Scott, a 6-foot-6 small forward, continues to be the most consistent of Aggers’ five seniors. He leads the team in scoring (17 ppg), rebounding (6.9 rpg) and steals (51) and is shooting 53.2 percent from the field.

But all four have played solidly since early January when the Eagles upset Weber State 75-64 to ignite a late-season streak that has produced six victories in eight games.

“I’m really proud of them,” Aggers said of his seniors. “They’ve hung in there and battled through some real adversity.”

And they’ve given Aggers the luxury of bringing some of his younger recruits, like talented true freshmen Tony McGee and Chris White, along gradually.

More importantly, though, they’ve made all of their contributions while bringing winning back to a program that was alarmingly devoid of victories, talent and class balance when Aggers took over in 1995.

The Eagles did not have a sophomore on their roster that year. Junior Mike Sims was the only freshman. They finished 3-23 overall and 0-14 in the Big Sky. The following fall, Aggers brought in eight new recruits, including this year’s five seniors.

“We knew we had to get some older, more mature and more talented players into the program right away,” Aggers said. “Our main objective, originally, was to build with high school kids we’d have for four or five years and then supplement with JC players.

“But we needed a quick fix in terms of maturity and athleticism, so this community college class was really our first class. And it might sound like sour grapes, but I truly believe if we hadn’t lost Rod, we’d have finished .500 or better last season.”

Berkeley, Calif., native Michael Lewis, who played against Scott in junior college, said the two of them started talking turnaround the day they signed their letters of intent.

“So it’s not something that’s surprised us,” he admitted. “Actually, it was something we thought we could do the first year we came in, but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

And now, as he looks at the future of the program, Lewis realizes how much he’ll miss being a part of it.

“They have a lot of great young players in the program and a good team coming back next year,” he said. “With young players like Chris (White) and Tony (McGee), there’s nothing but an upside that I can see.

“I’ll miss my teammates and being a part of it, but I’ll be happy for the guys that’ll still be in the program. At least they didn’t have to come into a situation like we did.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NUMBERS GAME EWU’s record since the 1989-90 season, under Bob Hofman (‘89-‘90), John Wade (‘90-‘95) and Steve Aggers (‘95-present):

Year Overall Conf. 1989-90 18-11 11-5 1990-91 11-16 5-11 1991-92 6-21 3-13 1992-93 6-20 3-11 1993-94 7-19 0-14 1994-95 6-20 2-12 1995-96 3-23 0-14 1996-97 7-19 2-14 1997-98 14-10 8-6