Eagles Leave Their Coach Speechless First-Place Eastern Plays Brilliant Half, Then Coasts To Easy Win

Steve Aggers learned about the downside of having your team play a near-perfect half of basketball. It doesn’t leave you with much to say at halftime.

But Eastern Washington’s fifth-year coach wasn’t about to quibble over such a minor matter. Not after his Eagles blew away Portland State on Saturday night with perhaps the finest opening 20 minutes of basketball ever played at Reese Court.

The final score, 91-61, could have been mailed in after Eastern jolted the Vikings with 62 first-half points behind a remarkably unselfish 75 percent shooting effort.

“We played as well offensively in the first half as we can play,” Aggers said. “We were balanced inside and out, we had great assists, we ran the floor and we got some offense from our defense.

“So, at halftime, we just talked about executing, focusing and finishing.”

And the Eagles did just that in pushing their overall record to 10-9 and staying atop the Big Sky Conference standings at 7-2, a game ahead of second-place Cal State Northridge and Montana.

Portland State (12-9, 4-5) came in on a three-game skid, but few in the crowd of 1,804 could have imagined anything so one-sided. Even Vikings coach Joel Sobotka seemed stunned by Eastern’s first-half effectiveness, saying it was the best half he’s seen a team play in the Big Sky in several seasons.

“They were really good,” he said. “They’re playing well right now, playing like a first-place team. We didn’t have a lot of answers. They came out and really dominated us in every way.”

The Eagles made 10 of their first 14 shots in racing to a 25-10 lead less than 9 minutes into the game. They went in at halftime leading 62-31 after making 24 of 32 basket tries - including 9 of 13 from 3-point range. They ended up with great looks at the basket on nearly every first-half possession and committed only four turnovers against PSU’s halfcourt defensive pressure.

“We knew that was going to be huge - taking care of the basketball against their pressure defense,” Aggers said. “We’ve really improved in that area.”

Junior forward Kareem Hunter, who finished with a career-high 16 points, acted as the early catalyst on offense, throwing in five of his first six shots. Aaron Olson and Deon Williams contributed some accurate sniping from the perimeter as the Eagles knocked down the required number of 3-pointers needed to treat those in attendance to a free Wendy’s hamburger before intermission.

Olson finished with 13 points, the same as teammate Ryan Hansen. Williams, the Eagles’ 6-foot-2 senior point guard, stuffed the stats book with another splendid line that included 10 points, seven assists and eight rebounds.

“We challenged ourselves, after last night’s hard game (a 95-83 win over Weber State), to come out and put together back-to-back good games,” Williams said. “We were rebounding well, pushing the ball up the court and getting it to guys in open areas.

“We were just clicking out there.”

Not surprisingly, the Eagles failed to maintain their first-half efficiency. But after rushing a couple of shots right after intermission, and encountering some problems trying to guard the Vikings’ Hasan Artharee in the post, they settled down and kept their lead at a very comfortable margin.

“It’s hard to stay at that level offensively, where you shoot the ball like that,” Aggers said. “But credit Portland State. They’re a very competitive basketball team. They did not quit playing. They kept fighting and battling and really outscored us early in the second half.

“But we were able to keep the lead and control the game. It was just a really good win for us.”

The closest PSU got in the second half was 69-44, despite getting 16 points from Artharee, a 6-6, 235-pound senior forward.

“We didn’t do a very good job on Artharee,” Aggers admitted. “He’s hard to guard, because he’s such a wide-body, and he kept getting great position on us in the lane.”

The only other problem Aggers had after Saturday’s win was the“quirkiness” of his team’s schedule, which calls for a rematch against the Vikings in Portland on Friday.

“I don’t like playing a good team back to back,” he said. “They’ll be very prepared next Friday, but that’s the way the schedule goes.”

Eastern Washington 91, Portland St. 61

Portland State (12-9) - Elliott 1-1 2-3 4, Udoka 1-7 0-2 2, Artharee 7-9 2-3 16, Nesland 2-8 1-2 6, Garner 2-4 1-3 6, Floyd 1-3 0-0 2, DeGrenier 1-6 2-2 5, Briggs 2-5 0-0 4, Knowlton 0-0 1-2 1, Lackey 5-11 0-0 13, Dean 0-3 0-3 0, Huld 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-58 9-20 61.

Eastern Washington (10-9) - Olson 5-8 0-0 13, Hunter 7-11 2-3 16, White 5-6 2-2 12, Williams 4-9 0-2 10, Hansen 4-6 4-6 13, Levy 1-2 0-0 2, Quinto 2-3 0-0 4, Jones 2-8 2-2 6, Fitzgerald 3-4 0-0 9, McKie 2-5 2-2 6. Totals 35-62 12-17 91.

Halftime-Eastern Washington 62, Portland State 31. 3-Point goals-Portland State 6-17 (Lcackey 3-5, Garner 1-1, Nesland 1-4, DeGrenier 1-4, Udoka 0-1, Floyd 0-1, Briggs 0-1), Eastern Washington 9-21 (Fitzgerald 3-4, Olson 3-5, Williams 2-5, Hansen 1-2, McKie 0-2, Jones 0-3). Fouled out-Levy. Rebounds-Portland State 31 (Nesland 5), Eastern Washington 41 (White 9). Assists-Portland State 14 (Nesland, Garner, Briggs 3), Eastern Washington 25 (Williams 7). Total fouls-Portland State 16, Eastern Washington 20. A-1,804.