Eastern Impresses New Coach

Ray Giacoletti couldn’t help breaking into an optimistic smile.

The first-year men’s basketball coach at Eastern Washington University had just watched his Eagles take their first Rorschach test, a 72-63 win over the Northwest Basketball Camp Thunder, a traveling squad of former college players, in an exhibition game Saturday night at Reese Court.

The ink blots, he said, tell him his players are buying into the style of game he brings to the Cheney campus.

“It was not real pretty, but I think we did a really good job of playing with a lot of energy, and that’s a good first step,” he said. “We’ve got 10 days now to go back into the gym and work on what we saw tonight and get ready for our next exhibition game - and three days after that, Gonzaga.”

Freshman Alvin Snow, an all-state selection last year at Franklin High School in Seattle, came off the Eastern bench to score 15 points and grab five rebounds in 19 minutes. Seniors Aaron Olson and Kareem Hunter added 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Snow, a 6-foot-2 guard, was impressive in the clutch, scoring six points during a 2-minute stretch that saw the Eagles run their lead to 57-39 midway through the second half, then coming off the bench to stave off a Thunder comeback that had cut the deficit to 60-56 with 4:10 remaining.

Also impressive was Marquis Poole, a redshirt freshman from Los Angeles. Poole, who scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds, sat out the 1999-2000 season after signing a national letter of intent to play at Washington State.

“Both of those freshmen came in and played hard and contributed for us,” Giacoletti said. “They’re both hard-nosed players.

“We’ve got a good group of returning seniors, but we’ve got some very good younger players. This program is in pretty good shape.”

Senior center Chris White, an honorable mention All-Big Sky player last season, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked a pair of shots for the Eagles.

The coach said he was very pleased with the way his team played defense and crashed the boards. The Eagles held a 44-27 advantage on the boards, including 20 offensive rebounds.

Shann Ferch, who played college basketball at Pepperdine from 1987 to 1990, tossed in 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half to lead the Thunder.

Giacoletti, a former University of Washington assistant, was 48-33 in three seasons as head coach at North Dakota State and was lured to Eastern to replace Steve Aggers, who left to coach Loyola-Marymount University.

Last night’s game was his first live look at returning players.

“I’d only seen them on tape,” he said. “We need games like this one to see where we are, where people will play and what we have to work on.

“We’re not always going to shoot the ball the way we did tonight. We came out a little fired up and we didn’t shoot the ball that well. But if we play defense with the kind of energy we played tonight, we’re going to be in good shape.”

EWU 72, NBC Thunder 63

NBC Thunder-McNicol 3-6 0-0 8, Wesley 2-6 1-2 5, Huleen 2-6 5-6 9, Minifee 3-7 3-4 9, Charles 2-3 0-0 4, Weaver 3-7 1-2 7, J.Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, McDaniel 1-2 0-0 2, McLain 1-2 2-2 4, Ferch 5-13 2-3 15. Totals 22-53 14-19 63.

Eastern Washington-Lincoln 0-1 0-0 0, Hull 0-2 0-0 0, Quinto 0-2 2-2 2, Lewis 1-3 2-2 4, White 1-5 4-6 6, Olson 6-11 0-1 14, Jones 3-8 2-2 9, Hunter 4-8 2-3 10, Snow 7-10 1-2 15, Poole 4-9 0-0 8, Humbert 1-3 0-0 2, C.Johnson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 28-63 13-18 72.

Halftime-Eastern Washington 39, NBC Thunder 31. 3-point goals-NBC Thunder 5-14 (Ferch 3-7, McNicol 2-2, Wesley 0-1, McLain 0-1, Huleen 0-1, Weaver 0-1, McDaniel 0-1), Eastern Washington 3-13 (Olson 2-5, Jones 1-5, Hull 0-1, Quinto 0-1, Poole 0-1). Fouled out-None. Rebounds- NBC Thunder 27 (Minifee 5), Eastern Washington 44 (White 8). Assists-NBC Thunder 10 (Ferch 3), Eastern Washington 19 (Olson 6). Total fouls-NBC Thunder 21, Eastern Washington 18. Technicals-White. A-900 est.