Stuckey, Eastern master Mustangs
What happens when Rodney Stuckey gets this point guard thing down pat?
The Eastern Washington University freshman, who wasn’t a point guard in his previous life, had a near-perfect game as the Eagles pulled away from Cal Poly 76-62 in non-conference play before 1,102 fans at Reese Court Friday night.
Stuckey hit 9 of 15 shots on his way to 24 points, 18 in the second half, but more important had seven assists and seven steals, two shy of the school record, with nary a turnover.
“It’s something I’ve been trying to work on. The last couple of games I’ve been turning the ball over, my fault, Stuckey said. “It’s a new situation but I’m getting better at it. I like having the ball in my hands.”
He had plenty of help with Paul Butorac scoring 16 points, eight coming on dunks, seven rebounds and three assists. Kellen Williams had a game-high eight rebounds and Deuce Smith added four steals as the Eagles evened their record at 5-5.
“It’s feels really good to end the break having a win so we can go home and relax a little bit and get away from basketball,” Butorac said. “We had to come out and play defense because they were kind of taking it to us.”
Though Cal Poly has just two wins in nine games, it was a big win for the Eagles coming off losses to Washington and Gonzaga.
“I’m pleased,” Burns said. “We were grinding at the end of the game and that’s something we needed to do.”
Not that the Eagles were flawless, getting off to a slow start and then letting the Mustangs get back in the game in the second half.
“We showed tonight we still have some screws to tighten,” Burns said. “It’s real important the next 10 days before we start conference play.”
The Eagles closed the first half with a 14-5 run punctuated by a thundering fast-break dunk by Henry Bekkering on a feed from Stuckey, who started the play with a steal at the other end.
The Eagles led at the half 32-23 and the advantage could have been more, but the Eagles missed 4 of 10 free throws in the final 7 minutes.
Eastern got a scare with 3:23 left with Stuckey went down with a sprained right ankle, but he was out only 89 seconds and helped push a four-point lead to nine.
The Eagles quickly got the lead to double figures but just as quickly let the Mustangs close the gap, eventually tying the game at 50 with 8 minutes left.
“Cal Poly did a great job taking the fight to us early,” Burns said. “For a while I thought our team was trying to depart for Christmas break at 7:15 instead of at 9 o’clock, so I was glad to see our guys rally to get through that.”
Then EWU guard Matt Penoncello posted up for a basket and Neal Zumwalt turned a turnover into a 3-pointer from the left wing.
“Our bench came in and gave us energy and that’s what we needed,” Burns said. “It’s December 23 and the students aren’t here. We had to provide energy for ourselves tonight and there were times where we weren’t doing that, so I was glad to see the bench step up down the stretch and help us get that done.”
Shortly after that the Eagles went on a 10-2 run capped by Butorac’s fourth dunk to get some breathing run for the stretch.
“My teammates were getting me the ball in all the right places,” Butorac said. “I’ve got to thank them for that.”
The Eagles shot 62.5 percent in the second half to finish the game at 50 percent and had a season-low 12 turnovers.