Eastern grinds out victory over Weber

It wasn’t the kind of game that gets shown to recruits, but it was the kind of win that coaches like to talk about.

The young Eastern Washington Eagles displayed patience and poise, “grinding,” to use coach Mike Burns’ favorite phrase, to a 59-50 win over Weber State before 2,511 fans at Reese Court on Saturday night.

“We talk to the kids about grinding all the time,” Burns said. “That’s what it was tonight, it was a grind. You have to tip your hats to Weber State, they came out with a good game plan and they switched up defenses.”

Once again Rodney Stuckey led the Eagles (8-10, 3-2 Big Sky Conference) with 23 points, the 15th straight game he has led the Eagles in scoring. He also had six rebounds, three assists and three steals, staying focused against a Weber State (6-13, 0-6) defense that was designed specifically to shut him down.

Until the final minutes, when Weber had a spurt that cut a 13-point deficit to four, the only time the Wildcats played man-to-man was when Stuckey was on the bench. Otherwise it was zone with about half of it a box-and-one on Stuckey.

“That’s the type of stuff we’re working on in practice,” Stuckey said. “We know we’re going to see that in the Big Sky. You just have to be patient, move the ball, we’ll get our shots.

“It’s tough but you’ve got to play through it. That’s when my teammates step up. We hit the glass, got some offensive rebounds and had to play defense (to win).”

Kellen Williams had his second straight strong game with 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds for Eastern.

Weber State used a three-quarter court trap that didn’t bother, but certainly slowed down, the Eagles.

“Coach was telling us to attack it but we weren’t doing that tonight,” Stuckey said. “We had the lead and we weren’t trying to force things. We didn’t want them to get back in the game.”

Eastern only had 10 turnovers, but as the Wildcats settled back into a zone the Eagles struggled with their shots, shooting just 40 percent because of a 1-of-12 performance from behind the arc.

“In previous games, where we faced a zone defense we were assertive, confident and we made shots,” Burns said. “Tonight we weren’t quite as assertive and we missed some shots we normally make.”

“I think we were a little mentally fatigued in dealing with the zone and we did not attack the three-quarter court trap as much as we discussed during the time outs. If you attack the trap three or four times then we can get them out of it no problem, but if we don’t then they stay in it.”

That left it up to the defense to win the game.

The Eagles held Coric Riggs and David Patten, who together average 25.1 points, to a combined six with nine turnovers. Terrell Stovall led WSU with 15 points.

Weber hit five of its final seven shots to finish at 55.6 percent in the second half and 45.7 percent for the game but the Wildcats also had 25 turnovers, leading to 22 EWU points. The Eagles also drew seven offensive fouls.

“If we do what we are supposed to do on the defensive end of the court then we can compete with anybody, anywhere, any night,” Burns said. “Thursday we won on the offensive end and tonight we won on the defensive end.”

Eastern makes the Montana swing next week, playing at Montana State on Thursday.

EWU 59, Weber St. 50

Weber St. (6-13) – Riggs 3-6 0-0 6, Patten 1-5 0-1 2, Burris 3-5 0-0 7, Covington 1-3 1-2 3, Stovall 3-7 7-7 15, Shelton 1-2 5-5 7, Cox 0-1 0-1 0, Pajevic 4-4 2-2 10, Henry 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-35 15-18 50.

Eastern Washington (8-10) – Penoncello 0-3 0-0 0, Williams 6-11 4-4 16, Butorac 2-7 2-4 6, Stuckey 7-16 9-11 23, Smith II 3-6 0-0 6, Humphrey 0-0 0-0 0, Zumwalt 0-2 2-2 2, Beitinger 1-4 1-2 4, Risper 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 20-50 18-23 59.

Halftime–Eastern Washington 29-19. 3-Point Goals–Weber St. 3-11 (Stovall 2-5, Burris 1-2, Shelton 0-1, Riggs 0-1, Covington 0-2), E. Washington 1-12 (Beitinger 1-1, Smith II 0-2, Zumwalt 0-2, Penoncello 0-3, Stuckey 0-4). Fouled Out–None. Rebounds–Weber St. 29 (Patten, Riggs 6), E. Washington 24 (Williams 7). Assists–Weber St. 8 (Patten, Stovall 2), E. Washington 11 (Humphrey, Penoncello, Stuckey 3). Total Fouls–Weber St. 22, E. Washington 18. A–2,511.