Defense rests
Maybe 109 points weren’t enough.
Maybe the 60 percent shooting wasn’t enough.
Certainly the 8 of 11 or the 19 of 24 didn’t do it.
Maybe nothing can convince the Eastern Washington Eagles the importance of defense, because if it does it didn’t show up Thursday night when Northern Arizona singed the nets of Reese Court for a 91-80 Big Sky Conference basketball win.
The Lumberjacks (10-8, 5-2) shot better from 3-point range than the Eagles (9-10, 3-4) did from the foul line – after an embarrassing 8-for-22 performance they certainly can’t be called free throws.
How can that happen considering it was less than two weeks ago that the Lumberjacks hit 8 of 11 3-pointers and shot 60 percent in a 109-101 win in Flagstaff?
“It stings very bad,” Eagles coach Mike Burns said after a heavy sigh. “You don’t get these games back. You can rationalize splitting on the road, but you can’t rationalize splitting games at home.
“Tonight at times our effort was very good. Our guys were flying around and doing some good things. We outrebounded NAU – those are effort things. We just made a couple of mental errors and they got things going.”
Doing the most damage was sixth-year senior Stephen Sir, who hit 7 of 10 3-pointers – the big part of the team’s 12-of-20 performance – en route to a game-high 25 points.
One wonders how that can happen when he came in having drained 19 of 24 from behind the arc last weekend and scored 55 points.
“It’s not really something I ever try to think about,” said Sir, who does not start. “It’s just believing I’m a good shooter and going out there and getting it done. Also, I’ve got the support of my teammates. That makes it all that much better. They believe I’m going to make big shots. They’re doing a lot of things to get me shots. It’s my job is to knock them down.”
Sir had plenty of help with Ryan McCurty, who averages eight points a game, hitting 8 of 12 shots for 18 points, and reserve Tyrone Bazy adding 19.
If it looked easy, part of the credit goes to sophomore point guard Josh Wilson, a Longview, Wash., native who had a career-high 14 assists.
It shouldn’t be surprising that before Sir hit a 3-pointer to launch the Lumberjacks on an 8-0 run midway through the second half to open a nine-point lead the Eagles missed a free throw that would have tied the game at 57 at the 11:01 mark.
It got so bad for EWU that Eagles star Rodney Stuckey, who leads the conference in free-throw shooting at 83 percent, missed 4 of 5 in crunch time, including the front end of a pair of 1-and-1s.
“Sir has been on fire the last three weeks,” Burns said. “And when we go 2 of 14 from 3 and they go 12 of 20, combined with our poor free-throw shooting, it is too much to overcome.”
Stuckey, who had a school-record 45 points in his Big Sky debut at NAU last year, only had five of his 24 points in the first half when NAU took a 40-38 lead. When the score was tied at 23, Stuckey was 1 for 5 from the floor and his teammates were 10 of 11.
Stuckey also led the Eagles with eight rebounds and five assists. Paul Butorac added 16 points and Kellen Williams 10.
“These conference games are starting to become must wins,” said Burns, looking at Northern Colorado’s visit on Saturday. “We need to take better care of the basketball. We need to come out with better defensive intensity. Obviously we need to make our free throws.”
N. Arizona 91, EWU 80
N. Arizona (10-8)- McCurdy 8-12 2-5 18, Boykin Jr. 4-15 0-0 8, Geiser 3-6 0-0 9, Wilson 2-2 4-6 8, Green 0-1 0-1 0, Bazy 6-11 5-6 19, Van Patten 0-0 0-0 0, Sir 8-11 2-2 25, Burrell 2-2 0-0 4, Larson 0-1 0-0 0, Sharp 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-61 13-20 91.
E. Washington (9-10)- Williams 5-7 0-1 10, Butorac 7-10 2-4 16, Hinton 2-3 0-1 4, Stuckey 10-21 4-9 24, Penoncello 1-4 1-2 3, Krayem 3-8 0-0 7, Risper 2-3 0-1 4, Taylor 1-2 0-0 3, Moore 4-4 1-4 9. Totals 35-62 8-22 80.
Halftime—Northern Arizona 40-38. 3-Point Goals—N. Arizona 12-20 (Sir 7-10, Geiser 3-6, Bazy 2-2, Boykin Jr. 0-2), E. Washington 2-14 (Taylor 1-2, Krayem 1-4, Butorac 0-1, Penoncello 0-3, Stuckey 0-4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—N. Arizona 32 (Boykin Jr. 11), E. Washington 34 (Stuckey 8). Assists—N. Arizona 25 (Wilson 14), E. Washington 18 (Stuckey 5). Total Fouls—N. Arizona 17, E. Washington 19. A—2,551.