Bobcats bound past EWU
There was no massive second-half comeback needed in this one.
Montana State made sure of that by abusing Eastern Washington on the boards all game long Thursday evening.
Just five days after having to rally from a 19-point second-half deficit to trip the Eagles in Bozeman, the Bobcats bumped them off again, 64-57 in a Big Sky Conference men’s basketball showdown that played out much more conventionally in front of a Reese Court crowd of 1,495.
Senior guard Carlos Taylor, the Big Sky’s leading scorer, and backup sophomore forward Branden Johnson each scored 13 points as MSU (13-8, 5-3) handed the undermanned Eagles (8-15, 3-6) their third straight loss.
Eastern played without starting point guard and second-leading scorer Adris DeLeon, who had not practiced since Monday because of flu symptoms. But neither first-year coach Kirk Earlywine nor any of his disappointed players were willing to blame the loss on DeLeon’s absence.
Not after the Eagles shot just 35.6 percent (21 for 59) from the field, got outrebounded 43-28 and went the last 6 1/2 minutes of the game without a field goal, missing their last eight basket tries.
“I thought we got whipped, physically,” Earlywine said. “The game was on the backboards, and our two centers didn’t get a defensive rebound. (Montana State) had 14 offensive rebounds on 28 misses. It’s hard to win when you give people that many chances.”
Sophomore center Brandon Moore, who scored eight of EWU’s first 11 points before encountering foul problems that severely limited his playing time – and his effectiveness – echoed Earlywine’s sentiments.
“That’s the game right there,” he said in reference to Montana State’s lopsided rebounding edge. “If you’re not going to block out, it doesn’t matter how good a defense you play.”
The Eagles certainly defended well against the Bobcats, getting their hands on a lot of passes, making Taylor – who came in averaging 18.4 points per game – take a variety of tough shots, and forcing 19 turnovers, including 13 in the first half when they forged a 33-27 lead.
Eastern hurried MSU into turnovers on 11 of its first 17 possessions and limited the Bobcats to nine shots in the first 10 1/2 minutes of the game. But the biggest lead the Eagles carved out was 21-9, and MSU chewed into that quickly when Divaldo Mbunga scored on an old-school duck-under move on the baseline to end a 6 1/2-minute scoring drought and spark a 10-3 run that got the Bobcats back in the game.
“I thought we guarded pretty well in the first half until the last 4 minutes,” Earlywine said. “I would have liked to stretch that (first-half) lead out like we were able to do in Bozeman, but if you told me we were going to have a six-point lead at halftime at home in a conference game, I would take that.”
Earlywine also liked the job his team did on Taylor, who was just 4 for 15 from the field.
“But their best offense was to just chuck it up there and go fetch it,” he said. “It didn’t matter how good a job we did of guarding him, because they were just going and getting the ball a second and third and fourth time.
“We weren’t putting a body on them, blocking them out or rebounding the ball, so our effort on him was for naught.”
Moore and freshman guard Trey Gross each scored 12 points for Eastern, which also got a double-double – his ninth of the year – from senior forward Kellen Williams. But the Eagles made just 4 of 20 shots from 3-point range and had no answer for the 10-3 run MSU used to close out the game.
“They outhustled us at the end,” said Eastern’s sophomore guard Gary Gibson, who started for DeLeon at the point and played all 40 minutes. “They wanted it more, and that’s why we lost.”
Gibson finished with eight points, four assists and four steals, but he also committed five of his team’s 11 turnovers.
Next up for the Eagles is a rare Sunday matchup against Montana, a 70-68 loser to Portland State on Thursday. The game tips off at 1:05 at Reese Court, and Earlywine said he has no idea whether DeLeon will play.