Eagles handle Hornets
Eastern Washington University’s men’s basketball team shored up the ball-handling problems that had plagued it two nights earlier, and Kellen Williams put together another huge game Saturday evening as the Eagles capped a six-game homestand with an impressive 76-52 win over Big Sky Conference rival Sacramento State.
A Reese Court crowd of 1,501 was on hand to watch Williams stuff the stat sheet with 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as Eastern (7-10 overall, 2-1 Big Sky) posted its 12th consecutive home win against the cold-shooting Hornets (2-11, 0-3), who dropped their fifth straight.
In addition, sophomore center Brandon Moore had his best night of the season for the Eagles, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds.
But perhaps the most impressive number EWU put up was 24 – the number of assists the Eagles had against one of the Big Sky’s most aggressive and active defenses.
“They do some things defensively with their quickness that makes it very tough,” EWU coach Kirk Earlywine said of the Hornets. “And I thought our strength with the ball, our alertness and our ball movement were the best they’ve been this year.
“I wasn’t happy with a couple of the eight turnovers in the second half, but that’s going to happen.”
And those eight paled in comparison to the 10 costly ones the Eagles committed in the first half, alone, in Thursday night’s 79-75 loss to Northern Arizona.
Of Williams effort, which included 10-for-16 shooting from the field, Earlywine added, “I don’t know what to say about Kellen that I haven’t said before. He just keeps doing it, I’m really happy he’s playing for Eastern Washington.”
The Eagles, who led by as many as 31 points in the second half, shot 50 percent (29 of 58) from the field and forced 20 Hornets turnovers that led to 23 points. They also held the Hornets’ top scorer, Loren Leath, to just five points, which was more than 10 less than his average of 15.8.
Leath made only 1 of 6 shots and scored all of his point in the final 6 minutes of the game.
“He’s the kind of guy that can really get it going,” Earlywine said of the 6-foot-2 junior guard. “When he gets an easy bucket, he can string together three or four in a row, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t give him one.
“And we didn’t, until the game was out of reach.”
Of all his impressive numbers, Williams said he was most proud of the seven assists – a career high.
“Mainly because I know (assistant) Coach (Grant) Leep is going to be mad about the nine rebounds,” he explained. “He’s going to be mad I didn’t get 10.”
Moore finished the night 6 of 7 from the field, pulled down all of his rebounds on the defensive end of the court and also blocked a shot.
“B-Moore came up huge for us tonight,” Williams said of his 6-9 teammate, who started for the first time in 15 games. “I thought he was a key factor. He got in there and got a lot of big rebounds for us.”
Sacramento State, which got eight points each from Darnell Ferguson and Donald Thomas, did not have a player score in double figures.
“I told our guys coming into the game that our ability to guard dribble penetration and our ability to take care of the ball were going to be the determining factors in the game, and it turned out to be true,” Earlywine said after watching his team post its most lopsided win of the year – by far – against an NCAA Division I opponent. “Now we have to prove that we can go win a conference game on the road, and that’s something that’s not always an easy thing to do in this league.
“But for us to take the next step as a team, the challenge is to go win a conference road game.”
The Eagles will get their first chance to do that on Thursday, when they play at Idaho State (4-10, 1-0).