Eastern’s hopes quickly crushed

Eastern Washington University got another chance to test itself against the Big Sky Conference’s best Friday night – and bombed.

Again.

In a dramatic talent-level mismatch that played out in much the same way as the earlier meeting between the schools, Weber State dominated from tipoff to final buzzer and wasted the Eagles 85-57 in front of a Reese Court crowd of 2,113.

Sophomore guard Damian Lillard, the leading candidate to become the Big Sky’s player of the year, scored 18 points and added seven rebounds, four steals and three assists as the Wildcats (19-8, 13-2 Big Sky) clinched their second straight regular-season conference title and squashed any faint hopes Eastern (8-21, 4-11) might have had of earning a berth in the six-team conference tournament Weber State will host in Ogden, Utah, beginning next Saturday.

“They’re just a good, solid basketball team,” Eastern coach Kirk Earlywine said of the Wildcats, who thumped the Eagles 89-67 at home in late January. “They have talented guys at every position, they accentuate that by playing hard, and they are very well coached. There’s a reason they’re back-to-back champions in our league.”

Weber opened with a 25-9 run that seemed to break Eastern’s spirit and never let the Eagles up for air. The Wildcats, who also got 16 points from junior wing Franklin Session and a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double from sophomore forward Kyle Bullinger, led 51-24 at halftime and amped up the defensive pressure after intermission to hold the Eagles to just 26.5 percent shooting (9 of 34) in the second half.

Eastern got 17 points and five rebounds from freshman point guard Glen Dean and 10 points from freshman shooting guard Jeffrey Forbes. But the Eagles’ senior-laden frontline accounted for only 17 points and committed 10 of EWU’s 18 turnovers – including nine in the first half.

“We had 14 turnovers (as a team) in the first half, and we’re not at the point where we can overcome that,” Earlywine said. “You can’t turn the ball over that many times in a half and win against anybody who’s any good.”

Eastern’s 28.8 percent (17 of 59) shooting effort was its worst of the year against a Big Sky opponent. But it’s unlikely the Eagles could have threatened even if they had shot better – mainly because of the nifty 6-foot-2 Lillard, who made 6 of 10 field-goal tries, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.

“He’s the best player in our league,” Earlywine said. “In the 10 years I’ve been coaching in the Big Sky, he and (former EWU standout) Rodney Stuckey are the two best players that I’ve seen. Just like Rodney could take over a game in this league pretty much when he wanted to, Lillard can do the same thing.

“He’s a pro.”

Still, Earlywine liked the play of his all-freshman backcourt of Dean, Forbes and Kevin Winford and left the arena hoping the lopsided defeat won’t linger long in his players’ minds.

“This feels bad because we got our hats handed to us,” Earlywine said. “But it’s still only one loss. We can’t let his affect tomorrow night’s (season finale) against Idaho State, and we certainly can’t let it affect the process and be a step back in what we’re trying to do.

“And I’m very, very confident that won’t happen with those three young guys.”