Bo Levi Mitchell wins third Big Sky Player of Week award

Football: Eastern Washington senior quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season after recording the ninth-most yards in school history with a 436-yard performance against Cal Poly last Saturday.

Mitchell shares this week’s award with Weber State running back C.J. Tuckett.

In EWU’s 53-31 triple OT win over the Mustangs, Mitchell completed 34 of 50 passes with an interception and five touchdowns to five different receivers. He provided the winning points with a 25-yard TD pass to Greg Herd on the first play of the third overtime and subsequent scramble for the two-point conversion.

Mitchell has 3,612 yards for the year, just 391 yards from the school record of 4,003 set by Erik Meyer in 2005.

Eastern’s home opener tonight

Men’s Basketball: Eastern Washington (0-1) will play its home opener against South Dakota (0-1) tonight in a nonconference game that tips off 6 at Reese Court.

The Eagles are coming off a 77-69 road loss to Gonzaga in last Friday’s season opener, and will be looking for their first victory under first-year head coach Jim Hayford.

USD also opened its season on the road last Friday, losing to Nebraska 65-48.

Durfey, Ryan collect big wins

Rodeo: For calf roper Tyson Durfey and bareback rider Ryan Gray it was just like old times last weekend as they warmed up for the National Finals Rodeo that begins Dec. 1.

Durfey, who calls Colbert home, won the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton, the third time he was won the Canadian championship.

He took control by winning the first two rounds of the six-round rodeo that began Wednesday and took out all the suspense by taking Sunday’s final go-round, pushing his season winnings in Canada to $60,000, about $10,000 clear of second place.

Gray, a Cheney native, clinched his fourth-straight Columbia River Circuit title by finishing second in the finals in Redmond, Ore.

Gray placed second at the circuit finals to Brian Bain of Culver, Ore., who is also headed to the NFR. After Gray won the first round, Bain won the next two to beat Gray by 12 points in the average.

Dave Trimmer