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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eastern rolls past UPS in exhibition

Even after a 34-point win Sunday afternoon, Eastern Washington basketball coach Jim Hayford saw plenty of room for improvement. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been happy as a coach in November, because it’s such an early work in progress,” Hayford said after an 89-55 romp over Puget Sound in an exhibition game at Reese Court. “They gave us a good game that will make us a better team in the future – that’s the purpose of an exhibition game,” Hayford said. The game hardly was a wakeup call – that will come at 8 a.m. Friday when Eastern hosts Texas Southern in the nation’s first Division I game of the season – but the Division III Loggers made things interesting for a half. Getting some too-easy open looks, UPS delivered a few 3-point shots that helped trim the EWU lead to 33-32 less than 2 minutes before intermission. “The hope-they-miss defense,” Hayford called it. “It was an interesting game in the first half – I was trying to play a lot of guys and do a lot of things early,” said Hayford, who got 14 players in the lineup, with the resultant hiccups here and there. Forward Felix Von Hofe, said the biggest adjustment was facing an “unpredictable” offense after several weeks of practicing against each other. “We did that to an extent, but we can do it better,” said Von Hofe, who scored 11 points, one of five Eagles in double figures. The leading scorer was no surprise: junior guard Tyler Harvey, who finished with 16 points, albeit on 5-for-14 shooting. Junior forward Venky Jois had 13 points and six rebounds, and sophomore forward Ognjen Miljkovic added 14 points and seven boards. The biggest surprises came from two newcomers. Guard Cody Benzel, a freshman from Ferris High School, made three straight 3-pointers in the first half and finished with nine points. Regardless, Benzel will redshirt this year. Junior-college transfer Kyle Reid led all rebounders with 14 and was 3-of-5 shooting to finish with eight points. “I thought Kyle Reid was a good rebounder and gave us great energy,” said Hayford, whose team pulled away from a 38-32 halftime lead mostly through solid defense on the shorter Loggers. UPS shot 37 percent in the first half – including 7 of 15 from long range – but hit just 28 percent after intermission and made just one 3-pointer in 10 attempts. The final margin might have been even larger, but the Eagles were only 16 of 29 (55.2 percent) from the free-throw line. New Eastern center Frederik Jörg, a 7-foot-1 redshirt sophomore from Germany, finished with two points and one rebound.