Eagles magage to avoid letdown in win over Northern Kentucky

Two nights after touching the sky, the Eastern Washington basketball team enjoyed a graceful landing Wednesday night.

Showing no letdown from Monday’s monumental upset win at Indiana, the Eagles led Northern Kentucky wire to wire in an 81-60 win before an appreciative crowd at Reese Court.

That the crowd numbered only 1,003 had more to do with the Thanksgiving holiday that sent students home and the foggy weather that kept many others away. For those who did make it to Reese Court, the appreciation began just before tipoff with a highlight video from the Eagles’ 88-86 victory over the five-time NCAA champion Hoosiers.

But as the video blared, not a single player looked up from the pregame huddle.

“Don’t look backward, only look forward,” Eastern coach Jim Hayford said after the game. “We didn’t want the story to be that we beat Indiana and then came out and lost to Northern Kentucky.”

“Mission accomplished,” Hayford said after the Eagles improved to 5-1 for the first time in 29 years. A win in Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. matinee against NAIA Eastern Oregon would be the 300th in Hayford’s career.

The Eagles took over early against Northern Kentucky, racing to an early 9-point lead that hit 17 at halftime. Eastern held the smaller Norse, from the Atlantic Sun Conference, to 8-of-28 shooting, including 2-of-14 from long range, to lead 37-20 in the first half.

“I thought we came out and played an excellent defensive first half,” Hayford said. “With the quick turnaround and everything that happened Monday night, for our guys to really be defensively on point at tipoff – I was really proud of our team.”

For the game, the Eagles hit 29 of 52 shots, including 12 of 24 from 3-point range. Four Eagles scored in double figures, including Tyler Harvey with 20, Ognjen Miljkovic and Venky Jois with 14 each and Drew Brandon with 11.

Jois had a game-high eight rebounds, helping the Eagles dominate the boards 38-28.

Daniel Camps had 14 for Northern Kentucky, which shot 22 for 59 from the field.

The game began awkwardly, but only for a moment. Guard Parker Kelly, who closed out Indiana with a 3-pointer, airballed the first shot of the game, but Miljkovic hit a pair of early 3s to give Eastern an 11-2 advantage.

The Norse (2-3) were coming off a 98-48 win over Ohio Midwestern, briefly closed to within three points, 14-11, with 11:25 left in the half, but the Eagles pulled away toward intermission by hitting 15 of 29 shots from the field against the Northern Kentucky zone.

Said forward Felix Von Hofe, who scored nine points, “We’ve just got to make sure we bring the same intensity from the pre-Indiana week to every single game.”

The Eagles steadily pulled away early in the second half, with Harvey’s 3-pointer 2 minutes in giving them their first 20-point lead, 44-24. Another trey from Harvey made it 51-26, and backup guard Sir Washington gave the Eagles a 70-40 lead on a thunderous slam-dunk with 8:05 left.

That turned out to be Eastern’s biggest lead, as the Norse earned some cosmetic points before the buzzer.

The win improved Eastern to 4-0 at home, where the Eagles have outscored opponents by a combined 125 points.

The game was Eastern’s last at home against a Division I opponent until the Big Sky Conference opener against Weber State on New Year’s Day. After Sunday’s game, the Eagles face five straight road games, ending with a Dec. 19 game at California.