EWU men’s basketball ends drought at Montana

MISSOULA – The streak is over. On Thursday night, 11 years of futility for Eastern Washington were thrown out of Dahlberg Arena like yesterday’s news. For Venky Jois, the reality sunk in with a few seconds left in the game. Moments later, after the Eagles had secured a 75-69 Big Sky Conference win over Montana, the Eagles forward was more interested in the future than in rehashing the past. “It was a statement win,” said Jois, who said he already was looking ahead to a possible first-place showdown next week at Reese Court against Sacramento State. Fans will probably want to revel in the victory, which broke a 12-game losing streak at Dahlberg even as the Eagles overcame some major adversity. Two days earlier, they learned that national scoring leader Tyler Harvey would stay home in Cheney, healing from a quadricep injury. “Without Tyler, the team said we were going to on take this challenge on the road,” said coach Jim Hayford, whose team improved to 17-5 overall at 8-1 in the Big Sky going into Saturday’s game at Montana State. “They wanted to show that they weren’t going to be denied, that they were more than just Tyler,” Hayford said. Like a team that’s looking more special with every game, the Eagles ably filled the void left by Harvey. Guard Parker Kelly and forward Felix Von Hofe did it with 3-point shooting, a combined 6 for 11. Jois did it with hustle: 12 points, seven assists and nine rebounds against a Grizzly defense that conceded little inside. And then there was point guard Drew Brandon, who had a career-high 27 points but did so much more: timely 3-point shots, six boards and five assists. With 7:12 to play and the Eagles’ lead whittled down 59-54, Brandon stole the ball in the backcourt and laid it in. Seventeen seconds later, he rebounded a missed Montana shot, raced toward the basket and took a bounce pass from Von Hofe for a slam-dunk that made it 63-54. “It was a broken play,” said Brandon, the current Big Sky player of the week and a candidate for two in a row. “But we know each other so well. He read it, I read it, and that’s what happened.” Plays like that gave the Eagles just enough cushion to withstand one last rally by Montana (11-10, 7-3). Three missed free throws and a 3-pointer from Griz guard Jordan Gregory cut the lead to 70-65 with 45 seconds left, but Brandon hit three of his next four foul shots to put the game away. “This was a good night to show who the true Drew Brandon was,” Hayford said. “We figured they would leave him alone. His shooting percentage was low because he had a broken finger for the first 10-12 games. He took advantage of it,” Hayford said. “He had 20 shots and didn’t take a bad shot the whole night,” Hayford said. The Grizzlies took plenty of bad shots, as leading scorers Jordan Gregory and Martin Breunig were a combined 6 for 24 from the field. Hayford said that upon arriving in Missoula on Wednesday, his players had read in a local newspaper that Montana coach Travis DeCuire called Eastern’s defense the worst in the Big Sky. “That really fired them up, it was gas for the fire,” Hayford said. “I think we can get a lot better on defense, but we’re not the worst defense in the conference.” Montana came into the game with statistically the best defense in the league, but the Eagles shot 51 percent (25 for 49) for the game, including 11 for 24 from long range. The Eagles led almost the entire way, but never by more than nine. Ahead 33-29 at halftime, they let the Griz forge a 49-all tied with 12:24 left, but went ahead for good on a 3-pointer by Brandon. Savoring the moment, Hayford said the win “means a lot to people who’ve been around Eastern a lot linger than me. And to win without a player (Harvey) who is arguably the best player in the Big Sky, just shows that our team is a solid unit.” Hayford said that the decision was made Tuesday night to leave Harvey home for this trip because “the best thing for Tyler and our team is to get him healed as soon as possible. “