Eagles’ defense does the trick in victory over Idaho

MOSCOW, Idaho – When the two highest scoring teams in the Big Sky Conference met at the Cowan Spectrum Saturday night, the head coaches of Idaho and Eastern Washington could only naturally think about one thing: Defense.

The specific focus for EWU coach Jim Hayford was Idaho’s stellar senior point guard, Mike Scott. The Eagles forced Scott into four turnovers, roughly four times as many as he averaged coming into the game.

When the buzzer sounded, after Scott had clanked a potential game-tying 3 from the right corner, EWU escaped Moscow with an 89-86 triumph to stay undefeated in conference play.

Those turnovers from Scott were the difference for Hayford.

“(The score) doesn’t surprise me at all. We knew it was going to be two really good offensive teams and we were just a little bit better on defense,” Hayford said. “I think forcing Mike Scott into just a couple of turnovers that weren’t common, maybe was the difference in a one possession game.”

The Eagles (12-4, 3-0 Big Sky) claimed first place in the Big Sky with the win, and got off to a perfect start on the road in conference play after winning only three Big Sky games on the road all of last season.

Idaho (7-7, 2-1) didn’t make it easy. EWU pushed its lead to as many as eight points seven times with under 5:22 remaining in the game. Idaho cut it to 86-84 with 39 seconds left, putting the pressure on the Eagles to hit free throws.

Tyler Harvey converted two with 23 seconds remaining, Bogdan Bliznyuk split a pair with 10 seconds remaining to force Idaho to attempt a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“For us, we definitely wanted it to be a statement. We do want to send a message to the league,” EWU forward Venky Jois said. “But as always it’s just about getting better play by play, because we know we want to be playing our best basketball by March.”

With Idaho face-guarding and focusing on Harvey on the perimeter, Jois took over in the middle of the floor scoring 16 points in the paint on 8-11 shooting. Harvey finished with 23 points on 6-15 shooting.

“That was our game adjustment at halftime is we’re going to run defense through Venky (Jois),” Hayford said. “I thought he did a really good job of even distribution of finishing and making passes.”

Idaho coach Don Verlin shot the focus forward toward the upcoming stretch of Big Sky league games. The Vandals have four conference games, including two on the road, before meeting EWU again.

“Round one against Eastern, heck of a game,” Verlin said. “January 31st we’ll see what round two has for us. Our next step is to get ready for Sacramento State.”