Eastern Washington edges Denver in overtime

By coach Jim Hayford’s admission, his Eastern Washington basketball team is a work in progress.

So why not work a little longer?

For the second straight game, the Eagles went to overtime Saturday night, beating Denver 85-80 in the nightcap of the Eastern Washington Classic at Reese Court.

Actually, they beat the Pioneers twice, more or less. After blowing an eight-point lead with less than two minutes left in regulation, Eastern regrouped and held the Pioneers without a field goal in the last four minutes, 16 seconds of overtime.

“We’re doing a great job of character-building,” senior forward Felix Von Hofe joked after scoring a game-high 23 points.

They’re also building new characters, as newcomers Luka Vulikic and Mason Peatling joined the usual suspects in making some big plays to help the Eagles improve to 4-2 going into Sunday’s game against San Francisco.

Trailing 78-75 with less than three minutes left in overtime, the Eagles took over the game at both ends of the court. Forwards Jacob Wiley and Bogdan Bliznyuk, who each finished with 22 points, had back-to-back layups to regain the lead.

Seconds later, Vulikic got a steal to set up Wiley for another layup with 1:36 left that proved to be the winner.

After two Denver free throws, Bliznyuk drove for another layin to make it 83-80, and Wiley iced the game with a pair of free throws for the final points.

“Forty minutes just isn’t enough for our team right now – we have to keep playing more into overtime,” said Hayford, whose team beat Seattle in double overtime on Monday.

“The thing I’m liking about our team is that we are finding a way to win,” Hayford said.

That’s exactly what Hayford told his players after regulation, which ended so deflatingly.

Gaining momentum late in the second half, the Eagles took a 75-67 lead on a layup 1:52 to play by Peatling, who went to the line 13 seconds later with a chance to make it a double-digit advantage.

But Peatling missed the front end of the 1-and-1. Half a minute later, he did the same thing, while the Pioneers (1-3) hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to cut the margin to 75-73 with 55 seconds left.

With 38 seconds left and the Eagles still up by the same score, guard Sir Washington missed two foul shots to set up Joe Rosga’s tying layup with 5 seconds left.

Besides the win, their third straight, the Eagles had a few more takeaways from Saturday’s win. Bliznyuk narrowly missed a triple-double, racking up 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.

As a team, Eastern committed just three turnovers while forcing 11.

“That’s why we won a close game,” Hayford said. “It probably shouldn’t have gone to overtime – we should have made some more free throws, at least one more. The extra five minutes will only make us better.”

USF 77, Sacramento State 59: Chase Foster scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds as the Dons notched their fourth straight win, beating the Hornets of the Big Sky Conference.

Marquill Smith added 12 points for the unbeaten Dons (4-0).

A Foster 3-pointer capped an 11-0 run to open the game for San Francisco.

Nick Hornsby led the Hornets (1-4) with 20 points and nine rebounds.