Steele Venters lifts Eastern Washington over Montana State 70-67 to complete road sweep

From staff reports

BOZEMAN – Steele Venters hit two key shots late to lift Eastern Washington to a 70-67 Big Sky Conference men’s basketball victory over Montana State on Saturday afternoon .

Venters hit a baseline, fadeaway shot that tied the game at 65 with 1 minute, 5 seconds left. After the Eagles got a defensive stop, Venters hit a deep 3-pointer from the wing to give his team a 68-65 lead.

Tyreese Davis and Cedric Coward each went 1 for 2 at the free-throw line down the stretch for Eastern. Robert Ford III’s 3-point attempt for MSU – which could have tied the game – bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

The Eagles made 18 of 20 free-throw attempts and the Bobcats went just 6 of 13 from the line. EWU senior Angelo Allegri led all scorers with 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field. He also had nine rebounds.

Venters scored 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, including a 3-for-4 effort from 3-point range. EWU sophomore Casey Jones added a game-high 12 rebounds to his team-leading season total.

Eastern’s victory ended Montana State’s 14-game home winning streak, dating to a loss to Weber State on Dec. 30, 2021. It also gave the Eagles (8-7 overall, 2-0 Big Sky) a sweep this week after they beat Montana 87-80 on Thursday. They’ve won four in a row and six of their past eight games.

“I’m just so proud of our guys for being able to win games on the defensive end,” EWU coach David Riley said in a postgame radio interview. “That’s how you win road games.”

The Eagles struggled much of the night hanging onto the basketball, committing 18 turnovers, eight on Bobcats steals.

After leading 33-24 just before halftime, the Eagles fell behind 48-43 on a 3-pointer by Darius Brown II – one of his four – that gave the Bobcats (8-7, 1-1) their largest lead of the game with 11:20 left.

But Allegri scored the Eagles’ next 12 points to keep Montana State, the conference champion last season, from pulling away.

“He was a little bit out of rhythm in parts of the game,” Riley said of Allegri, “and for him to be that mentally tough … it’s just so impressive to me watching how far he’s come (mentally) since he got here (in 2021).”

Brown led Montana State with 18 points and junior RaeQuan Battle added 13. MSU senior Jubrile Belo, the conference’s reigning MVP, was held to single digits (eight points) for the first time in six games.

Eastern outrebounded the Bobcats 40-29 and had 18 second-chance points. The game was tied 10 times and had 16 lead changes. Neither team led by more than nine.

After the road sweep, the Eagles will play their next four games at home, starting with a matchup against Portland State on Thursday .