A Grip on Sports: Seahawks answer questions with a needed win as EWU uses lessons learned to earn one as well
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Desperation is the mother-in-law of innovation. Or, at least, it can be. It was at Lumen Field on Monday night, as the Seahawks rode the contributions of two backups to a season-saving 20-17 victory over the visiting Eagles. And it was 1,019 miles down the coast at Cal Poly’s Mott Athletics Center, where Eastern Washington’s Eagles finally faced a road game that didn’t feature a big-money opponent or a mile-high challenge.
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• California’s Central Coast is alluring. Storm-battered vistas. Braying sea lions. Crashing waves. And, more importantly for David Riley’s basketball team, a chance to face someone in their weight class.
Riley front-loaded the Eagles’ early season nonconference schedule with seven huge challenges. Road games all. Most against Power 6 opponents. And one, the only one his team would win, at elevation against Air Force. The reason? Preparation. When December melts into the new year, the Eagles should be ready for whatever the Big Sky throws at it.
Monday night was different. It was a chance to face another school anxious for a win, Cal Poly, a member of the Sky in football but the Big West in hoops. The Mustangs, like Eastern, entered with three wins. There was a sense of desperation in the building. It manifested itself into a sloppy first half.
Turnovers. Wild shots. Battered faces. Heck, Eastern turned it over 10 times before intermission, shot 32% and was outrebounded by seven, the same number of offensive boards the Mustangs grabbed. And yet the Eagles led 26-23. Pretty isn’t a good description, unless paired with ugly or ragged.
But there is always the second half. And adjustments.
Riley’s team took care of the ball better. They walled off the glass. They persevered. All those tough days and nights in Salt Lake City and Oxford and L.A. paid off. Lessons were learned. Applied. Needed.
To counter the Mustangs offensive glass attack, Riley played his two bigs, 6-foot-10 starter Ethan Price, and 6-11 reserve Dane Erikstrup, together often.
“We’ve tinkered with it,” earlier in the season Riley said of the bigger lineup. “We give up a little bit of speed but they need to take advantage with their size and physicality. I thought we’ve been getting better and better at doing that. We’ve got to exert our will.”
They did. Cal Poly had half as many second chances after halftime. The offense became limited to giving leading scorer Kobe Sanders the ball and clearing out. His 15 second-half points (and 17 total, after early foul trouble) weren’t enough.
Mainly because the Eagles’ defense played with desperation.
No one epitomized that more than Sebastian Hartmann. The freshman from Germany played fewer minutes than anyone in Eastern’s eight-man rotation. But his contributions were immense. Under-the-radar, maybe, but immense.
“It probably doesn’t even show up in the stat sheet,” Riley acknowledged. “That kid is just a winner. He’s tough. He does all the right stuff. He’s a grown man.”
Hartmann’s biggest plays were made on the defensive end. But he also scored one of the game’s key buckets.
With Cal Poly within three and 3-minutes left, Hartmann challenged Quentin Jones seemingly unmissable layup. Jones missed. But so did Erikstrup on the other end. No matter. Hartmann grabbed the offensive rebound and, when Jake Kyman, who led the Eagles with 15 points, drove, he cut back door. Kyman found him for a huge layup.
And a well-earned 62-53 road win.
• If Eastern received contributions from unforeseen sources, it was nothing compared to what the Seahawks collected against Philadelphia.
Geno Smith out. Drew Lock in. And a 92-yard game-winning touchdown drive led in the final 2 minutes. Jamal Adams out. Julian Love in. And two interceptions grabbed, including the game-clincher, thwarting the Eagles’ attempt to tie as the clock wound down.
The Seahawks had to win. They did. And the postseason is still a possibility.
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WSU: As most schools gear up for huge hauls in the transfer portal, the Cougars’ early signing period – it begins Wednesday – class will be dominated by high school seniors. Greg Woods has this story on the two latest members. … Though Washington State isn’t part of the bowl scene this season, a handful of area officials will play a role. That news leads off the S-R’s latest local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Washington is one of the schools hitting the transfer portal hard. … John Canzano has a mailbag that touches on a lot of Pac-2 questions. … Oregon State will be without its leading rusher in the Sun Bowl. And its best tight end will be in East Lansing with the old coach. But it has a new assistant. … Oregon has rebuilt its offensive line a bit in the portal. And quarterback. … The Ducks’ gain was Colorado’s loss. But the Buffs are doing OK. … Utah isn’t, at least not in the secondary come bowl time. … There are a couple USC post mortems to pass along, with the pressure mounting on Lincoln Riley. … Arizona is ready for signing day. … In basketball news, Colorado has a break until the next semester. … UCLA meets Cal State Northridge today. … USC will face Alabama State. … Purdue’s win over Arizona propelled the Boilermakers to No. 1. … The second-ranked UCLA women handled No. 13 Ohio State on the road. … Colorado wants more from its freshmen.
Gonzaga: The loss to No. 5 Connecticut in Seattle cost the Bulldogs five spots in the AP poll. Theo Lawson has that and more in this story. … Jim Meehan and Richard Fox cover the UConn game (and a lot more) in their latest Zag Basketball Insiders Podcast. … The 20th-ranked women will face Arizona in Phoenix tomorrow. It’s a big deal for the Wildcats. … Elsewhere in the WCC, we missed this earlier but wanted to pass along this USD story.
EWU: Though we watched the Eagles play last night we didn’t write the game story. That was handled elsewhere. And done better. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the home crowd made a difference for Montana in its FCS semifinal. … Montana State is still tinkering with its defensive staff. … Northern Colorado has named a new offensive coordinator. … In basketball news, Portland State is playing well and won in overtime over Fresno State last night. … Montana State’s men returned to the court recently and picked up a win. The women won as well.
Preps: Dave Nichols has a roundup of Monday’s nights basketball games.
Seahawks: We touched on the Hawks’ win above. But only lightly. We didn’t have the chance to watch, following along via ESPN’s gamecast. And texts with our son in Spokane. You know, the modern way. Lock’s postgame interview caught all his emotion, sure, but that of the Hawk faithful as well. The game was must-win. And Seattle won. … Dave Boling watched it the old-fashioned way, from in the building high above. And then he pinpointed the key player, the one that epitomizes Pete Carroll’s approach to football. … We couldn’t find it this morning but late last night we saw a picture on X of Carroll standing in the end zone after his postgame presser. He seemed to be soaking in a quiet moment after the maelstrom just witnessed. Alone. Stands empty. It made us wonder if Carroll is contemplating calling it a career and he wants to make sure he commits such moments to memory. It is such games that need to be there on cold nights down the road, when the world has forgotten and all you have left is your memories. The last-minute comeback against a good team deserves to be seared in. And Carroll seemed to be making sure it was. … Hey, there are always grades. And things to be learned.
Mariners: Julio Rodriguez raked in a bunch of bonus money.
Kraken: A late goal tied it up for Seattle in Dallas, but the Stars won 4-3 in overtime as the Kraken opened a road trip.
Reign: After making the NWSL title match against Gotham FC, Seattle seems to be leaking stars. The Reign lost two players to the expansion draft and now may lose Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett as free agents to the team that won the title.
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• Our Christmas present for Kim’s mom – don’t worry, she doesn’t use the Interweb – is a TV set. Her TV is no longer working. Which meant no Monday Night football for us, which is part of the reason we watched EWU play last night. And if we watched, we write. It’s what we do. Until later …