From staff reports

POCATELLO, Idaho – Two days after securing the top seed in next week’s Big Sky men’s basketball tournament, Eastern Washington’s 18-game winning streak ended with a 71-63 loss to Idaho State on Saturday evening at Reed Gym .

Senior Brock Mackenzie, a native of Sammamish, Washington, scored a game-high 28 points and made 9 of 14 shots, including 6 of 9 3-point attempts, to lead the fifth-place Bengals to their eighth Big Sky win.

Eastern is 16-1 in the Big Sky and 22-8 overall. Although the loss cost them what was the nation’s top Division I winning streak, they lost nothing in conference seeding. With one game to go – Monday at home against second-place Montana State – no Big Sky team can catch them in the standings.

But they still need to win their conference tournament in order to reach the NCAA Tournament.

“ You never want to lose a game,” EWU coach David Riley said in a postgame radio interview. “But the best thing about this team is how together we are, how deep we are, and we’ve just got to learn from it. We’ve been learning through winning. Now we have to learn from this loss.”

Redshirt sophomore Steele Venters scored a team-high 15 points for the Eagles, but it came on a 4-for-15 shooting night. Eagles senior Angelo Allegri was 3 for 10 from the field. Neither Venters nor Allgeri – the team’s leading scorers this season – made a basket inside the arc; all of their made field goals were 3s.

It was the first time since their loss to South Dakota State in December that the Eagles were outshot by their opponent from the field. The Bengals made 42% of their shots to the Eagles’ 40%.

Eastern trailed 11-0 in the opening minutes and was behind 39-36 at halftime. The Bengals made just 34.6% of their shots in the second half and went one 5-minute stretch without scoring. But the Eagles couldn’t take advantage, making just 10 of 27 attempts (37%) after halftime. Eastern’s largest lead was five points.

The Eagles played without redshirt junior Tyreese Davis for undisclosed reasons. He had started all of Eastern’s 27 games, averaging 10.1 points per game.

“He’s a steadying influence for us … he’s strong with the ball (and) he’s a big piece to what we do,” Riley said. “But our team is super deep, and we should have been able to weather that storm.”

Sophomore Cedric Coward started in place of Davis and had six points and six rebounds.

Eastern’s 19 turnovers were their most since Jan. 5 against Portland State, when the Eagles committed 20. The Bengals turned those turnovers into 25 points. Idaho State also had an 11-1 edge in fast-break points.

The Eagles’ last loss came on Dec. 13 at Texas Tech. Their 16-0 start to conference play is still the best in Big Sky history, and their 18-game winning streak ends tied Weber State’s 1979-80 team for the conference record.

The Eagles will look to rebound against the Bobcats (21-9, 14-3), a potential opponent in the Big Sky championship game, should both get that far. Their game tips off at 6 p.m. Monday in Cheney. Eastern will open the Big Sky Tournament next Sunday in Boise.