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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Eastern Washington handles Eastern Oregon at home 89-63

By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review

At the beginning of the most recent offseason, when Eastern Washington’s men’s basketball roster and coaching staff were in flux, Emmett Marquardt wasn’t even dreaming of games like the one he had Monday night at Reese Court in Cheney.

In the Eagles’ 89-63 win over Eastern Oregon – their final tune-up before Big Sky play begins Thursday – Marquardt scored a game-high 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting while leading the team with seven rebounds. The points set a new career high for the redshirt freshman, who is averaging 21.7 minutes per game, fourth most on the team.

Not bad for someone who was very aware of his “back of the bench” status as a true freshman 12 months ago.

“I walked on last year, I was a redshirt, so I wasn’t anywhere near the court,” Marquardt said.

But when Dan Monson was hired as EWU’s head coach, Monson offered Marquardt a scholarship and then issued the 6-foot-9 forward a challenge: Be prepared, because with only six returners, the Eagles were going to need him.

“Emmett’s just one of those kids that works really hard. When you work hard, good things are going to happen,” Monson said. “He’s probably the most improved player we’ve had since I got here, but that’s because he’s probably been the hardest worker.”

Against the Mountaineers, an NAIA team from La Grande, Oregon, Marquardt made his 13th start of the season (senior Andrew Cook is the only other EWU player to start all 13 so far) and also hit 3-of-7 3-pointers, part of Eastern’s 11-of-25 night from 3-point range.

Eastern (4-9 overall) led by double digits most of the game and by as many as the final difference of 26 points, but the Mountaineers (7-5) stuck around, closing to within 12 points, 71-59, with 6 minutes, 4 seconds left.

The Eagles called a timeout and then went on an 8-0 run, 3-pointers by Mason Williams (11 points) and Sebastian Hartmann (14 points) sandwiched around two Marquardt free throws.

Eastern made 20 of 22 free throws overall, while the Mountaineers made 5 of 9.

Thursday, the Eagles open Big Sky play at home against Montana (7-6), followed by another home game Saturday against Montana State (5-8).