Eastern Washington plans to do more than pray when trying to slow down Northern Colorado scorer Saint Thomas

In four years under coach Steve Smiley, the Northern Colorado men’s basketball team has had little trouble scoring points – nor have the Bears had an issue finding elite scorers.

During the 2021-22 season, Daylen Kountz led the Big Sky Conference in scoring at 21.2 points per game. Last season, Dalton Knecht led the conference at 20.2 ppg.

Both have since moved on: Kountz exhausted his eligibility after averaging 17.3 points per game for the Bears last season, and Knecht is leading No. 6 Tennessee in scoring as a fifth-year senior grad transfer.

But the Bears have hardly missed either one, at least from the standpoint of offensive productivity. Saint Thomas has filled that role just fine.

“He’s an incredible player,” said junior Cedric Coward, Eastern’s leading scorer at 14.1 ppg. “He’s their engine.”

Slowing the transfer Thomas – the Big Sky’s scoring leader at 19.9 ppg – is priority No. 1 for the Eagles (11-7, 5-0 Big Sky) when they host second-place Northern Colorado (11-7, 4-1) Thursday at Reese Court in Cheney.

Thomas, listed at 6-foot-7 and 200 pounds, transferred from Loyola Chicago, where last year as a sophomore he played in 14 games. His single-game high there was 11 points, a total he has exceeded in all but four games for the Bears this season.

Thomas is also tied for the conference lead in rebounding (9.8 per game) and is ninth in assists per game (3.4).

“He can score at all three levels,” EWU head coach David Riley said of Thomas, who is effective by posting up, coming off ball screens or isolating from the perimeter.

Thomas has many similarities to Weber State forward Dillon Jones, Riley said, though Thomas is more scoring-oriented than Jones. They have each been named Big Sky Player of the Week five times, with Thomas receiving the most recent distinction.

But the Eagles have a history of keeping star players like Jones in check.

In two games against the Eagles last year, Knecht got his points – 45 total – but he shot 14 of 36 from the field, and Eastern won both matchups.

The tale was similar for Jones, who in two matchups last year made 12 of 26 attempts and scored 39 points. Eastern won both of those games as well.

Last week, in Eastern’s 80-78 win over Weber State in Ogden, Utah, Jones scored 14 points, and he shot just 5 of 15 from the field .

“When you play good players like that, they’re going to end up doing what they do. It’s inevitable,” Coward said.

“But you just have to make them super inefficient. (Last week) Dillon (Jones) still had 14 (points) and 12 (rebounds), and that’s a heck of a number for a player who didn’t have a good game.”

When it comes to slowing Thomas, Coward said the idea is the same: Trust the game plan and make Thomas work hard for what he gets.

Thomas is Northern Colorado’s most prolific scorer, but he’s hardly the only threat.

Junior Dejour Reaves, a transfer from Trinidad State in south-central Colorado, ranks seventh on the conference’s scoring list at 14.2 ppg. Sophomore Brock Wisne averages 12.2 points, and senior Jaron Rillie – a transfer from Samford – averages 10.7.

Northern Colorado’s scoring average is up nearly eight points from last season, and it leads the Big Sky at 81.5 per game – 2.4 points per game more than the Eagles’ average.

Yet similar to the previous two seasons, when the Bears ranked among the bottom two scoring defenses in the Big Sky, the Bears have allowed the most points (78.4) among Big Sky teams this season, about six more per game than the Eagles.

The Eagles have the lowest opponent field-goal percentage in the conference (42.6%), while the Bears rank seventh at 45.7%. Of Eastern’s 11 most recent opponents, just one – North Dakota State – has made more than half its shots.

Over that span, EWU opponents made just 39.1% of their field-goal attempts.

It’s a product of Eastern’s defensive focus: to force opponents to go away from what they do best.

“We want to take away ‘A,’ ” Riley said. “Whatever ‘A’ is for that team or individual, we want to make them go to Plan B or C.”

Eastern can score, too. While Coward’s team-leading 14.1 ppg ranks eighth in the conference and junior Ethan Price’s 12.1 ranks 16th, no other Big Sky team has five rotation players who average at least 10 points per game.

After Thursday’s game against the Bears, the Eagles will host Northern Arizona on Saturday at 1 p.m., an hour earlier than their usual Saturday tip-off.