Andrew Cook’s 25 points leads Eastern Washington to win against Seattle 93-86

With so many new faces joining an unproven core that remained from last year’s Big Sky Conference champions, this year’s Eastern Washington men’s basketball team entered Reese Court on Wednesday night as something of an unknown group to the 1,492 in attendance.

On this night in Cheney at least, they showed their quality.

Four Eagles players scored in double digits, led by senior transfer Andrew Cook with 25, as the Eagles held off the Seattle University Redhawks 93-86 for Eastern’s first win under head coach Dan Monson.

“To see them excited after all the work they’ve done the last few months,” Monson said following a postgame celebratory water drenching in the Eagles locker room, “it was a great day.”

Following the departure of coach David Riley during the offseason, six players returned from Eastern’s roster as nearly that many followed Riley to Washington State.

Three of them – sophomores Mason Williams, Vice Zanki and Sebastian Hartmann – played off the bench a year ago. But the other three – redshirt junior Nic McClain, who was injured, and redshirt freshmen Emmett Marquardt and Jackson Seale – contributed almost entirely in practice, not games.

Against the Redhawks, Williams, Hartmann, McClain and Marquardt started and combined to score 53 points. Williams (18), Hartmann (16) and Marquardt (14) set career highs in scoring.

“I expected just what we displayed tonight,” Williams said. “We’ve got a bunch of ballers, a bunch of guys who are hungry.”

Hartmann made 7 of 9 shots from the field, Williams 5 of 9 and Marquardt 5 of 8 to lead an efficient shooting night for the Eagles, who made 57.6% from the field and assisted on 23 of 34 made field goals.

“I think we have an unselfish team,” Monson said. “The best shot is the right shot, and they really made a lot of extra passes today.”

That was apparent early. Eastern (1-1) started the game with a 14-2 lead, its largest of the night.

But Seattle kept it mostly within single digits from there. It got back within 26-25 on a 3-pointer from former Idaho State guard Maleek Arington and took a two-point lead on the next possession on Vasja Pandza’s 3-pointer.

Following a timeout, Cook scored on a transition basket to tie it at 28 and hit a jumper to reclaim the lead for Eastern, which never trailed again.

Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, a senior transfer from Georgia, led Seattle with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and a 6-for-10 night at the line.

Seattle made 12 of 22 3-pointers and 47.5% of its shots from the field. Eastern led 30-28 in rebounds and had eight steals, including three apiece by Cook and McClain.

In a 76-56 loss at Colorado on Monday, Eastern allowed the Buffaloes to make 45.8% of their shots and was outrebounded 45-28.

“We had 40 good minutes offensively, and we only had about 15 on defense,” Monson said. “We’ve got to get more consistent defensively. We’ve started both games really dictating the other team’s offense and then ending the game with them being aggressive and getting the shot they wanted. We’ve got to continue grinding on the defensive end.”

Cook, who started 60 of 81 games over the past three seasons at NAIA Carroll College, made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 49 seconds to help clinch the victory

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