Balanced scoring leads Eastern Washington to win against Kansas City 90-66
Following Eastern Washington’s decisive 90-66 victory over the visiting Kansas City Kangaroos, Eagles head coach Dan Monson admitted that when he woke up Saturday morning, he was preparing for the worst.
“As a coach, you have to be prepared for everything,” Monson said, and to the veteran coach, the thought of not winning this game and then having to pick up the pieces was unpalatable to say the least.
But after losing on the road to all of the previous seven Division I opponents it had faced so far this season, the Eagles men’s basketball team dominated the visiting Roos in the friendly confines of Reese Court in Cheney.
“It’s nice to have a little bit of a backing, have some people who want you to win, instead of yelling at you,” redshirt senior Jojo Anderson said.
Anderson was one of five Eagles players to score in double digits. He had 17, making 5 of 8 shots overall and 4 of 6 3-pointers.
“My teammates did a great job finding me,” he said. “And it’s easy to be a shooter when you’re wide open.”
Eastern (2-7 overall) shot 47% overall, a point under its season average of 48.1%. But it held Kansas City (1-8 overall) to 46.3%, a better defensive effort than the Eagles have had in most of their games so far.
Ahead 24-19 about 12 minutes into the game, the Eagles rode a 14-0 run to a 38-19 advantage that never again shrunk smaller than 15 points.
“For me personally, I felt it meant the world to win in front of our home fans and to get our first win,” graduate senior Kiree Huie said, “and for it not to just be a win but a statement in a way and a turning point for our team.”
Huie had a game-high 19 points, making 7 of 12 shots and grabbed four rebounds. Fellow post player Emmett Marquardt had 13 points and five rebounds, and redshirt senior guard Isaiah Moses was his usual self, scoring 14 points to go with three assists.
Moses, a transfer from UC Riverside, ranks third in the Big Sky in scoring at 18.6 points per game.
The home game was only its second so far for the Eagles, who defeated NAIA Eastern Oregon 91-73 on Nov. 17. Their losses have come across three time zones, including a 6-point loss at UCLA, a 5-point overtime loss at Colorado, another overtime loss (79-71) at North Texas and, most recently, a 93-89 loss at North Dakota on Wednesday.
“We were just having trouble sustaining things,” Monson said. “That’s been our problem the last couple games. We’ve been up four with like 4 minutes to go in the last couple games, and sustaining what we’re doing (has been) difficult for the full duration of the second half.”
But the Eagles had no such issues against Kansas City. Because of that, they were able to more evenly distribute minutes – Moses’ 28 led the team – and to close out a game with relatively little stress.
Those contests have also helped the team get better, Monson said, even in defeat. He pointed particularly to the rebounding margin, which, after losing the first four games of the season, the Eagles have won the last five.
“Your rebounding doesn’t get better by you telling them it’s not good enough. Your rebounding gets better by getting smacked by (five) rebounds at UCLA,” Monson said. “We’ve gotten so much better rebounding the ball this month because of our schedule.”
Eastern’s next game is Friday at home against Cal Baptist (7-3), followed by a matchup against Washington State (3-6) on Dec. 17 at Spokane Arena.
It will close out its nonconference schedule after that with games at Utah (7-3) on Dec. 20 and at BYU (7-1) on Dec. 22.
Women
Eastern Washington 67, South Dakota 63: The Eagles came back from a five-point, fourth-quarter deficit to pick up a second victory in this week’s Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
Sophomore Kourtney Grossman recorded a second straight double-double with 17 rebounds and 13 points while sophomore Jaecy Eggers put up 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The Eagles shot just 32.7% overall but held the Coyotes to 27% from the field. Eastern won despite making 19 of 32 free throws; the Eagles are the worst free-throw shooting team in the Big Sky so far this season (66.7%).