Guard duo powers Cal Baptist to win at Eastern Washington 88-83

Eastern Washington made a point on Friday, as it has much of the men’s basketball season, to get the ball inside and force Cal Baptist to guard the Eagles’ bigs.

The Lancers had their share of trouble trying to slow down Eastern forwards Kiree Huie and Alton Hamilton IV, and their 18 points apiece kept the Eagles close.

But on the other end of the court, the Eagles simply had no answer for the Lancers’ duo of Dominique Daniels Jr. and Martel Williams, who powered Cal Baptist to an 88-83 victory at Reese Court in Cheney.

“They’re better than us.” EWU head coach Dan Monson said. “They’re picked to win their league. They’re a top-100 team for a reason. … (But) we didn’t lose today. We played hard. We’re getting better.”

Cal Baptist (8-3), picked to win the Western Athletic Conference, relied heavily on Daniels Jr. (34 points) and Williams (23 points), who each played the full 40 minutes while teammate Jordan Muller (seven assists) played all but 30 seconds. That was in part due to the Lancers’ foul trouble: Three of their players fouled out.

During the first half, the lead changed between the two teams nine times.

But ahead 47-41 at half, the Lancers steadily pulled away from the Eagles (2-8), stretching their lead to double digits for the first time six minutes into the second half, 61-50, and then maintaining a lead of at least eight points until the game’s final minute.

Redshirt senior Isaiah Moses led the Eagles with 23 points (on 8 of 15 shooting) and six assists. His 3-pointer with 11 seconds left made the score 86-80. But there was no miraculous comeback for the Eagles, even as the Lancers – who made their first 19 free throws but then just 4 of 9 attempts in the final two minutes – finally stumbled at the line.

Ultimately, the duo of Daniels and Williams was just too much.

“They’re two very confident guys that we allowed to get into a flow offensively,” Hamilton said. “It’s hard to guard guys like that one-on-one.”

For his part, Hamilton played one of his most effective games of the season. The junior transfer’s 18 points matched a season high, and he made 6 of 12 shots from the field while grabbing three rebounds and drawing seven fouls.

“Alton’s been huge for us because he’s a starter that is coming off the bench because it’s the best thing for us,” Monson said. “He can come in at the 4 or the 5, and he’s an unbelievable team guy. He’s so versatile. … Games like today are going to help him when we get to the Big Sky.”

Alongside Hamilton was Huie, the grad senior who grabbed a team-high six rebounds and also drew seven fouls.

But the Eagles were beaten inside in other ways, outscored in the paint, 44-34, and outrebounded, 37-24.

They also made 18 of 27 free-throw attempts and allowed the Lancers to make 53.6% of their shots, the third-highest shooting percentage by any of Eastern’s opponents this season.

Eastern has three more nonconference games before Big Sky play begins, including a matchup Wednesday at Spokane Arena against Washington State. Then EWU has road games at Utah and BYU.

“We signed up for a very difficult schedule, and we knew we were going to play in some tough games,” Hamilton said. “We’ve all made a promise to each other that we’re not going to give up and that when things get tough like they did today we’re not going to bow out.

“Even though we didn’t get the win today, it’s a testament to us that we’re going to keep clawing.”