No. 10 BYU asserts itself in second half to beat Eastern Washington 109-81

PROVO, Utah – Facing the 10th-ranked men’s college basketball team in the country, Eastern Washington lost its final nonconference game of the regular season, 109-81 on Monday at the Marriott Center.

The loss dropped the Eagles’ record to 2-11. BYU improved to 12-1.

For the second straight game, EWU grad senior Kiree Huie scored 17 points, two shy of his season high. He made 8 of 11 shots. Eagles leading scorer Isaiah Moses had 10 points; the redshirt senior has scored in double digits in all but one game this season.

In the first half against the Cougars, the Eagles took an early 18-14 lead and trailed by just five points at half. But during the first 3 minutes of the second half, BYU went on a 14-4 run to push its advantage to double digits. Eastern never again got closer than 10.

Forward AJ Dybantsa led the Cougars with 33 points, making 11 of 13 shots overall and 9 of 11 free throws. BYU made 54% of its shots from the field (38 of 71), while EWU sank 31 of 67 (46%).

BYU outrebounded EWU, 42-31, and scored 26 points off of Eastern’s 14 turnovers; the Eagles got no points directly off of the Cougars’ nine turnovers.

Also scoring in double digits for the Eagles were Alton Hamilton IV (13 points), Jojo Anderson (13) and Johnny Radford (11 off the bench).

The Eagles’ next game is Jan. 3 at Idaho (8-4), their first of 18 Big Sky games this regular season.