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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Eastern Washington men can’t slow Northern Colorado in 95-76 loss; women surrender 15-0 run in loss to visiting Bears 50-46

Eastern Washington guard Alexis Pettis dribbles by Northern Colorado defender Silvia Nativi during a Big Sky Conference game on Thursday in Cheney. (Courtesy of EWU Athletics)

From staff reports

With a chance to get back to .500 in Big Sky Conference play, the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team suffered its worst conference setback of the season, losing to Northern Colorado 95-76 on Thursday at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colorado.

The Bears shot a season-high 66.7% from the field and never trailed the Eagles, who lost for the first time in February.

Eastern fell to 10-17 overall and 6-8 in conference play with four more regular-season games to go until the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

“They are the best offensive team in the league, and today we were the worst defensive team, and that spells a tough day,” EWU head coach Dan Monson said in a postgame radio interview. “We just could never get a grip on them on the offensive end.”

Senior Andrew Cook scored 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field to lead the Eagles. Sophomores Mason Williams and Sebastian Hartmann added 13 points apiece.

The Eagles were outrebounded 32-22 by the Bears (20-8, 12-3 Big Sky), who led by 14 at halftime and by at least 10 points after that.

Northern Colorado made 10 of 18 3-point shots, led by a 4-of-6 night from Jaron Rillie, who finished with a game-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He was one of five Bears to score in double figures.

Isaiah Hawthorne made 4 of 7 shots from the field and 9 of 11 free throws to score 18 points for the Bears, who scored more points against the Eagles than any other Big Sky team had this year.

“We have a small margin of error, and these last four or five games we’ve done a really good job of maximizing what we do and staying in the moment,” Monson said. “But today we got out of it.”

Eastern, which fell to seventh place in the Big Sky standings, plays again Saturday at eighth-place Northern Arizona (15-13, 6-9), which lost to Idaho 83-78 on Thursday.

Women

Northern Colorado 50, Eastern Washington 46: The Bears (13-13, 6-9 Big Sky) ended the game on a 15-0 run as the Eagles (10-16, 6-8) went scoreless in the final 6:29 at Reese Court in Cheney.

The result also ended Eastern’s three-game winning streak.

EWU’s Peyton Howard, who scored a game-high 13 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the field, missed a running layup in the final seconds that could have tied the game at 48.

EWU freshman Kourtney Grossman, the Big Sky leader in rebounds, grabbed 16 against the Bears.

EWU hosts Northern Arizona (22-6, 13-2 Big Sky) at 2 p.m. Saturday.