Weber State beats buzzer to stun Eastern Washington 66-64

When Angelo Winkel swatted away Blaise Threatt’s running layup and the Reese Court buzzer sounded, it appeared as if Eastern Washington and Weber State were headed to overtime.

But Alex Tew had other designs.

The 6-foot-11 senior center set up in the middle of the lane, waited for Threatt’s inbound pass and rose up to meet it with his right hand, tipping the basketball into the hoop for the buzzer-beating shot in a 66-64 Weber State victory Thursday night.

“(A tip-in is) really all you can do there, and I thought Elijah Thomas did a great job on the ball and made it a hard pass,” EWU head coach Dan Monson said. “It was just a great play.”

With two games left in the men’s basketball regular season, Eastern Washington (10-19 overall) is 6-10 in Big Sky Conference play, just one game ahead of ninth-place Weber State (11-19, 5-11).

Monson said he saw some encouraging signs from an Eastern team playing without leading scorer Andrew Cook and starter Tyler Powell, who both sat with injuries. It was the Eagles’ third loss in a row, but it was a much more competitive showing after back-to-back double-digit losses on the road last week.

“It was a step back in the right direction,” Monson said, “but we’ve only got a week left to figure some of this out.”

Playing without the senior Cook, the Eagles committed their most turnovers (17) in their past 12 games, and they attempted and made fewer shots than they had all season (17 of 40).

But they found their way to the free-throw line for 25 attempts, making 22 , one shy of their season high of 23 set in their most recent victory on Feb. 15 against Idaho.

Sophomore Sebastian Hartmann made 7 of 9 at the line and 4 of 7 field goals to lead the Eagles with 16 points, his most in a Big Sky game this season.

“I was a little more aggressive, obviously,” said Hartmann, who matched a season high with eight rebounds, “but I am just trying to do what the team needs to try to help the team win.”

Weber State committed seven fewer turnovers (10) than Eastern , but it struggled to make shots, too, finishing 22 of 51 from the field (43.1%) and 6 of 20 from 3-point range.

After trailing the entire first half, it was when the Eagles came alive from long-distance that they finally took a lead: Hartmann’s 3-pointer from the corner with 6:45 to go put Eastern ahead 49-48.

Four minutes later, Eastern’s lead grew to 60-55 on a pair of Angelo Winkel free throws. But the Wildcats quickly tied it with a 3-pointer from Nemanja Sarenac and Tew’s inside basket.

Eastern’s final points came with 15.2 seconds left, when redshirt junior Nic McClain made two free throws – he was 10 for 10 at the line and 0 for 4 from the field – to tie the game at 64. But Eastern never got the ball back after that.

“I thought Nic had one of his better games in the last month,” Monson said of McClain, who had six assists, five turnovers and three steals while playing his most minutes (30) since Jan. 23. “I thought he made a lot of really good decisions.”

Tew, a 56% free-throw shooter this season, made 6 of 6 from the line and 5 of 6 field goals to match his career high with 16 points. Threatt, the conference’s second-highest scorer, made 4 of 12 shots and scored 14 points. He also had seven assists.

On Saturday, Eastern hosts Idaho State (14-13, 9-7), which beat Idaho 69-65 on Thursday to stay in third place in the Big Sky standings.

The Eagles’ final regular-season game comes on Monday at Montana, before the Big Sky Tournament begins on March 8 in Boise.

Women

Weber State 67, Eastern Washington 65: Alexis Pettis missed a game-tying jumper in the final seconds and the Wildcats (11-14, 9-7) kept the Eagles (10-18, 6-10) at bay in the Big Sky standings with a victory in Ogden, Utah.

The senior Pettis finished with a season-high 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field.

The Eagles trailed by nine at the half but used a 15-4 run to get ahead 43-41 in the third quarter. But Weber State retook the lead for good with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter on Kendra Parra’s 3-pointer. She led the Wildcats with 19 points.

Eastern lost its third game in a row and with two games left in the regular season is tied with Northern Colorado for seventh place.

Weber State won just four conference games last season.

EWU freshman Kourtney Grossman scored 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to record her 12th double-double this season.