Eastern Washington can’t overcome poor shooting in loss to Northern Arizona 70-61
As both men’s basketball teams approached their sidelines during the final media timeout on Thursday, an uncharacteristic quiet came over the crowd at Reese Court in Cheney.
Northern Arizona had opened up a 10-point lead, parrying each of Eastern Washington’s comeback attempts, and a program that lost just three times at home in the previous two seasons was headed for its third in the building this season.
Even after the game – a 70-61 victory for the Lumberjacks, their first in Cheney since 2010 – the Eagles jogged along the student section as usual. But without a victory to cheer – and with fewer in attendance (1,249) than in any of Eastern’s previous seven home games this season – the energy just wasn’t there.
And it was no wonder, because on this night, at least in the second half, the Eagles just didn’t have it.
“I just didn’t feel like we came out the second half ready to fight like we did the first half,” EWU head coach Dan Monson said. “We battled and fought to get a three-point lead, and it took us 20 minutes to get that three-point lead, and it took them two minutes to go on an 8-0 run. We were playing from behind the rest of the way.”
It was the third straight loss for Eastern, dropping the Eagles to 6-14 overall and 2-5 in Big Sky play with conference leader Northern Colorado coming to Reese Court on Saturday.
The Lumberjacks, meanwhile, improved to 3-4 in the Big Sky and 12-8 overall, climbing into sixth place in the conference standings.
Northern Arizona has relied heavily on its leading duo of redshirt junior Carson Towt, the Big Sky’s rebounding leader, and senior Trent McLaughlin, who has scored more points than anyone else in the conference. One way the Eagles set out to slow them was by starting forward Pavlo Dziuba, the grad transfer who played more minutes Thursday (13) than he had in any previous game.
Monson said he chose to start Dziuba in place of guard Mason Williams to help keep Emmett Marquardt out of foul trouble and to help handle Towt inside.
Sure enough, in the first half Towt had two rebounds, McLaughlin had four points, Marquardt had just one foul, and the Eagles were ahead 33-30.
“The start of the game was fine,” Monson said of the choice to start Dziuba.
“At the start of the second half, it didn’t work.”
That was when Northern Arizona continued an 18-4 run it had begun just before halftime, giving the Lumberjacks a 44-37 lead.
In the end that run was enough to rev up NAU’s leaders: McLaughlin finished with 20 points, two shy of his season average, and Towt grabbed 10 rebounds, part of a 40-26 advantage the Lumberjacks had on the glass. It was the Eagles’ worst rebounding margin of conference play and the third worst of the season overall.
“We just missed having that aggressive mindset,” redshirt junior guard Nic McClain said of NAU’s 15 offensive rebounds. “We did that really well in the first half.”
After trailing by as many as 12, Eastern closed the gap to four points when the sophomore Williams drained a corner 3-pointer with 45.7 seconds left. But the Eagles never got closer.
Eastern entered the game leading the Big Sky in free-throw percentage (77.4%) but went 9 of 17 against NAU, its worst performance of the season. The Eagles shot 42.6% from the field and made 6 of 22 3s.
Williams led them with 18 points, while sophomore Sebastian Hartmann added 11 points, senior Andrew Cook another 10.
On Saturday, the Eagles will host Northern Colorado (14-6, 6-1), which lost on a buzzer-beater to Idaho (9-11, 4-3) on Thursday.
“We have a lot of experience with trying to bounce back,” Monson said. “I think we’re going to bounce back, but we’ve got to play better. Northern Colorado’s a better team than these guys.”
Women
Northern Arizona 75, Eastern Washington 63: Powered by Taylor Feldman and Sophie Glancey – the top two scorers in the Big Sky – the Lumberjacks (15-5, 6-1) handed the Eagles (6-13, 2-5) their third straight loss in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Feldman scored 18 points while making 14 of 16 free throws, and Glancey made 8 of 18 shots from the floor to lead NAU.
The Eagles led 40-39, but EWU shot 22.6% (7 of 31) after halftime as the Lumberjacks took and then stretched their lead to as many as 15 points.
Jaecy Eggers led Eastern with 16 points.
Peyton Howard added 15 points, and Kourtney Grossman recorded her fourth consecutive double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.