Eastern Washington lets lead slip in frustrating 67-62 loss to Northern Colorado

The result – another loss, Eastern Washington’s fourth straight – wasn’t what Dan Monson wanted to see.
But from the EWU men’s basketball coach’s perspective, the tone of Saturday’s defeat was easier to take.
“We’ve been losing games, and it’s frustrating to do that,” Monson said. “Today, we didn’t lose the game. We got beat. We just didn’t play as well as they did.”
Powered by Isaiah Hawthorne’s career-high 32 points, the first-place Northern Colorado Bears overcame a persistent second-half deficit to beat the Eagles 67-62 at Reese Court in Cheney.
Hawthorne didn’t play in the Bears’ one-point loss at Idaho on Thursday, but he roared back against the Eagles, making 10 of 16 shots and 8 of 10 free throws while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. At one point in the second half, he scored 11 straight points for the Bears (15-6, 7-1), who sit atop the Big Sky standings one week from the conference schedule’s midpoint.
“We were trying to account for him,” EWU senior Sam Stockton said of Hawthorne, who transferred from San Francisco. “He was able to get some really impressive buckets.”
Stockton made his first start and played a season-high 25 minutes for the Eagles (6-15, 2-6). He finished with a team-high five assists and two steals without committing a turnover. Six of his teammates outscored him, but Stockton said he recognizes that’s not his part to play.
“My role on this team isn’t taking the shots,” Stockton said, “but I think I can still get to the spots where they have to respect it and still be aggressive to find a cutter. I’m obviously passing a lot.”
Junior Tyler Powell also stepped into the starting lineup – for the first time this season, senior Andrew Cook came off the bench, as did sophomore Mason Williams – and it seemed to help the Eagles find a better rhythm than they had in Thursday’s 70-61 loss to Northern Arizona.
Against the Bears, the Eagles took a 15-6 lead, still held a 29-27 advantage at halftime and never trailed by more than five. They held the Bears, the conference’s top-scoring and top-shooting team, to their second-lowest point total and fourth-worst shooting percentage (40.7) of the season.
“I just think they deserved to (start),” Monson said of Powell and Stockton. “Sam’s been in the positive (point differential) in the last three or four games when he’s in the game, and I wanted to reward him for that. Everybody needs to be rewarded when they are playing well.”
Powell picked up a couple of fouls in the first half and played less than 10 minutes, but Monson said he gave the team some energy.
Sophomore Vice Zanki also played nearly 23 minutes – his most in 11 games – and finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, including 2 of 3 3s.
“I thought Vice did a really good job to come in and spark us,” Monson said.
Leading by as many as seven in the second half, Eastern took a 61-59 lead when redshirt junior Nic McClain drove for a basket with 1:13 to go.
But that was the last field goal the Eagles made. On their next two possessions, they turned the ball over. The Bears, meanwhile, scored on each of their next two chances with drives to the basket by Langston Reynolds (17 points) and Jaron Rillie (seven).
Rillie made 1 of 2 free throws with 11.3 seconds left to give the Bears a 64-61 lead, and UNC chose to foul McClain on the next possession rather than allowing the Eagles to attempt a game-tying 3.
It worked. McClain missed the first free throw – he shouted out “short” while it was still in the air – and again missed on a later visit to the line after the Bears doubled down on the strategy.
“We’ve been in late-game situations a couple times now and haven’t been able to quite figure it out,” said Stockton, who sat on the bench late with four fouls. “But something that I like is that we fought all the way … we kept ourselves in that game.
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Women
Northern Colorado 66, Eastern Washington 57: The Eagles (6-14, 2-6 Big Sky) trailed all but four minutes in Greeley, Colorado, and lost for the fourth game in a row, remaining winless on the road.
The loss dropped the reigning Big Sky champions to ninth place. The Bears (9-10, 2-6) got points from 11 players, led by Ella Van Wheelden, who scored 12.
EWU freshman Kourtney Grossman totaled 17 points and 17 rebounds to record her fifth straight double-double . She leads the Big Sky in rebounds per game (10)
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