Eastern Washington thrives in paint, outlasts Northern Colorado 82-72 for seventh straight win
When asked Thursday night about what is behind the resurgence of Kiree Huie, his Eastern Washington teammate, Alton Hamilton IV said that Huie “is finding his second wind.”
Then EWU head coach Dan Monson interrupted.
“Is that to say he’s gotten in shape?” he said.
Maybe that good-natured ribbing wouldn’t have landed the same even a month ago with this Eagles men’s basketball team.
But on this night at Reese Court, where the Eagles won their seventh game in a row and ended Northern Colorado’s own seven-game winning streak with an 82-72 victory, it landed just fine.
“I think (Huie’s) had all the tools to do it the whole season,” Hamilton continued after the interruption. “Props to him for putting in the extra work to get to the point where he needs to be.”
The grad senior Huie led the Eagles with 23 points and 10 rebounds to record his second double-double of the season while also matching a season high with four blocks. Hamilton, a junior, finished with 21 points, five rebounds and three steals. They each played a season-high 34 minutes.
“They’ve been our offense’s driving forces all conference (play),” EWU redshirt senior guard Isaiah Moses said. “They are unstoppable in there.”
The duo combined to make 17 of 27 shots from the field, leading a dominant post effort for the Eagles, who improved to 12-17 overall and 10-6 in Big Sky play. They kept pace with Montana State (15-13, 10-6), which handed first-place Portland State (18-9, 12-4) an 84-69 loss on Thursday night in Bozeman.
That result kept a Big Sky regular-season championship in play for the Vikings, Eagles and Bobcats, who each have two games remaining.
“This was like a tournament-feel game,” Monson said. “And this is what the rest of them are going to feel like. We’ve got a lot of season left to play for.”
Moses, Eastern’s leading scorer this season, contributed 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and the trio of Moses, Huie and Hamilton combined for 62 points, more than they had in any game this year.
Everyone else on the team combined to go 6 for 12 from the field.
“These guys don’t care about that,” Monson said of that statistic. “I don’t think anybody on the team was worried that they didn’t have shots or they weren’t scoring. Everybody’s pretty locked in trying to win.
“If the rest of them were 6 for 12, they wouldn’t know it right now. They’re as happy as can be.”
The Eagles have yet to lose in February, and during this seven-game winning streak, they have defeated each of the five other teams in the Big Sky’s top six.
The Bears came in as the league’s hottest team, and both offenses chugged along in the first half, when they played to a 40-all tie.
But in the second half the Bears’ best scorers – seniors Brock Wisne and Quinn Denker – dealt with foul trouble, and the Eagles attacked them. That led to a 20-for-24 night at the free-throw line for the Eagles; the Bears made 9 of 13 from the line.
Wisne finished 5 of 12 from the field for 13 points. Denker made 8 of 16 shots for a team-high 19, and after making 62.1% of their shots in the first half, the Bears made 39.3% in the second half.
The Eagles, meanwhile, finished 56.6% from the field, doing nearly all of their damage at the free-throw line and from inside the arc; they were just 2 of 11 from 3-point range.
Eastern led most of the second half, with Northern Colorado’s last lead coming with just under five minutes left, when a Wisne free throw gave his team a 66-65 lead.
But a couple minutes later, Hamilton scooped in a 2 to give Eastern a 72-68 advantage, and then he made a quick steal and score to extend Eastern’s lead to six. The Bears never again got within a possession.
Eastern will host Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. Saturday, the first game of a men’s-women’s doubleheader.
The EWU men will close out the regular season on Monday at home against Idaho.
Women
UNC 70, EWU 65: It was a remarkably up-and-down performance for the Eagles (13-6, 6-10 Big Sky), who erased a couple of sizable deficits but faded down the stretch and fell the Bears (21-8, 12-4) at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colorado.
EWU trailed 24-6 at the end of the first quarter, but cut the Northern Colorado lead to 36-28 at half. UNC built its lead to 13 points at the end of the third period, but the Eagles surged ahead with a 16-0 run, taking a 63-59 lead with under three minutes remaining.
The Bears answered, closing the game on an 11-2 run to overcome the streaky Eagles.
EWU forward Kourtney Grossman posted 15 points and 12 rebounds. Guard Elyn Bowers tallied 16 points, and forward Jaecy Eggers had nine points and 10 boards.
The Eagles shot 39.7% from the field against 46.7% for the Bears, who were led by a spotless shooting night from forward Tatum West (20 points on 10-of-10 shooting).