Eastern Washington comes up short again with 68-64 loss to Montana State

After their lead was wrested away with a swift 12-0 Montana State run, the Eastern Washington Eagles sprang back to life offensively to make what looked like a safe Bobcats victory a close one in the end.

The Eagles’ run was all Isaiah Moses, who scored nine consecutive points to bring the Reese Court crowd back to its fullest volume of the night, the Eagles suddenly trailing by just two points with 16 seconds remaining.

But at that point, all the earlier missed layups, missed 3-pointers – and many missed defensive assignments – were all the more glaring. And ultimately, Montana State made enough free throws late to defeat the Eagles 68-64 in a Big Sky men’s basketball game on Thursday in Cheney.

“If there’s a bright light in the middle of a loss its the fact that it was our best defensive half,” EWU head coach Dan Monson said of the first half when the Eagles allowed just 19 points. “But a half is just ridiculous. You’ve got to be able to compete for 40 minutes, and we just haven’t been able to do that this year.”

The Eagles led 23-19 at halftime, and during the next 13 minutes the two teams traded the lead on seemingly every basket. By game’s end there had been 16 lead changes.

But redshirt senior Patrick McMahon (20 points) and redshirt sophomore Christian King (a game-high 27) spearheaded the Bobcats’ offense, combining for 31 of their team’s 49 second-half points as they surged ahead of the Eagles with a 12-0 run.

What had been a 49-46 Eagles lead dissolved into a 58-49 Bobcats’ advantage with 3:42 remaining.

“I felt like defensively we were out of sync,” EWU grad senior Kiree Huie said of the Eagles’ play during that run. “We didn’t stick to what we were doing in the first half. We need to get back to that in the next game.”

Huie finished with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting, and he made 5-of-5 attempts at the free-throw line.

Moses, who made just 1 of 8 shots in the first half, scored 20 of his 24 points after halftime, including a pair of 3s sandwiched around a three-point play to cut Montana State’s lead to 64-62. He also made 10 of 10 free-throw attempts.

“Very few people in college basketball can score the basketball like (Moses) did at the end of the game,” Huie said.

But aside from those two, no other Eagles player scored in double digits – redshirt senior Jojo Anderson was next with seven points – and the Eagles finished 22 of 61 from the field, one made field goal more than their season low. Eastern, which has made the second-fewest 3s among the Big Sky’s 10 teams, made 4 of 18 3-point attempts against the Bobcats.

Montana State outrebounded Eastern 36-30, helping it compensate for 17 turnovers that led to 20 Eagles points.

The loss dropped Eastern to 2-13 overall and 0-2 in Big Sky play. Montana State improved to 9-7 and 3-0 in the league. It was the Bobcats’ fifth win in a row.

Eastern hosts Montana (9-7, 3-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reese Court.

Women

Montana State 72, Eastern Washington 70, OT: Jamison Philip made a basket with two seconds left in overtime to lift the Bobcats past the visiting Eagles in a Big Sky Conference game Thursday.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Eagles (7-8, 0-2), who saw a 47-38 lead at the end of the third quarter evaporate late.

Taylee Chirrick forced overtime for Montana State (10-4, 3-0) when she made a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left.

Ella Gallatin’s 3-point shot for EWU didn’t fall in the waning seconds of the fourth.

Gallatin led five Eagles in double-figure scoring with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists.