Winners of two of its last three, EWU faces big home test against first-place Portland State

When the Big Sky’s preseason men’s basketball polls were released in October, it was no great surprise to see Portland State sitting at No. 2.

The Vikings returned two double-digit scorers plus one of the league’s top rebounders while under a head coach entering his fifth season with the program.

“They’ve got returning guys that played significant minutes, and in the portal era, nothing is more important than retention,” Eastern Washington associate head coach Ryan Lundgren said Tuesday, two days before the Eagles host the Vikings at Reese Court in Cheney.

“If you can bring back impact players,” Lundgren said, “it’s probably the biggest indicator of success.”

Three weeks into the Big Sky schedule, that indicator has indeed held up. At 11-5 overall and 5-0 in Big Sky play, the Vikings are the league’s top team, notably ahead of preseason No. 1 Montana (10-9, 4-2).

PSU returning seniors Terri Miller Jr. (18.9 points per game) and Jaylin Henderson (18.4) are the league’s No. 2 and 3 scorers, respectively, and senior Tre-Vaughn Minott, another returner, is the Big Sky’s leading rebounder at 9.2 per game.

“They’re kind of a three-headed monster that way,” Lundgren said.

The Vikings are also getting 11.8 points per game from junior Keyon Kensie Jr., who scored 20 points in the team’s 63-52 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday.

It’s a formidable matchup for the Eagles (4-14, 2-3 Big Sky), who have picked up victories over Montana (66-65) and Idaho State (84-66) in their last three games, sandwiched around a 91-80 loss at Weber State.

History is on Eastern’s side: Since Jase Coburn became Portland State’s coach in 2021, the Eagles have won seven of eight matchups.

But the Eagles are playing undermanned: Already down Andrew Cook for the season, redshirt sophomore Emmett Marquardt missed the last two games with an injury. Lundgren said Marquardt would be back “sooner than later.”

Without Marquardt, the Eagles’ frontcourt duo of grad senior Kiree Huie and junior Alton Hamilton IV have picked up a few extra minutes, with redshirt sophomore forward Shaumba Ngoyi playing his first two conference games of the season. Ngoyi played 13 minutes across the games at Weber State and Idaho State, scoring two points and grabbing four rebounds.

Lundgren said the Eagles move the ball through their post players more than almost any other team in the country, so “having that third body to rotate really, really helps,” he said.

“I think Shaumba really stepped into some good minutes being that third rotational piece in Emmett’s absence,” Lundgren said.

The Eagles also benefited from strong efforts by redshirt senior Tyler Powell, who had a season-high 17 points against Weber State, and grad senior Johnny Radford, whose 12 points against Idaho State were his most since late November.

Eastern and Portland State will tip off at 6 p.m. Thursday. On Saturday, the Eagles will host Sacramento State (6-11, 2-3) at 2 p.m.

EWU women visit PSU, Sac. St.

The EWU women’s basketball team (9-9, 2-3) will try to gain ground in the Big Sky this week with road contests at Portland State (5-12, 1-4) on Thursday and at Sacramento State (9-9, 3-2) on Saturday.

Eastern Washington is the only Big Sky team that starts four players averaging double digits in scoring: senior Ella Gallatin (14.3 points per game), freshman Elyn Bowers (13.5), sophomore Kourtney Grossman (13) and sophomore Jaecy Eggers (11.9).

Sophomore Kyleigh Brown, Portland State’s leading scorer, is averaging 17.9 points per game, third-most in the Big Sky. She has scored at least 10 points in every game this season.