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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Eastern Washington’s comeback bid falls short against Northern Arizona 92-86

From staff reports

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – After chipping away at a 20-point second-half deficit, the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team’s comeback attempt came up short Thursday in a 92-86 loss to Northern Arizona at Findlay Toyota Court.

Down 75-55 midway through the second half, Eastern trimmed that lead to four points on a layup by redshirt senior Jojo Anderson with 1 minute and 30 seconds left. But NAU scored the next five points to stall the Eagles’ comeback.

EWU redshirt senior Isaiah Moses finished with 30 points, matching his season high. He made 8 of 11 shots overall and a season-high 5 of 6 3-point attempts. Junior forward Alton Hamilton IV had 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Anderson finished with 13 points, four shy of his season high.

But the Eagles (5-16, 3-5 Big Sky) simply couldn’t slow the Lumberjacks (8-14, 2-7), who made 52% of their field goals and 12 of 20 3-point attempts. Junior Ryan Abelman led five double-digit scorers with 20 points for NAU.

The Lumberjacks also made 26 of 28 free-throw attempts, four better than the Eagles (22 of 28). Eastern finished with a 36-25 advantage in rebounding, its best margin over the last seven games. But NAU only turned over the ball five times; EWU had 12 turnovers.

NAU never trailed and led 52-35 at halftime. After holding five of its last six opponents to under 70 points, Eastern allowed NAU to score more points than any of the Eagles’ previous seven Big Sky opponents this season.

Eastern will play at Northern Colorado on Saturday, the second in a string of four consecutive road games .

Women

Eastern Washington 93, Northern Arizona 87: Eastern Washington’s four best players all had productive performances and the Eagles recorded their highest scoring output against a Division I opponent this season, outpacing Northern Arizona for a Big Sky win at Findlay Toyota Court.

Freshman guard Elyn Bowers poured in a career-high 26 points and backcourt teammate Ella Gallatin added 20 for EWU (11-10, 4-4 Big Sky), which kept its foot on the gas to preserve a lead throughout the second half of the shootout. Kourtney Grossman (19 points, 13 rebounds) logged her 14th double-double of the season, and fellow post Jaecy Eggers tallied 17 points and 11 boards.

The Eagles shot 47.8% from the field and 21 of 23 from the foul line, and outrebounded NAU 41-27. Forward Kayla Williams led NAU (7-15, 3-6) with 32 points.