Eastern Washington falls to Northern Colorado after missed 3-pointer at buzzer 74-71

GREELEY, Colo. – Alton Hamilton IV’s 3-point attempt in the corner came up short at the buzzer, and Northern Colorado defeated Eastern Washington 74-71 on Saturday at Bank of Colorado Arena.

Hamilton finished with a team-high 17 points and matched teammate Tyler Powell for a team-high with eight rebounds. Northern Colorado sophomore Ring Nyeri scored a season-high 23 points to lead the Bears, who won their second straight game after a five-game losing streak.

After trailing 32-31 at halftime, the Eagles reclaimed the lead multiple times in the second half. Their last lead came when redshirt senior Jojo Anderson made a free throw with 6 minutes, 25 seconds left for a 59-58 EWU advantage.

But over the next five minutes the Bears went on a 9-3 run, capped by a Nyeri 3-pointer with 1:13 left that put Northern Colorado ahead 67-62. A pair of free throws by Johnny Radford pulled the Eagles back within a point, 70-69, with 18 seconds left. But Eastern wasn’t ever able to tie or retake the lead.

It marked the second straight loss for the Eagles, who are 5-17 overall and 3-6 halfway through Big Sky play. The Bears improved to 13-10 overall and 3-7 in the Big Sky.

Eastern (27 of 58) outshot Northern Colorado (28 of 70) and also was much more efficient from 3-point range, from which the Eagles made 8 of 18 attempts and the Bears made 9 of 35.

But the Bears had just four turnovers, while the Eagles had 12.

Redshirt senior Isaiah Moses, the Big Sky’s third-leading scorer, finished with 10 points, his fewest in league play this season. Grad senior Quinn Denker, who ranks fourth in the Big Sky in scoring, had nine points for the Bears.

Eastern is on the road again next week, at Montana on Thursday and then at Montana State on Saturday, before it will play five of its final seven regular-season games in Cheney.

Women

Northern Colorado 71, Eastern Washington 62: EWU made a fourth-quarter push after trailing for most of the game, but the visitors from Northern Colorado used a late run to turn back the Eagles, winning at Reese Court.

EWU (11-11, 4-5 Big Sky) led for just 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Freshman guard Elyn Bowers sparked a rally in the fourth and the Eagles took a 57-54 lead after the Bears (16-7, 7-3) had controlled the advantage throughout. But UNC responded with a 7-0 run over three minutes late in the period to deny Eastern a significant win over the conference’s No. 3 team.

Bowers matched her career high with her second straight 26-point game. EWU guard Ella Gallatin added 13 and post Kourtney Grossman’s double-double streak was stopped at seven games. She had seven points and 11 rebounds.

Eastern shot 39.6% from the field, 5 of 16 on 3s and committed 17 turnovers. The Bears shot 42.6% overall and 4 of 15 from deep.