Scary night at Reese Court

Nervous and flustered.

That was the feeling of just about every Eagle fan in Reese Court who witnessed EWU take on Cascade on Dec. 1. It was a 78-66 victory, but it wasn't one of those wins that the men's basketball team would want to put on the refrigerator for mom to see.

NAIA Div-II Cascade got out to a 13-0 lead early in the first half before senior forward Marc Axton banged down a three to finally get the Eagles on the board.

In fact that's what Axton did all night. He finished the game with 36 points and was 7-for-11 from three point range.

The Thunderbird led for much of the first half, but thanks to Axton's three straight field goals from beyond the arc, EWU closed the deficit to 23-24. Junior Danny Pariseau hit a three to give the Eagles the lead with seven and half minutes left.

It seemed as if the EWU basketball team had the momentum then but the underdog wasn't just about to give up. Cascade came back in a big way and with two minutes left in the first half had a 38-31 lead.

Cascade was probably playing in front of the largest crowd of their playing careers as the Reese Rowdies certainly showed up for the game as the entire student section was nearly filled. It might even be the largest congregation they've ever experienced as the entire enrollment of the school was only 300.

Must not of bothered them that much as they went into halftime with a 38-33 lead.

That lead quickly dissipated when Sophomore Matt Nelson scored to give the Eagles the 41-40 lead with 17:02 left in the first half. Cascade did battle back with some impressive three point shooting.

It was a 50-46 Eagle disadvantage with 11 minutes to play and then the coaches for the Thunderbirds put on a very odd display. After almost interfering with the game by stepping out onto the court (nearly getting hit by the ball) earlier in the game, the coaches started yelling during a timeout and pointing in the direction of head coach Mike Burns, who was quietly sitting on the bench making no move to antagonize them.

Reese Rowdies certainly got on their case calling them unrepeatable names with a couple chants. Their support must of done some good as the momentum of the game slowly started to shift as Axton hit a free throw to go up on the Thunderbirds 51-50 and EWU would never lose the lead after that.

Cascade would hang around for some time, until the Eagles blew it wide open in the waning minutes of the game and improving their record to 2-2, while the Thunderbirds fell to 4-4.

Next up on EWU's schedule is the Washington Huskies in Seattle on Dec. 5 at 1 p.m.