Eagles grab big win for the seniors

EWU men’s basketball had to win both games during the weekend to have a shot at qualifying for the BSC Tournament, but they lost Friday to the league leading Weber State Wildcats. They defeated the Idaho State Bengals on Saturday for a final farewell to five seniors.

WSU jumped on the Eagles in the first half with a 20-5 run. Damian Lillard, who is considered the only candidate for BSC Player of The Year, led four Wildcats in double figures with 18 points. The loss eliminated the Eagles from the BSC Tournament; they have not made it to the tournament the past three seasons.

“I thought we would be ready to battle them tonight, but we weren’t,” said EWU Head Coach Kirk Earlywine.

WSU clinched the No. 1 seed in the BSC Tournament as well as home games in the latter rounds. WSU has won the BSC regular season title two years running.

“Without any question, they have talented basketball players at every position,” said Earlywine. “They play very hard and are well coached. There is a reason they are back-to-back [regular season] champions in our league.”

Glen Dean gave the Eagles a great performance with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists. Jeffrey Forbes added 10 points while the rest of the team didn’t surpass five.

The Eagles committed 14 turnovers in the first half of the game and trailed 24-51. In the second half, they only gave the ball up four times. WSU out-rebounded EWU 45-31 in the contest.

“We’re not at the point where we can overcome [14 first half turnovers],” Earlywine said.
WSU’s Kyle Bullinger and Nick Hansen had 13 and nine points respectively.  They both had three 3-pointers on the night.

Saturday night was senior night as Brandon Moore, Mark Dunn, Benny Valentine, Gary Gibson and Matt Brunell took the court for the last time as Eagles. With a lineup of all five seniors for the majority of the second half, EWU held off ISU to win 79-71.

“We’ve had a number of occasions where we’ve had leads in the second half that we let get away,” said Earlywine. “The seniors did a good job [holding onto] that lead.”

Gibson and Dunn led EWU with 14 points apiece. Gibson shot 6-of-9 from the field and dished out five assists. Moore led EWU in rebounds, pulling down 12. He also scored eight points. Brunell and Valentine finished with nine and eight points respectively.

The game was tied late in the first half before EWU went on an 18-7 run, closing out the half with a 42-32 lead. The Bengals brought the lead down to five in the second half, but the seniors held them in check.

“We let them cut into the lead, but we regained our poise,” said Earlywine. “A month or two ago we might have let that slip away, but we rebounded tonight and got [the lead] back up to double digits.”

ISU’s Demetrius Monroe led all scorers with 20 points, shooting 10-of-13 from the field. He also pulled down five rebounds.

With the win and loss, EWU finished the season with an overall 9-21 record and a 5-11 record in the BSC. Their record was good enough for a seventh-place finish, one place beyond postseason contention.