Bobcat men push winning streak to six with nailbiter over Eastern Washington

THE MATCHUP

In a rematch of last season’s Big Sky Conference title game, the Eastern Washington men traveled to Montana State on Thursday. The Eagles lost almost all of their title-winning roster after the season when head coach Shantay Legans moved to Portland, but sat a surprising 5-3 going into the game. Montana State came in on a five-game winning streak, one game ahead of EWU at 6-2 in the Big Sky.

THE RESULT

Montana State led for the final 10 minutes of the game, but never by more than seven points in a tense 69-65 win. Eastern Washington cut the lead to three points multiple times in the final five minutes, including once with just over two minutes to go, but the Bobcats followed with three straight stops and survived some shaky free-throw shooting to close the game out.

Eastern Washington took a 10-1 lead to start the game, but Montana State responded with a 19-0 run that included nine points from Jubrile Belo. The Bobcats led by as many as 11 points in the first half but went into halftime ahead by just one after EWU made three 3-pointers in the final two minutes, 38 seconds of the half.

Montana State shot 32.7% from the field and turned the ball over 15 times, but the Bobcats pulled away from the charity stripe, making 23 of 30 free throws to EWU’s five makes on just nine attempts.

THE STANDOUTS

Belo, a junior forward, was one of three Bobcats to tie for the team lead with 15 points. He added 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season and third in his last four games, helping MSU out-rebound the visitors 53 to 30.

Senior guard Xavier Bishop and sophomore guard RaeQuan Battle also poured in 15 points apiece for the Bobcats.

All of Bishop’s points came in the second half. He made back-to-back 3s midway through the second half to give Montana State the lead for good, and finished the game 4 of 8 from behind the arc.

Battle came off the bench to score five points in the Bobcats’ big first-half run. The Washington transfer finished just one point off his season-high, and has now been in double figures for three straight games.

Redshirt senior forward Linton Acliese III led Eastern Washington with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

QUOTABLE

“I challenged the guys at halftime because I wasn’t happy with our first half effort. Our defensive breakdowns, how sloppy we were with the basketball, I hold our leaders accountable for that. They corrected it.” – Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle

“I thought we got stops when we needed to. We pounded the paint with the drive, got to the free throw line which helped us, even though we missed a few down the stretch. We were aggressive, even when we missed shots, we just kept going after it.” – Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle

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WHAT’S NEXT

Montana State (15-5, 7-2 Big Sky Conference) plays Big Sky doormat Idaho on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Bozeman.

Eastern Washington (11-9, 5-4) plays at Montana on Saturday.