With a pair of upstart coaches and the most defined respective identities in the Big Sky Conference in men’s and women’s basketball, Eastern Washington is the center of the Big Sky hoops universe at the current moment.
And on Thursday, the Eagles came one step closer to a clean sweep of this year’s Big Sky basketball banners.
In Cheney, Washington, EWU’s men’s basketball team rallied from a halftime deficit to run away with an 89-79 win over Montana. Eastern’s seventh win in the last 10 matchups with the Grizzlies game the Eagles the outright Big Sky Conference title for the second year in a row. Over the last two seasons under the guidance of 3rd-year head coach David Riley, the Eags are 29-5 in Big Sky play, including 13-3 this season.
Casey Jones lived at the free throw line, knocking down 13 freebies in 14 attempts on his way to 30 points to fortify his All-Big Sky campaign. And Cedric Coward poured in 25 points to boost his Big Sky MVP resume as the Eagles moved to 19-10 overall.
“It feels great, it feels great. There’s no other feeling that can explain this,” Coward said. “The first half, we didn’t play great defense, especially me in particular…but energy is big with what I do and that’s what I’m bred on, that’s what our team is bred on, so once we get energy plays, we get momentum for ourselves and we pull away.”
EWU is the first Big Sky team to win back-to-back crowns since Montana in 2017-18 and the following season. It’s now happened 10 times in the 60-year history of the league.
“It’s special to see these guys,” Riley said. “We are underdogs and we have been talking about it all year. These guys are underdogs before they came to Eastern. They’ve had to fight and claw to get everything they’ve earned and for them to be cutting down the nets right now, it’s really special.”
Before his team’s practice on Wednesday in Missoula, UM head coach Travis DeCuire said EWU was the toughest matchup in the league because of the Eagles’ size and their ability to post up all five players on the court at any time.
That proved to be prophetic and damning as Eastern bulldozed its way to a 40-12 advantage in points in the paint.
That off-set a wicked shooting night by Montana sharpshooter Aanen Moody. The seventh-year senior hit his first four 3-pointers and poured in 35 points overall. He nailed 8 of his 11 attempts from beyond the arc in marking his high point total during conference play this season.
Montana fell to 19-10 overall and 10-6 in Big Sky play. The Griz are still in a three-way tie for second place with Weber State and Northern Colorado. The Wildcats beat the Bears 85-81 in overtime on Thursday night behind 30 points, 23 rebounds and nine assists from Dillon Jones.
Montana had a halftime lead and tied the game up at 60-all late in the second half, but the Eagles rallied late with a zone defense that stifled the Grizzly offense. The Grizzlies went 8-of-16 from the arc in the second half, but made just 3-of-13 from two-point range.
“The ball was moving and we were attacking. We had them spread out and we were spacing the floor, but we were really just trading baskets,” DeCuire said of the first half. “They made a run and got us down and we got back int the biggest thing is we were able to space them out. We had some possessions like that in the second half, but they were few and far between because we didn’t have a traditional lineup in very long.”
Montana plays at Idaho on Saturday with the No. 2 seed in its sights but at least a top four finish guaranteed. The Griz could lose at Idaho and to Idaho State on Monday in Missoula and still secure the No. 4 seed.
“Flush it. We’ve got two more games to win,” DeCuire said of his message to his team. “If we win those two, we’re back on a winning streak going into the conference tournament and whatever happens, happens from there.”
For the Eagles, they are the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Tournament for the third time in five seasons. But EWU is in search of its third NCAA Tournament berth ever. Last season, after starting 16-0 in league, EWU lost its final two regular-season games, then lost on a buzzer-beater to No. 9 seeded Northern Arizona to make an early exit.
That team lost league MVP Steele Venters to the transfer portal (Gonzaga), first-team all-league guard Angelo Allegri to graduation yet still is back atop the league standings and in the driver’s seat entering the league tournament.
“We knew we had to step up, become better players, not only as individual skills but as leaders and teammates,” Coward said. “We won the championship. we were picked third. We were the underdogs. What we call ourselves, we are a get it out the mud program and nobody can explain this.
“But we have a lot more work to do.”
In Missoula, the Eastern Washington women are now one step closer to the first outright title by the program since 2010 and the second in school history. Jacinta Buckley, who’d missed a few games earlier this month, swished a go-ahead 3-pointer with 20 seconds to play to give EWU a one-point lead in front of a hostile Dahlberg Arena crowd. Eight seconds later, Buckley stripped Gina Marxen, one of three turnovers by the Lady Griz senior point guard and one of 18 turnovers by Montana on Thursday night.
Aaliyah Alexander, an almost certain first-team All-Big Sky selection, missed both free throws with 3.6 seconds left, leaving the door open for one more Lady Griz chance. But Carmen Gfeller’s last-gasp attempt at the buzzer fell well short and EWU escaped with a 56-55 win to earn the season sweep over Montana.
“This was first game’s back and she is made for these occasions,” EWU head coach Jodie Gleason said following her team’s program-record 24th win. “She’s a great shooter, she’s really long and she can really guard. She was huge and our team executed really well down the stretch.
Buckley, who hails from just up the road from Cheney in Spokane but started her career at UNLV, had just two points before her go-ahead triple. But her nine rebounds proved big, as did her final strip of Marxen that cost the Lady Griz another possession on a night filled with frustration for the hosts and most of the crowd of 3,495 on hand at Dahlberg Arena.
“It’s going to take her a minute to get her legs back, but Buck just does so much for us that people don’t really recognize,” Gleason said. “Statistically if you just look at the line, she’s so versatile, she can guard everybody, she rebounds like crazy and she can really shoot it.”
EWU is now 14-2 in conference play, a game ahead of Northern Arizona for first place in the Big Sky standings with two regular season games left to play. The Eagles have gotten it done with a deep lineup led by senior point guard Jamie Loera, one of the leading candidates for Big Sky MVP, along with Alexander, Buckley and several more key contributors.
Eastern has particularly dominated opponents with a mental toughness that shows through most often when the Eagles are smothering teams defensively. Eastern entered the game giving up 55 points per game, tops in the Big Sky, and they held a Lady Griz team that has scored more than 79 on eight different occasions in league play to 55 just a few weeks after holding Montana to 56 in Cheney in a five-point win.
“Toughness is important to all of them,” said Gleason after moving to 2-1 against Montana in Missoula and 4-2 overall against UM head coach Brian Holsinger, who like Gleason is in his third season. “They really love to defend. It’s not something a lot of people want to do. But they really love our scout, they love our plan and they really work hard to execute it.”
The Eagles led for less than two minutes of game time but crucial plays down the stretch to come back from a six-point deficit in the final few minutes, outscoring the Lady Griz 9-2 over the last 3:36.
“We didn’t execute down the stretch. As well as we executed down the stretch (last Thursday at Sacramento State), we didn’t execute tonight. It’s a close game, it’s a battle, and they made more plays than us down the stretch,” said Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger.
With Montana up 53-47, the Lady Griz got an open look at a corner 3-pointer with less than four minutes left that would have put them up nine and may have sent them on their way to a big home victory.
It missed and the Big Sky Conference-leading Eagles responded with six straight points to tie the game at 53-53 with 1:34 to go.
Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, who led the Lady Griz with 15 points, scored Montana’s final points on a drive to the basket with 1:12 left to make it 55-53.
Montana forced a miss on the other end but a turnover gave Eastern Washington the ball down two when Buckley swished her dagger.
Alexander’s missed free throws with 3.5 seconds left gave Montana the ball in front of its bench with 3.1 seconds to play. Gfeller got a good look on a pull-up jumper from the free throw line, but her shot at the buzzer was off.
“We wanted to put the ball in our senior’s hands. She actually got a pretty good look, just didn’t make it,” said Holsinger.
Northern Arizona rolled to an 89-74 win over Idaho State on Thursday to stay alive in the conference race. The Lumberjacks, who shared the Big Sky title with Montana State and Sac State last season, are now 13-3 in league play with two games to play. NAU hosts Weber State on Saturday before playing at Northern Colorado on Monday. EWU plays at Montana State on Saturday (Eastern lost 61-60 to MSU in Cheney earlier this month) before finishing its regular season at home Monday against Sacramento State.
“All these games, we just talked about the last two weeks, playing Northern Arizona at home (a 67-42 EWU win), playing UNC on Saturday (a 68-63 UNC win), we talk about it all the time, it’s championship Thursday, it’s championship Saturday,” Gleason said. “Every single game is huge and it just prepares us. Every game is important and it gets us prepared for the Big Sky Tournament, which we know is going to be challenging. But our players are stepping up and playing really good basketball right now.”
ELSEWHERE IN THE BIG SKY
BIG SKY MEN’S STANDINGS
| School | Conf | Pct | Conf Home | Conf Away | Overall | Pct | Home | Away | Neutral | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Washington | 13-3 | .812 | 7-1 | 6-2 | 19-10 | .655 | 10-1 | 9-9 | 0-0 | W2 |
| Montana | 10-6 | .625 | 6-2 | 4-4 | 19-10 | .655 | 12-3 | 7-7 | 0-0 | L1 |
| Weber State | 10-6 | .625 | 6-2 | 4-4 | 19-10 | .655 | 11-2 | 7-6 | 1-2 | W1 |
| Northern Colorado | 10-6 | .625 | 7-2 | 3-4 | 17-12 | .586 | 11-3 | 6-7 | 0-2 | L2 |
| Montana State | 8-8 | .500 | 5-3 | 3-5 | 13-16 | .448 | 9-7 | 4-9 | 0-0 | W1 |
| Portland State | 7-9 | .438 | 6-2 | 1-7 | 16-13 | .552 | 10-2 | 5-10 | 1-1 | L2 |
| Northern Arizona | 7-9 | .438 | 4-4 | 3-5 | 14-16 | .467 | 7-4 | 6-11 | 1-1 | W1 |
| Idaho State | 7-9 | .438 | 4-4 | 3-5 | 12-17 | .414 | 8-4 | 4-12 | 0-1 | L1 |
| Idaho | 5-11 | .312 | 2-6 | 3-5 | 11-18 | .379 | 6-9 | 4-9 | 1-0 | L1 |
| Sacramento State | 3-13 | .188 | 2-5 | 1-8 | 7-22 | .241 | 5-7 | 2-13 | 0-2 | W1 |
BIG SKY WOMEN’S STANDINGS
| SCHOOL | CONF | PCT | CONF HOME | CONF AWAY | OVERALL | PCT | HOME | AWAY | NEUTRAL | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Washington | 14-2 | .875 | 7-1 | 7-1 | 24-5 | .828 | 11-2 | 11-3 | 2-0 | W8 |
| Northern Arizona | 13-3 | .812 | 6-2 | 7-1 | 21-8 | .724 | 8-4 | 11-4 | 2-0 | W2 |
| Montana | 11-5 | .688 | 6-2 | 5-3 | 19-8 | .704 | 9-5 | 9-3 | 1-0 | L1 |
| Northern Colorado | 9-7 | .562 | 5-2 | 4-5 | 14-13 | .519 | 8-4 | 6-9 | 0-0 | W1 |
| Montana State | 9-7 | .562 | 6-2 | 3-5 | 15-14 | .517 | 10-3 | 4-10 | 1-1 | L1 |
| Idaho | 7-9 | .438 | 1-7 | 6-2 | 14-14 | .500 | 3-11 | 10-3 | 1-0 | W1 |
| Idaho State | 7-9 | .438 | 5-3 | 2-6 | 11-16 | .407 | 8-4 | 2-11 | 1-1 | L1 |
| Weber State | 4-12 | .250 | 2-6 | 2-6 | 7-22 | .241 | 4-7 | 3-14 | 0-1 | L5 |
| Sacramento State | 4-12 | .250 | 3-6 | 1-6 | 5-22 | .185 | 4-12 | 1-10 | 0-0 | L3 |
| Portland State | 2-14 | .125 | 2-6 | 0-8 | 7-21 | .250 | 5-9 | 2-12 | 0-0 | L1 |
