The short ride of eagles is not enough to defeat cougars
The East Washington men’s basketball played at their second home Monday night (Nov. 21) as they faced Washington State at Spokane Arena. The Cougars had their shooters rolling and defeated Eastern 82-56. The Eagles are now 1-4 on the season and Washington St. improves to 2-2.
Steele Venters was back to form, scoring 20 points and shooting 5 of 7 (71.4%) of three and 7 of 15 (46.7%) overall. Ethan Price added 11 points on five rebounds with a block.
“I think Washington State did some good things defensively. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country, although the numbers might not reflect that,” the head coach said David Riley said. “At the same time, we missed bad shots in the first couple of games in Hawaii. Today we got good shots. They have a lot of length that could have bothered our boys. Their defense played well. But we looked good, and we played as “Team took a step forward. We need to learn and get better. We figured out a piece to reduce our turnovers. Every year that I’ve been an Eastern our plan for success is to take a step in every game and in February.” and March we play our best basketball.”
After Washington St. opened with a 6-0 run, Venters dumped a three for Eastern’s first points of the game. Tyreese Davis would then tie the game at seven after getting his own rebound. The Cougars then took a three-pointer lead 14-9 to create an early breakup. The lead turned into a 12-0 run from Washington St. within three minutes. Ethan Price finished the run with a three and Eastern was 12-23 at 10:28 on the clock. The Cougars continued to maintain a double-digit lead in the first half, leading by as much as 19. They were 36-17 against the Eagles with 1:35 left at halftime. When time was up halfway through, Eastern was down 21-36. The Eagles ended the half with four free throws Cedric Feigling and Casey Jones. Eastern was 6-of-29 (20.7%) from the floor in the first half and went 2-of-15 (13.3%) from three-point range.
Deon Stroud opened the second half with a dunk and Price went to work in the suit to convert a layup. The Cougars would connect with two-even-three-pointers to cut off any momentum Eastern was trying to build. Washington St. would increase the lead to 49-29, which would be the team’s greatest lead of the game at 2:40 at the time. The Eagles would come back into play with a basket from Dale Erikstrup’s second chance. Venters then hit a deep three and Eastern cut the lead to 49-34. The pace of the game picked up and both teams found their shot off the ground. Venters stayed aggressive with five points to try to keep up with the Washington St. shooters. Washington St. still led 6:03 on the clock with 72:52 despite a dunk by Coward. The Cougars won the game 82-56 behind 59.3 percent shooting in the second half. Eastern improved his shot selection, scoring 40.6 percent at halftime.
For the game, Eastern had a 31.1 percentage off the ground. Washington State ended with 48.4 shooting.
Important statistics
Eastern Washington passed the Cougars 40 to 38. Tyreese Davis led the team with seven, with Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup each adds five.
Steele Venters now has seven career games with five or more three-pointers made. He has now scored 12 games of 20 or more points in his career.
The Eagles were close in color as Washington St. scored 30 to 26 points from Eastern.
Cedric Feigling scored eight points in 3-of-5 shooting (60%) and had four rebounds.
Washington State was 15 of 30 (50%) from three-point range.
Next
Eastern Washington will travel to the Florida International Tournament this weekend. Eastern plays Stony Brook on Friday, November 25 at 2:30 p.m. and Florida International on Sunday, November 27 at 3 p.m
