Coward in name only: Showing a real swagger on both ends of the court, EWU guard Cedric Coward has been instrumental in Eagles’ seven-game win streak.

There were times earlier this men’s basketball season when Eastern Washington guard Cedric Coward was trying to force his shot, trying to will his team to a victory.

It showed on his shooting charts, particularly in losses to Pac-12 teams: a 4-for-13 effort against Utah; 1-for-5 against Washington State; and 2-for-10 against USC.

By his own attestation and by that of his teammates and coaches, the junior Coward put in a ton of work during the offseason following Eastern’s Big Sky regular-season championship campaign. But in games like those three, as well as a few others during nonconference play, it wasn’t translating all that well.

“At the beginning of the season, I think I was trying to force it too much,” Coward said Monday, “and to make the work that I put in show.”

But the reality was, he just needed to trust the process, Coward said.

Consider the adjustment made.

Since the start of Big Sky season, a stretch that also includes two games against Summit League teams, Coward has been humming. In those seven games, Coward has made 44 of 67 field-goal attempts, 17 of 29 3s, 21 of 24 free throws and is averaging 18 points per game.

He’s also grabbed 7.6 rebounds per game and has 11 blocks, all in the last four games.

Eastern is on a seven-game winning streak and leads the Big Sky with a 5-0 record (11-7 overall) heading into a game at 6 p.m. Thursday at Reese Court in Cheney against second-place Northern Colorado (11-7, 4-1).

“Ced’s an amazing player,” EWU junior Casey Jones said. “Things are just coming to him now. He’s just letting the game come to him.”

After coming off the bench in his first year with the Eagles last season, this year Coward leads the Eagles in scoring (14.1 points per game), rebounding (6.7 per game) and steals (19, tied with senior Ellis Magnuson).

With more shooting volume, his overall percentage is down from last year (68.3% to 55.1%), but he’s improved his 3-point shooting (up to 42.9%) and leads the team in free-throw shooting (40 of 46).

“I feel like I’m playing like myself,” Coward said.

A big part of that, he said, is that the team has developed deep trust in each other. That means when teams are focusing on Coward, he’s not shooting indiscriminately.

Case in point was his performance in Saturday’s 79-67 win at Idaho State: Coward had just 12 points, but he didn’t miss a shot, going 3-for-3 from the field and 5-for-5 from the line. He also led the Eagles with eight rebounds and blocked three shots.

“He’s such an unselfish player who’s not going to force shots,” EWU head coach David Riley said. “There are some games where it’ll be three shots, and some games where it’ll be 15.”

Certainly Riley was counting on more scoring from Coward this year, just as he was counting on his teammates to also increase their output.

Last year the Eagles relied heavily on Steele Venters, Angelo Allegri and Tyreese Davis, a since-departed trio that accounted for 38.8 points per game, almost exactly half the team’s scoring.

But during the offseason, Jones said, Riley told the team his intention was not to find a plug-and-play scorer in the portal; instead, he wanted to find that scoring within the program.

So far that’s been the case, with the juniors – Jones (plus-3.1), Coward (plus-6.8), Ethan Price (plus-2.5) and Dane Erikstrup (plus-4.9) – increasing their scoring.

Senior transfer Jake Kyman has scored 10.1 points per game, redshirt freshman LeJuan Watts has added 9.7, and a host of bench players have chipped in another 19 per game to round out a more balanced offense that is scoring three points more per game than it did last season.

That Riley’s vision for the offense has essentially come to fruition is something that only builds mutual trust, Jones said.

And as the Eagles look to not just repeat as conference champions but to also win the Big Sky Tournament, Eastern is playing with a deep roster of potential scorers.

“I think when you coach that way and you show you have trust in your guys, it builds a healthier team as well,” Jones said, “because nobody is going to go out there and do it themselves. He told us what (the plan) was going to be. And if he trusts us, we’ve got to trust him that it’s going to work out the way he planned it.”