Eastern Washington beats Southern Utah

CEDAR CITY, Utah — Venky Jois scored a career-high 29 points and Tyler Harvey added 26 as Eastern Washington kept Southern Utah winless in the Big Sky, winning 85-74 Saturday. EWU (13-13, 8-7) got out of the gate quickly, running up a 19-5 score after Drew Brandon’s layup just 6 1/2 minutes in. But Southern Utah (1-24, 0-16) got a 7-0 run a few minutes later — with five points coming from John Marshall — and the Thunderbirds clawed their way back to trail 38-34 at the break. Marshall made a pair of free throws with 8:58 left to cut the SUU deficit to three, but the Eagles went on a 9-0 run, hitting 5 of 6 free throws, to push their lead back to 12 and kept Southern Utah at arm’s length the rest of the way. Eric Rippetoe led Southern Utah with 17 while Casey Oliverson added 16. Jois added 13 rebounds.