Eastern wakes up basketball world with big win in opener
It took half a game, but the Eastern Washington basketball players finally found a way to rise and shine.
Playing the first game of the college basketball season Friday morning, the Eagles pulled away from the Texas Southern Tigers for an eye-opening 86-62 win at Reese Court.
“It’s great being the first coach 1-0 in the nation,” Eastern coach Jim Hayford joked after his team played a near-perfect second half to reward a crowd of 1,623. The fans showed up partly for the novelty of the event, but also for some quality basketball.
They got both.
“If you are going to do things outside of the box, you better back it up with good play,” said Hayford, who got it from several areas: solid defense, highlight-reel 3-point shooting and an effective inside game.
The latter didn’t pay off until the second half; midway through Breakfast at Reese Court, star forward Venky Jois had a bagel: zero points despite six good looks.
But as he took a seat on the bench late in the half, Jois also took some consolation. “I said to myself, ‘You could have had 10 points on those shots, so it’s a good sign,’ ” Jois said.
Sure enough, Jois hit 11 of 12 shots in the second half, finishing with a team-high 22 points that complemented the sharp 3-point shooting of guards Tyler Harvey (7 for 12) and Parker Kelly (3 for 7).
Harvey, the leading scorer in the Big Sky Conference last year, finished with 21 points.
“We want to have a balanced attack, and part of our two-point attack is driving to the basket – you can’t just post up. I thought we were passing up some drive opportunities we could have taken as well,” Hayford said.
Or any 2-point opportunity, for that matter. At halftime, Eastern had exactly one bucket from inside the arc and was 3 for 8 from the free-throw line – yet led 32-30.
For that the Eagles could thank their defense. They trailed 26-18 with 5½ minutes left in the first half, but Texas Southern – an NCAA tournament team last year – missed eight of its last nine shots before halftime.
If not for that, reasoned Jois, “They could have been up by 10 or 15 points, and it could have been a different game.”
Instead, the Eagles pulled away in the second half. Jois opened with a driving layup and a dunk, then Kelly and Harvey drained 3-pointers to put Eastern ahead 42-34, forcing the Tigers to call a timeout.
It didn’t help. Kelly added a steal and another trey, point guard Drew Brandon hit a 3 and Jois pounded the ball inside for three more buckets to make it 56-36 with 11:15 to play.
With 10 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, Brandon narrowly missed a triple-double.
The high-water mark came with 2:53 left, when Daniel Hill hit a jumper to give the Eagles an 84-53 lead.