Eagles win double-overtime thriller over Seattle
Shoot, that was fun.
Playing uphill for most of the night, Eastern Washington finally peaked when it mattered most to beat Seattle 80-76 in a double-overtime thriller Tuesday night at Reese Court.
The Eagles did it in improbable fashion, hitting a pair of gotta-have-’em 3-point shots at the end of regulation and the first overtime to win the Cheney subregional round of the Legends Classic.
“It’s why you get into this career – the joy of competition and two teams just going at it,” Eastern coach Jim Hayford said after the Eagles improved to 3-2.
“To be in November and have a game like that is really fun – it’s fun for the guys,” Hayford said.
The fun didn’t begin until late in regulation, because for 39-plus minutes, this team bore no resemblance to the shoot-’em-up Eagle outfits of recent years.
Eastern barely broke out of the teens by halftime, leading 22-19 after a first half that bordered on the painful as the Eagles and Redhawks went a combined 16 for 51 from the field and 6 of 30 from beyond the arc.
Worse for the crowd of 922, the Eagles seemed destined to be on the losing end with four seconds left in regulation, but sophomore guard Cody Benzel uncorked a 3-pointer to force overtime.
“That’s going to give me the confidence to take those big shots and I really think it’s going to help me down the road,” Benzel said.
The Eagles continued to play uphill in overtime. Sir Washington’s jumper with 49 seconds left gave them their first lead since midway through the second half, but they promptly gave it back on a 3-pointer from Brendan Westendorf and a pair of free throws from Morgan Means.
That made it 65-62 for the Redhawks, who dropped back into their zone and didn’t bother to cover forward Bogdan Bliznyuk. No surprise there – Bliznyuk was 0 for 10 to that point.
But as the ball found him near the top of the arc, the redshirt junior let fly with six seconds left and forced a second overtime.
Things got worse in the second OT before they got better, as Seattle (2-3) led by five midway through the period.
The lead didn’t last long, as Bliznyuk, Washington and Felix Von Hofe drained a trio of treys in a span of 88 seconds to raise the crowd to its feet.
The lead was down to one with 25 seconds left when Benzel took a pass from Washington in the left corner. There was still plenty of time left on the shot clock, but Benzel coolly aimed and drained the shot to give Eastern a 77-73 lead.
At that point, Seattle took a timeout and Hayford took Benzel in his arm.
“We have a saying in our program that if you have the guts to take it, you better have the guts to make it,” Hayford said. “I told Cody he had some great guts, and we had a little laugh.”
Hayford found more reasons to smile as he perused the stat sheet:
Benzel getting 17 points in his first start against a Division I opponent;
Graduate transfer Jacob Wiley earning the tournament MVP award after a complete game that included 20 points, nine rebounds and five blocks while facing Seattle’s 7-foot-3 Aaron Menzies.
Freshman point guard Luka Vulikic putting in his best game yet with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“Guys just stepped up and made some big plays and big shots, and some big stops too,” Hayford said, while noting that the teams will meet again on Dec. 4 in Seattle.