Eastern Washington beats Northern Arizona 72-55, pushes win streak to 16 games

On Dec. 10, soon after Eastern Washington had blown a 23-point second-half lead on the road against South Dakota State, David Riley was certain he was the head coach of a really good men’s basketball team, and that the Eagles had all the right pieces.

They just needed a little more time.

“It was a devastating loss,” Riley said, “but I went to bed that night just thinking how great of a team we have and we were going to be in a good spot later in the year.”

Two months later, the Eagles most certainly are.

Angelo Allegri scored 15 points, Deon Stroud tied a season high with 12 more off the bench and Eastern Washington extended its winning streak to 16 games with a 72-55 victory over Northern Arizona on Thursday night at Reese Court in Cheney.

Nine Eagles players scored and seven hit at least one 3-pointer, again demonstrating the versatility of the roster that Riley and the EWU coaching staff put together during the offseason with a combination of returners, transfers and incoming freshmen.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can go out and have a crazy night, a crazy night,” said the senior Stroud, who played at Fresno State last season. “I think we all trust each other … and I think the best asset of our team is our depth.”

No Eagles player had a particularly crazy offensive night, but they were balanced. Redshirt sophomore Steele Venters, who scored his 1,000th career point last weekend in a win at Idaho, had just seven points against the Lumberjacks.

It was Venters’ lowest single-game scoring total since he scored seven points in the team’s 79-68 victory on Dec. 17 over UC Davis, which came one week after that loss to SDSU and was the one that started this program-best winning streak, the longest in Division I.

“(NAU) chose to take (Venters) out of the game in the first half, and the other guys stepped up,” Riley said. “It left guys open in the post. Our offense is a kind of pick-your-poison kind of deal, and our guys did a really good job reading that.”

The Eagles shot 51.9% from the field, outrebounded the Lumberjacks 40-23 and only allowed NAU (7-21 overall, 3-12 Big Sky) to attempt two free throws .

They also held Jalen Cone, NAU’s dynamic junior guard, to 12 points, five below his season average. Cone made 5 of 12 shots and had just two assists.

“All throughout the week we focused on the scouting report, just keeping him out of the play and not letting him get in the paint and make plays for others,” Stroud said, “and I think that helped us a lot tonight.”

Sophomore Liam Lloyd, a Gonzaga Prep graduate, scored seven points for NAU on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 1 for 8 from 3-point range. Junior post Carson Towt had 12 points and four assists. As a team, NAU shot 38.1% from the field.

Sitting in last place in the Big Sky standings, NAU has proven a tough out this season. Eastern won the previous matchup 79-76 in Flagstaff, Arizona, and NAU’s previous six losses – including the one to EWU – had come by a combined 16 points.

On Thursday, Eastern built an 18-point lead in the first half before NAU cut it to 12 at halftime. When Eastern struggled to take care of the basketball early in the second half, the Lumberjacks got within four on a 3-pointer by Cone that made it 42-38 with 14 minutes left.

But the Eagles answered with baskets by Cedric Coward, Tyreese Davis and Dane Erikstrup, a 6-0 run that got the lead back to double digits. NAU never got closer than seven points after that.

The Eagles are 14-0 in Big Sky play, the first team in the conference to achieve such a start since Weber State did in the 2002-03 season.

Three games ahead of second-place Montana State (18-9, 11-3), Eastern can clinch at least a share of the Big Sky regular-season title with a win Saturday against Northern Colorado (10-17, 5-10) in Cheney.

After starting the season 2-5, the Eagles are 20-7 overall and have clinched at least one of the top two seeds in the Big Sky Tournament.

“Looking back now to where we were in late November,” Riley said, “it’s exciting to see how far these young men have come.”