EWU coach Dan Monson credits winning streak to more in-game experience
A basketball team’s outlook sure can change a lot in two weeks.
At the end of January, the Eastern Washington men were on a five-game losing streak that had dropped them nearly to the bottom of the Big Sky standings.
But since the calendar turned to February, the Eagles have done nothing but win: They are 4-0 this month, including home victories over Portland State and Idaho, two teams right there with them in the thick of the standings.
“This was one of the top teams in the country in inexperience,” EWU head coach Dan Monson said, noting not just the Eagles’ youth but their lack of game action. “The experience they got in these first 20 games is starting to pay off.”
Monson noted after Saturday’s 75-73 victory over Idaho that Eastern Washington was starting to figure out how to win as a team, rather than relying on its top-scoring trio of Andrew Cook (15.5 points per game), Mason Williams (14.5) and Nic McClain (11.8).
Cook, a senior, has been great on offense lately, scoring 27 points against Weber State on Feb. 1 and a career-high 28 against Idaho. Many of those points came by driving to the basket and finding space amongst taller, bigger opponents.
“Something that I’ve always taken pride in is my physicality,” Cook said. “I know that when I can have that little bump of space, nobody can get to it.”
Those two performances, though, alternated with high-scoring nights by the sophomore Williams, who had 35 in a loss at Idaho State on Jan. 30 and another 29 points in a victory against Sacramento State on Feb. 6.
McClain has seen his production drop off lately. Over his past seven games, the redshirt junior is averaging 5.3 points per game. But some of that may be due to an arm injury that kept him out of victory at Weber State.
Still, what the Eagles (10-16, 6-7 Big Sky) have shown during the winning streak is they don’t need to force the ball to any particular player. Rather, they need everyone to do what he does best in his given role.
That goes for rotation players like redshirt freshman Emmett Marquardt (9.1 points per game), redshirt junior Tyler Powell (3.6) and sophomore Sebastian Hartmann (9.2), each of whom has led the team in scoring at least once this year.
“We’re (trusting) our role players more, and they’re coming through,” Monson said. “Sebastian, Emmett, we don’t need them to lead us in scoring; we need them to lead us to winning.”
Three of Eastern’s final five regular-season games are on the road, starting Thursday at Northern Colorado (19-8, 11-3), followed by the annual trip to high-altitude Northern Arizona (15-12, 6-8) on Saturday. Northern Colorado has lost two of its past four; NAU has dropped four of its past six.
Next for EWU is home games against Weber State (Feb. 27) and Idaho State (March 1) before closing out the season March 3 at first-place Montana.
The Big Sky Tournament begins March 8 in Boise.