Box Score
RENO, Nev. (March 9, 2017) – If there was any doubt about why Jacob Wiley was named the Big Sky Conference MVP, there shouldn’t be now.
Wiley scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Eastern Washington to an 89-70 win over Sacramento State in the quarterfinals of the league tournament Thursday night at the Reno Events Center.
The second-seeded Eagles (22-10) will face the winner of the Weber State-Southern Utah quarterfinal in the semifinals Friday at 8:05 p.m. Sac State finished the season at 13-18.
Wiley was an extremely efficient 9 for 9 from the field and 6 for 7 from the line. And he did all that in just 27 minutes of action due to early foul trouble. Wiley had just six points in the first half before exiting with 7:09 to play with two fouls.
He scored six more points in the first 6 minutes of the second half before taking a seat with his fourth foul. He returned with 8:41 to play and took over the game, scoring 12 of the Eagles’ next 14 points, punctuated by a one-handed slam and a three-point play.
The outcome was never really in doubt. The Eagles jumped on top 31-15 with 6:40 to play in the first half. The Hornets were able to trim that to 32-26 on a 3-pointer by Izaya Mauriohooho-Le’afa, but Eastern used an 8-1 burst to end the half with a 40-27 lead.
The Hornets were still within 46-40 on a pair of free throws by Nick Hornsby, but that was as close as Sac State was able to get the rest of the way as the lead grew as large as 23 points.
Bogdan Bliznyuk added 18 points for the Eagles and Sir Washington chipped in 11.
Marcus Graves led Sac State with a career-high 29 points and Justin Strings added 17. The Hornets were just 21 of 36 at the free-throw line.