Eastern Washington Returns to #BigSkyMBB Championship Game With Win Over Southern Utah
Box Score (PDF) | Photo Gallery
BOISE, Idaho (March 15, 2019) – A 22-0 first half run propelled Eastern Washington to a second-straight Big Sky Championship matchup with top seed Montana Friday night as the Eagles took down No. 7 seed Southern Utah 77-61 in the conference semifinals at CenturyLink Arena.
Senior Cody Benzel drained a three with 9:21 remaining in the first half to begin a 22-0 spurt for No. 3 Eastern Washington (16-17) that ran until the 2:39 mark to put the Eagles ahead 32-14.
Southern Utah (16-16) opened the second half on a quick 8-0 run that brought the Thunderbirds within 10 less than two minutes into the period.
A jumper by Cameron Oluyitan with 11:42 to play put the score at 52-48 before a Ty Gibson three ended six-straight points for Southern Utah and began another run for the Eagles.
Eastern Washington received contributions from six different players in a 16-2 run that put the game out of reach for the Thunderbirds with just five minutes to play.
“Southern Utah did a great job of battling back after we jumped out on them in the first half,” said Eastern Washington head coach Shantay Legans. “They’re well-coached and have some really good players but we made some defensive stops when we needed to and didn’t let them get over that hump.”
Mason Peatling led the Eagles in scoring for the third-straight game with 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Kim Aiken and Tyler Kidd each added 15 points with Aiken leading the Eagles with 11 rebounds.
Cameron Oluyitan paced Southern Utah with 19 points and six boards.
After facing the Thunderbirds in the semifinals for the second-straight year, Eastern Washington will meet Montana in the title game once again after falling to the Griz in the 2018 Big Sky Championship game.
A trip to the NCAA Tournament is on the line as the two teams tipoff at 6:05 p.m. on ESPNU with Sam Farber and Noah Savage calling the action.
Westwood One will also provide radio coverage with Ted Emrich and Dan Dickau on the call.