The Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team defeated the University of Puget Sound, 89-55 on Nov. 9 in an exhibition game.

“Hats off to Puget Sound, I thought they shot the ball really well,” said head coach Jim Hayford. “They gave us a good game that will help make us a better team.”

The Eagles came out to an early lead in the opening minutes, 22-12. Puget Sound stayed competitive in the first half by cutting the Eagles’ lead to only one point. With 5:16 remaining in the first half, Puget Sound cut another lead by Eastern to be down by six points.

Eastern outrebounded the Loggers in the first half, 23-15. The Eagles had seven offensive rebounds and 16 defensive rebounds. Puget Sound had three offensive rebounds and 12 defensive rebounds.

Junior guard Tyler Harvey led Eastern with 10 points for the first half. Junior forward Venky Jois had seven points. Freshman guard Cody Benzel finished with nine points for the first half.

At halftime, Eastern led 38-32 shooting 42.9 percent behind the three point line and 44.4 percent in field goals. Puget Sound outshot EWU behind the free throw line in the first half 71.4 percent to 57.1 percent.

Puget Sound also had a strong outing behind the three point line with 46.7 percent. The Loggers shot 37.0 percent in field goals despite being down by six points at the half.

“It was an interesting game there for a little bit in the first half,” said Hayford. “I was trying to play a lot of guys and do a lot of things early.”

In the second half, Eastern went on an 11-4 run to increase their halftime lead. The Eagles would lead by as many as 36 points throughout the second half in a blowout victory.

EWU continued to outrebound Puget Sound. In the second half, the Eagles had a total of 47 rebounds. Eastern had a game high of 35 defensive rebounds and 12 offensive rebounds.

Sophomore forward Felix Von Hofe said the team was looking for a few things in this exhibition game, and this game was supposed to prepare the Eagles for the regular season.

“I think we wanted to go into the game as we would a regular game,” said Von Hofe. “Credit Puget Sound, they made it exactly like that.”

“The main thing for us is getting in our zone,” said Von Hofe. “Both principles [offense and defense] we worked on at practice, a lot of just playing against each other.”

Eastern outshot the Loggers in almost all categories in the second half. Behind the three point line, the Eagles shot 63.6 percent compared to Puget Sound’s 10 percent. In field goal percentage, Eastern shot 60 percent in the second half and Puget Sound shot 28.6 percent.

For the game, Eastern had 34 points in the paint and as a team. The Eagles dished out 19 assists, and also had help from their reserves with 44 bench points.

EWU’s top performers for the game were Harvey, who finished with 16 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals, Benzel, who finished with 15 points and three rebounds, and sophomore forward Ognjen Miljkovic, with 14 points for the game along with seven rebounds.

Jois finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Von Hofe also finished the game with double figure scoring with 11 points and a game high of four steals.

Hayford said there are things that the team needs to take care of before the regular season opener. “We need to work on getting up early and getting used to being able to go play 100 percent early,” said Hayford. “We’re going to need to iron out just communication issues and just some more things on the mental side.”

The Eagles will play Texas Southern University on Nov. 14 at 8 a.m. in their regular season home opener.