New year resolutions came a day early for EWU, as the Eagles defended home court and secured their first Big Sky win of the year against Idaho State on Monday.

The Eagles (3-10, 1-1) came back to beat the visiting Bengals (5-6, 1-1) by a score of 65-55, while outscoring ISU by 14 points in the second half and scoring 16 more points inside the paint.

“I’m not recreating the wheel,” head coach Shantay Legans said. “We’re going to keep going inside until they stop us, and when they do, [our guards] are all going to make their shots and it’s going to be great to see.”

EWU missed its first seven shots of the game, digging into an early eight point deficit that would grow to 11 with four minutes and 19 seconds remaining in the first half. The Eagles levelled the Bengal lead to four points at halftime.

Sophomore guard Jacob Davison, senior guard Ty Gibson,  junior forward Mason Peatling and senior forward Jesse Hunt made the largest contributions to the game, scoring 54 of the Eagles’ 65 points. Davison (15 points), Peatling (16 points) and Hunt (12 points) all recorded 37 minutes of game time, rarely leaving the court.

Gibson played only nine minutes, entirely in the second half, but was three for three from 3-point range. Before today’s game Gibson was shooting just 22.8 percent from behind the arc. He said that the first made shot got him going, after Peatling grabbed an offensive rebound and the Bengals collapsed into the paint leaving him wide open.

“It was good to see one go in,” Gibson said. “From there it was just going back to my normal self it felt like.”

The Eagles shot 52 percent from the field in the second half, up from 41.9 percent in the first half. ISU made just one of its five shots in the last three and a half minutes of play.

The Eagles have a short break before playing a doubleheader with the women’s team at the University of Idaho on Jan. 3. The women are scheduled to start at 5:15 p.m. with the men’s game starting tentatively at 7:30 p.m.