Last week, the Eastern Washington University basketball teams played a combined four games during the second annual Big Sky-Summit League Challenge, winning one game and losing three.
During the challenge, which began last season, teams from the Big Sky Conference and the Summit League play a home game and an away game during the week, each against a team from the other conference. If the home team wins, they earn their respective conference one point, and a win by an away team earns 1.5 points. The conference with the most points wins the challenge.
On Dec. 4, the EWU men played at Reese Court against North Dakota while the women traveled to play South Dakota State. The men won 87-81, and the women lost 58-81.
Men’s: EWU versus North Dakota
The men’s game was closely contested, with the largest lead by either team being just eight points. With one minute and 50 seconds left in the game, North Dakota’s junior forward Dariyus Woodson made a layup to make the score 79-80, with the Eagles up by one point.
EWU head coach Dan Monson called a timeout and when play resumed sophomore forward Vice Zanki sealed the game for Eastern Washington. He got an offensive rebound and put the ball back up to give the Eagles a three-point lead, before hitting a 3-point shot on the next possession to push the lead to six points with just 27 seconds left in the game.
Zanki had his best game of the year so far, setting new season-bests with 13 points and 8 rebounds. He also made three 3-pointers, his second-most of the year.
Senior guard Andrew Cook led Eastern Washington in scoring with 20 points. He is currently leading the team with 6.8 points per game this season while shooting 38.5 percent from the 3-point line.
Redshirt freshman Emmett Marquadt scored a career-high 16 points, junior guard Nic McClain had 15 points, and sophomore guard Sebastian Hartmann scored 14 points. McClain also had 5 assists, and his 4.0 assists per game this season ranks first on the team.
Two players from North Dakota, junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff and senior center Amar Kuljuhovic, were the clear top scorers for the Fighting Hawks. Eaglestaff scored 24 points and Kuljuhovic scored 20 points while also grabbing 9 rebounds.
Women’s: EWU versus South Dakota State
In the women’s game, the Eagles were down by just two points with 2:32 left in the first quarter after guard Peyton Howard, a graduate student, made a layup to make the score 16-14. However, the Jackrabbits scored the final seven points of the period, as well as the first six of the second quarter to take a 29-14 lead.
The nail in the coffin for Eastern Washington was the third quarter when South Dakota State outscored EWU 28-8 behind 9 points from freshman guard Katie Vasecka. Her 11 total points off the bench led SDST’s second unit.
The top scorer for the Jackrabbits was junior guard Haleigh Timmer, who scored a season-high 15 points. This year, she is averaging a career-best 13.0 points per game.
Howard paced the Eagles with 15 points. She is averaging 16.2 points per game and ranks second in the Big Sky conference. Junior guard Ella Gallatin had 12 points and led the team with 4 assists. Freshman forward Kourtney Grossman came off the bench but led the team with 14 rebounds and 31 minutes played.
Women’s: EWU versus North Dakota State
Eastern Washington’s women played North Dakota State at home on Saturday, Dec. 7 in their second game of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. The Bison won 74-47.
EWU jumped out to an early 10-7 lead with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Howard scored 4 of her team-leading 18 points during the stretch. Similarly to the Eagles’ previous game, North Dakota State then went on an 11-0 run to end the first quarter with an 18-10 lead.
The Bison scored 11 of the first 14 points in the second quarter as well and held a 16-point lead with 4:30 to go in the second quarter. Eastern Washington did not cut the NDSU lead to less than 10 points for the remainder of the game.
Sophomore guard Avery Koenen scored 14 points to lead the Bison. She also had 4 steals and 3 blocks, the most on either team. Through the first 9 games of the season, Koenen is averaging a
career-high in every statistical category.
Two other guards, freshman Marisa Frost and sophomore Abby Krzewinski, each had 13 points. Frost also added 5 rebounds and 3 assists, while Krzewinski shot a perfect 5-5 from the field and 3-3 on 3-pointers.
For the Eagles, Gallatin was the team’s second-leading scorer with 12 points. She is averaging a career-best 9.1 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game this season.
Another key contributor for Eastern Washington was Grossman. She started the game for the first time on the Eagles, and while she only scored 4 points, she had 7 rebounds and led the game with a career-high 5 steals.
Men’s: EWU versus South Dakota State
The men faced South Dakota State in Brookings, South Dakota. The Eagles and the Jackrabbits went back and forth for most of the first half, but with 5:12 left, two free throws from freshman guard Damon Wilkerson kicked off a 16-0 run to end the half and give SDST a 42-22 lead at halftime.
EWU was not able to overcome the deficit, and South Dakota State won 74-53. Senior Oscar Cluff scored 19 points while missing just one shot. With a height of 6 ’11, the center also led the game with 11 rebounds.
Cook was the only Eagle to score double digits. He had 13 points and was first on EWU with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals.
In total, Eastern Washington’s basketball teams earned the Big Sky one out of a possible five points. Last season, the teams combined to score the maximum five points. On Dec. 7, the Summit League announced that they had defeated the Big Sky 24.5-17, powered by winning 12 games on Dec. 7, with four victories coming from away games.
The men are now 2-8 and will travel to Seattle for their next game to play the 6-3 Washington Huskies on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The women sit at 2-7 and will play 4-6 Gonzaga at McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14.
