Gonzaga isn’t the only school that plays some quality basketball in the eastern half of Washington state.
Washington State and defending Big Sky Conference regular-season champion Eastern Washington, who will meet Monday night in Pullman, Wash., are also proficient on the hardwood.
“It’s good for Eastern Washington basketball,” Cougars coach Kyle Smith said. “It’s a good early season matchup for us. Two teams that know a little bit about each other.”
The Cougars beat Eastern Washington 82-56 early last season before the Eagles got their revenge with an 81-74 victory in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament.
“They’re a tough matchup. They have a very unique style of play,” Smith said. “We played them twice last year and it was a tale of two games. We caught them early before they got really good. … They’ve got a lot of pieces back from a team that had some success last year.”
The Cougars (4-1) are coming off a 93-53 victory against Utah Tech on Friday. Andrej Jakimovski scored 20 points, Myles Rice had 18 and Jaylen Wells added 16 for Washington State, which shot 32 of 57 for the game (56.1 percent), including 15 of 23 (65.2 percent) from 3-point range.
The Eagles (1-4) started their season with a brutal road stretch, losing at Utah, Ole Miss, Cincinnati and Stanford.
EWU returned home and defeated NAIA Walla Walla University 97-46 last Wednesday. Casey Jones and freshman Mason Williams each scored a team-high 13 points for the Eagles, who had seven players reach double digits.
“When you’re playing this tough schedule, it’s nice to come home and get a win against Walla Walla, but I wouldn’t want it any other way,” EWU coach David Riley said. “Our first four games, we got to build a lot, we got to see where the holes were in our foundation, and I don’t think those get exposed as clearly if you play different kinds of teams. I’m excited about where we’re going.”
–Field Level Media