Cheney, Washington - In their first Big Sky Conference road game of the season the Thunderbird men's basketball team struggled to stop the Eagles and fell to EWU 106–80.
About five minutes into the contest the T-Birds and Eagles were close, but a 7–0 run by EWU gave them some separation, and a 6–0 run not much later gave them a sizeable lead.
"We started the game well,” SUU head coach Nick Robinson said. “But turnovers led to an Eastern run that we didn't recover from."
By halftime the Eagles had built a 19 point lead over the Thunderbirds, going into the break with a 49–30 advantage.
Guard Travon Langston led the way for the T-Birds at halftime in the scoring category with nine. For EWU, Venky Jois had 15 points to lead all scorers at halftime.
The Eagles shot 59 percent from the field in the first half, compared to SUU's 31 percent.
In the second half the Eagles upped their lead to as many as 32, but the T-Birds didn't stop fighting as they were able to cut the lead down to 20 with just over six minutes to play. EWU went on another scoring run late to win by a 26 point margin.
The T-Birds made some changes to their starting lineup on Thursday night, electing to start John Marshall and Juwan Major in place of Travon Langston and James McGee, which coach Robinson said was a good change for the team.
"We had some lineup changes and a lot of positive came from it,” he said. “But, we'll have to be better as a team on Saturday vs Idaho."
Langston led the way offensively for SUU with 21 points. Casey Oliverson dropped in 13 points for the team as well to go along with his seven rebounds.
Austin McBroom scored 25 points for the Eagles and Jois finished the contest with 24. Jois recorded a double-double as well, pulling in 12 rebounds.
"Eastern finished tough plays and made deep threes despite our overall good execution and effort at the defensive end of the floor," Robinson said about the Eagles.
The T-Birds will be back in action on Saturday night when they will take on the Idaho Vandals in Moscow.
The game can be viewed on WatchBigSky.com or heard over the airwaves on KSUB 590.
Updates can be followed on Twitter @SUUGameday.
Photo Courtesy of Eastern Washington Media Relations
