Eastern Washington’s Ethan Price scores career high as Eagles rout Sacramento State 87-61

It is only December, and there are 16 more Big Sky men’s basketball games for Eastern Washington to play this regular season.

So, perhaps these two victories will be forgotten in a couple of months.

But on Saturday afternoon at Reese Court in Cheney, the Eagles dismantled another conference opponent, and again it wasn’t particularly close.

Junior Ethan Price scored a career-high 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, junior Cedric Coward added 19 points and the Eagles defeated the Sacramento State Hornets 87-61, moving within a game of .500 overall (6-7) and to 2-0 in Big Sky play.

“Last year, that was a big challenge for us. We’d go up a lot in games and then find ourselves back to a five- or 10-point game,” Price said. “These first two conference games when we’ve been up by that much, we’ve (said) the points are 0-0 and we can’t let our foot off the gas.”

With just less than 7 minutes left in the first half, Coward hit a 3 in the corner to give Eastern its first double-digit lead (25-15). The Eagles pushed their lead to 17 by halftime and just kept adding to it, peaking at a 30-point advantage with 7 minutes left .

Between Thursday’s 91-57 victory over Portland State – the Eagles’ largest margin of victory against a Big Sky opponent since 2006 – and Saturday’s over Sacramento State, Eastern played with a double-digit lead for 53 of a possible 80 minutes.

While the Eagles’ offense was sharp again against the Hornets (3-10, 0-2), making 53.1% of its shots and 55.6% of its 3s (Eastern made a season-high 15 of 27 attempts), the defense has been notably better than it was last season. Sacramento State made 19 of 54 shots (35.2%), a lower percentage than any Big Sky team shot against the Eagles last year.

“It’s what we want our identity to be,” EWU head coach David Riley said. “We’ve been an offensive program, and we have offensive players. But defense travels, and for us to go to the NCAA Tournament, we’ve got to win on the road, we’ve got to win in (the Big Sky Tournament in) Boise, and that’s got to carry us.”

It was in Boise last year that the regular-season champion Eagles stumbled, losing their opening game to Northern Arizona. The conference tournaments are even more important for midmajor teams this season, as the National Invitation Tournament – Eastern’s consolation prize last year – will no longer automatically invite regular-season conference champions (those that don’t win their conference tournaments) to its field.

On Saturday, none of Sacramento State’s players got rolling on offense. Junior Zee Hamoda led the Hornets with 16 points, and his 5-of-10 shooting performance from the floor was the team’s best; none of his teammates eclipsed 50%.

The Eagles held sophomore Duncan Powell, the Hornets’ leading scorer, to eight points, six less than his season average, on 4-of-9 shooting from the field. Powell also matched his season high with four turnovers.

Riley credited junior Casey Jones for holding Powell in check.

“Powell is a really tough scorer. He’s physical,” Riley said. “Casey (Jones) made his night miserable.”

Jones also matched a season high with 16 points, making 5 of 8 shots from the field and 3 of 5 3-pointers. Coward, Price, Jones and senior Jake Kyman combined to make 14 of 23 3s.

The Eagles had seven steals and 17 assists; the Hornets had a season-low eight assists and committed 15 turnovers.

In Thursday and Saturday’s wins, the Eagles made a combined 26 of 46 3-pointers while their perimeter defense held the Vikings and Hornets to a combined 10-of-45 shooting from such range.

This week, Eastern will play two games as part of the Summit-Big Sky Challenge: at South Dakota (8-6) on Wednesday, then home against North Dakota State (7-7) on Saturday in Cheney.

The Eagles play their next three Big Sky Conference games on the road after that, at Idaho (Jan. 13), Weber State (Jan. 18) and Idaho State (Jan. 20).

EWU women

EWU 60, Sacramento State 33: Aaliyah Alexander had a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Eagles (10-3, 2-0 Big Sky) over the Hornets (1-10, 0-2) at the Nest in Sacramento, California.

Eastern put on a stellar defensive effort, limiting Sac State to 24% from the field and 1 of 16 on 3-pointers.

Jaydia Martin added 13 points for the Eagles, who extended their win streak to four games.