No place like home

It took Eastern a lot longer than expected to notch its first road victory of the season, a 65-54 victory Jan. 3 at Santa Clara, but it came at just the right time with the Big Sky conference schedule beginning Thursday.

"That was huge, we were really struggling on the road and weren't able to finish the games. But it felt really good putting 40 minutes together on Saturday and finally getting a win," says senior Josh Barnard. "We needed a boost, our morale was down and we needed to get a win and get our confidence back up," says junior Marc Axton.

The Eagles "real season" begins with the rivalry between Eastern and the Montana Grizzlies at Reese Court in Cheney at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. "Now everything counts. This is the season, these 14 games is all we have and we gotta make the most of it starting with Montana this week," says senior Alvin Snow.

Eastern is 3-0 at home. The Eagles shoot better from both the field, 51 percent at home compared to 44 percent on the road, and from the free throw line, shooting over 70 percent at home compared to less than 65 percent on the road. The Eagles also take much better care of the basketball averaging a mere 12 turnovers in their three home victories so far this season.