Defense keys road win

The Eastern Eagles got a very short and sweet halftime lecture from coach Ray Giacoletti Thursday night in Flagstaff. "Until we want to play defense and sell it out on every possession, we're going to be mediocre." This was all that was said as the coach left the locker room. The Eastern players took this to heart, especially Danny Pariseau as Chris Lang writes in the Arizona Daily Sun.

Here's the wire story that ran in the S-R on Eastern's big win over Northern Arizona Thursday night.

The Eagles defense held the Big Sky's most potent offense to only 14 points in the final 15 minutes and 19 seconds. The Eagles also limited NAU's leading scorer Aaron Bond to six points, the first time in the past nine games that Bond has been held under double digits.

The Eagles now travel to Sacramento to take on the Hornets of Sacramento State Saturday night at 7:05. As Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee writes, the Hornets are coming off their first league victory, over Portland State, 76-64 on Thursday.

Although the Hornets might not shoot the ball well at times and are known to commit quite a few turnovers, coach Giacoletti believes that in their gym anything can happen. "When they play in their little gym, it seems like the court is 10 feet shorter. With the way they pressure the ball, they really have a lot of confidence in that little place," said Giacoletti.

Sacramento State finally has Cedric Thompkins, their 6 foot 7 inch senior power forward back, who made his presence felt Thursday, scoring 19 points and opening up shots on the perimeter for guys like Brandon Guyton and Joel Jones. "This is kind of their year," says Giacoletti. "They had some kids ineligible, they redshirted some kids, but all those guys are seniors now and are extremely talented."