Rebounding will be key for EWU

In what looks to be a very balanced Big Sky Conference, the Eagles will face another solid and athletic team in Portland State this Saturday. The Vikings feature a strong scoring duo in JC transfer Blake Walker and senior Seamus Boxley. Walker came from San Bernardino Valley JC in California and is averaging 17.9 points per game. Boxley is a walk-on from Mountlake Terrace High School and was just named the Big Sky Conference's co-player of the week.

"There so athletic and they have a number of skill guys, which will force us into a lot of tough matchups on defense," says Eagles head coach Ray Giacoletti. But the key to this game will be who can clean up on the boards. The Vikings outrebound their opponents by six rebounds per game, while the Eagles opponents average three more rebounds per game. "We need to do a great job of boxing out and not allowing any second shots," says Giacoletti.

Boxley leads the conference in rebounding at 9.5 per game. The Eagles will look once again to their own all-conference forward, Marc Axton, to slow down Boxley. Axton was the one responsible for snapping NAU's Aaron Bond's nine straight games of double figure scoring. Bond only had six
points in NAU's loss against Eastern last week.