Sports

Eagles arrive in first place
Win over Northern Arizona has EWU in three-way Big Sky jam
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From wire and news services

This time, the Eastern Washington Eagles dug themselves out of the hole -- and into first place in the Big Sky Conference standings.

Alvin Snow and Marc Axton combined to make 6 of 6 free throws in the final 34 seconds as the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team rallied in the second half for a 63-57 victory over Northern Arizona Thursday in a Big Sky game at the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, Ariz.

After trailing by as many as 13 points, Eastern outscored NAU 40-23 in the second half and 16-4 in the final 5:59. The Eagles have now won consecutive games for the first time this season.

"That feels pretty good," said EWU coach Ray Giacoletti, whose team is 2-1 in the Big Sky and shares first place in the Big Sky standings with Montana and Montana State.

"It was nice to come back and win a game from behind -- we haven't done that this year. A lot of guys stepped up."

Eastern is 6-10 overall. NAU slipped to 8-7 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

The Eagles took their first lead of the second half at 54-53 with 3:16 left in the game. After a trade of points, Eastern held a 56-55 lead during a 2-minute string of missed field goals, missed free throws and turnovers ended when Snow nailed a pair of free throws with 35 seconds to play. The Eagles clinched the win with two free throws by Axton with 23 seconds to play and and two more from Snow with 12 seconds left.

Brendon Merritt finished with a team-high 19 points for EWU.

Freshman Matt Nelson had nine of his 15 points in the first half as Eastern's three leading scorers _ Snow, Axton and Josh Barnard -- were scoreless at half.