Hope seemed to be fading for the Eastern Washington Eagles and their fans on Saturday night in Missoula, Montana when head coach Jim Hayford called timeout with 6:11 to go in the second half. The Montana Grizzlies had jumped out to a 59-48 lead following a 14-4 run over a five minute stretch. Walla Walla High School graduate Michael Weisner scored the first ten points of the run before former University of Washington forward Martin Breunig capped it off with two buckets of his own.

The Eagles just could not find their range, they had made just 1-of-14 three point shots to that points while shooting only 36.4% from the floor. A horrible number for the 20th best shooting team in the country. They had been shooting 48.1% on the season to date. Eastern’s three point woes were worrying as well as they were coming off a night where they had hit 15-of-25 baskets from beyond the arc.

We do not know what was said during that timeout by Hayford but the Eagles came out of that break fired up. The school known for the red “Inferno” turf at the campus football stadium came out red hot hitting eight of their last nine shots including six of seven to spark a 14-2 run to give the Eagles a 62-61 lead with 2:13 remaining.

The teams exchanged baskets before Tyler Harvey got a friendly bounce off the rim to connect on a jumper. He was fouled on the play as well by Michael Weisner. The Nation’s leading scorer hit the free-throw to give the team a 67-63 lead which would hold as the Eagles won the Big Sky Conference Tournament Championship by a score of 69-65.

Three Eagles finished in double figures led by Tyler Harvey with 18 points. Drew Brandon added 16 points while Bogdan Bliznyuk scored 13 points off the bench. Martin Breunig was a beast in the post for Montana finishing with a double-double of 23 points and 17 rebounds. Michael Weisner added 18 points off the bench.

Eastern Washington will advance into the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in school history. They are projected to receive a 14 seed from the Bracketology department here at VAVEL. Check back later for their potential match-up and where they will be playing.

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About the author
Matthew Evans
Matthew is an American sports journalist based out of Kennewick, Washington. He is a Managing Editor for VAVEL USA as well as Co-editor of the soccer section.