BIG SKY CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE
Montana State’s Tyler Hall and Eastern Washington’s Bogdan Bliznyuk shared this week’s Big Sky Conference men’s basketball Player of the Week honor.
Hall, a sophomore from Rock Island, Illinois, scored 64 points in losses at Utah and at home against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In Thursday’s 92-84 loss at Utah, Hall scored a game-high 22 points on 6-of-15 shooting. He dished a pair of assists and grabbed three steals against the Utes.
In last night’s 83-78 home loss to Milwaukee, the sophomore tied a national-best with 42 points on 15-of-25 from the field including 6–of-12 from beyond the arc. The 42 points is tied for second-most in MSU history and was the most points scored by a Bobcat since 1968. Hall also passed the 800 career points mark in just his 40th career game.
Montana State sophomore Tyler Hall battles through contact against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Monday night in Bozeman/ by Brooks Nuanez
“He’s so, so good, my goodness,” Wisconsin-Milwaukee head coach Lavall Jordan, an assistant at Michigan the last six years before taking his first head coaching job, said following his first road win as a head coach. “He has size, he can lift up and shoot over the top of you. I coached Tim Hardaway Jr. at Michigan and he can raise up and shoot over you like Tim. He can go down and post up as well. He’s a really good player and they have a really good team.”
Bliznyuk, a junior from Lutsk, Ukraine, picked up his second straight Big Sky weekly honor after leading the Eagles to a 93-88 double-overtime win at Seattle on Sunday. The junior scored 31 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as EWU rallied from a 14-point deficit with just 10 minutes remaining to force overtime and earn the win.
Biliznyuk’s 31 points marked his third 30-point performance in the last five games. His 12 rebounds also earned the junior his 11th double-double of his career. He made a career-best 12 field goals at Seattle and was a perfect 6-6 at the free-throw line.
EWU (6-2) returns to action on Thursday as the Eagles host Great Falls. MSU (5-3) heads to South Dakota tomorrow with tip-off set for 8 p.m.Central.
Others Nominated: De’Sean Parsons (PSU), Randy Onwuasor (SUU), Ethan Telfair (ISU), Ahmaad Rorie (UM), Kyndahl Hill (WSU), Jordan Davis (UNC), Justin Strings (SAC)
Weber State’s Drake, EWU’s Hodgins earn Big Sky weekly women’s honor
Big Sky press release
The variety of the non-conference season sometimes makes it hard to identify a singular player of the week.
After all, with so many strong teams and so many impressive players, the task of sorting it out can be tough. This week was one of those weeks, where the strong play of several players merited splitting the weekly honors.
For their impressive play last week, Weber State’s Emily Drake and Eastern Washington’s Delaney Hodgins shared this week’s Big Sky women’s basketball Player of the Week award.
Drake played an important role in leading Weber State to a 76-37 win over the University of Portland of the West Coast Conference. The sophomore scored 24 points, going 9-of-15 from the field, while also hitting 6-of-9 3-point shots. The 3-point performance was a career-high for Drake, as she also added four rebounds and two steals.
Hodgins has played well since the start of the season, and helped Eastern Washington to a 1-1 record on the road, last week. First, the Eagles narrowly fell, 67-64, to undefeated Boise State, before countering with a 71-57 road win over Cal State Northridge. For the week, Hodgins averaged 22 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists, two blocks and 1.5 steals, per game. Hodgins also shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the floor.
Other nominees: Portland State’s Ashley Bolston; Maranne Johnson, Sacramento State; Karlee Wilson, Idaho; and Peyton Ferris, Montana State. Other nominees included: Saylair Grandon, Idaho State; Courtney Smith, Northern Colorado; Leah Szabla, North Dakota; Rene Coggins, Northern Arizona; and Jamie Smith, Southern Utah.
