Big Sky Conference

Weber weathers EWU’s storm, advances to championship

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RENO — With the final bid in the Big Sky Tournament championship on the line, it looked like the Eagles would ride its two horses all the way to the finish line.

Big Sky Conference MVP Jacob Wiley and second-team All-Big Sky point forward Bogdan Bliznyuk proved to be the most prolific scoring duo the league has seen in many years.

Wiley, a graduate transfer from Lewis & Clark State who started his career at Montana, averaged 25 points per game during conference play thanks to soft hands, peerless athleticism and an efficiency around the rim among the best in all of college basketball. Bliznyuk, a skilled 6-foot-6 forward who brings the ball up and initiates EWU head coach Jim Hayford’s isolation-heavy offense, chipped in nearly 20 points per game.

In Friday’s final semifinal game here, Bliznyuk scored 10 points as EWU raced to a 14-2 advantage six minutes into a battle with reigning tournament champion Weber State. By the time Wiley ripped the rim off with a thunderous two-handed dunk in transition with five minutes to play, he had 24 points and Bliznyuk had 25 points but EWU trailed Weber State 66-65 nonetheless.

Weber State head coach Randy Rahe knew the EWU studs would be nearly impossible to stop. His notion proved true as Eastern’s stars combined to score 56 points. But the Wildcats stayed the course for the duration of 40 minutes Friday night, never giving up while almost completely negating the rest of Eastern Washington’s offensive attack.

The Big Sky’s premier program did not waiver despite Bliznyuk and Wiley living up to expectations. The Wildcats chipped away to tie the contest at halftime, then used turnover-causing defense to burst past EWU in the second half. Weber State scored 20 points off of turnovers, allowed just five field goals to EWU’s other six primary players and earned a chance for its fifth tournament title in the last 11 years with an 80-72 victory here on Friday night.

Big Sky MVP Jake Wiley of Eastern Washington drives to the basket against Weber State

Big Sky MVP Jake Wiley of Eastern Washington drives to the basket against Weber State

“That was a toughness game right there,” said Rahe, the four-time Big Sky Coach of the Year who will gun for his fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. “They were the more aggressive team early and knocked us back on our heels. I think a lesser team would’ve given in a little bit but these guys just kept hanging in. We found a rhythm offensively, found a couple of stops and credit goes to my guys because we kept fighting.”

Wiley’s final dunk showed the MVP’s explosiveness but could not spark momentum in a back-and-forth second half. That slam cut Weber’s lead to 66-65, but Weber answered with a seven-point spurt highlighted by Jeremy Senglin’s 3-point play. On the next sequence, freshman Jerrick Harding ripped Wiley in the post, the EWU senior’s seventh turnover, and raced the other way, drawing a foul that put WSU up 74-67 with 3:20 left.

The EWU horses ran out of steam after that. Bliznyuk converted three layups in the final stretch but Wiley did not score again. Weber State’s Dusty Baker hit four straight free throws to offset WSU missing four of its final six from the stripe to seal a spot in the championship.

“We believe we can win this tournament,” Senglin said. “That’s the first thing you need to do with anything in life is just believe. I know no matter what seed we were, everybody on my team, my coaches knew we could win it no matter who we played.”

EWU junior Bogdan Bliznyuk

EWU junior Bogdan Bliznyuk

Rahe said Weber State entered the game with a plan to force Bliznyuk to shoot 3-pointers in an effort to slow down the spin master’s methodical drives to the rim. Rahe said his team also wanted to be as physical as possible in the post to wear Wiley down, which was clear as Wiley’s last three shots and his last field goal all came up short with his legs shot.

“I didn’t see the floor, didn’t see little guards coming down, picking the ball from me, didn’t know where guys were coming to double to help more so than their physical play,” Wiley said.

“Coming here, that was the goal: come to Reno, leave it all out there. This team has had a great year and we lost to a great team.”

Bliznyuk thwarted Rahe’s game plan instantly by hitting his first three 3-point attempts to stake EWU to a 16-4 lead. Weber State adjusted but Bliznyuk proved to be tough going at the rim, finishing the first half with 19 points.

“We tried different ways to guard them but it was hard because we had a game plan and we were going to let Bliznyuk shoot some 3s because we were going to go double down on Wiley because he had not been shooting the ball well,” Rahe said. “What does he do? Hits his first three 3s. Of course he does. So we had to adjust.”

Bliznyuk finished 11-of-20 from the field while Wiley converted 10-of-18. The rest of the Eagles hit just five of their 20 shot attempts, including just 1-of-6 from senior sharpshooter Felix Von Hofe.

“They had a good plan for us,” EWU head coach Jim Hayford said. “They wanted to be physical with Jake inside, kept running at us. With all that attention, he still gets 24 points, eight boards. Bogdan had an amazing night. Guys that over the course of the year usually shoot 40 or 50 percent combined to go 1-for-12. You have to put the ball in the basket. We just didn’t give those guys enough support.”

Weber State junior Dusty Baker

Weber State junior Dusty Baker

Baker continued his stellar tournament, hitting 3-of-4 shots from beyond the arc, hitting four free throws to finish with 17 points. Senglin, the reigning tournament MVP, hit his first three, a step-back with a defender in his face, with 10:40 left to keep it at a one-point game. He would score 12 more points over final 10 minutes of the second half, finishing with a team-high 22 points. He also chipped in five assists as Ryan Richardson (14), Harding (10) and sophomore center Zach Braxton (10) finished in double figure scoring.

 

“Sometimes it’s easy to fall back and let Jeremy and Zach do their thing, but we are going to win with our team,” Baker said. “When I’m called upon, I’m trying to shoot 3s, I’m trying to score, I’m trying to make plays for my teammates. I’ve approached the tournament as a restart and a time to be a really aggressive player and I think the team feeds off of that.”

 

 

The loss means the tournament’s second seed is eliminated and EWU will not make the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. The Eagles are 22-11, good for the second-most wins in school history. Hayford said. his team expects to receive a postseason bid to a national tournament and will accept it.

Weber State sophomore Zach Braxton goes to the hoop against EWU's Jake Wiley

Weber State sophomore Zach Braxton goes to the hoop against EWU’s Jake Wiley

“The devil is in the details but we won 22 games in a really tough league so I can confidently say we will be participating in the CBI at least,” Hayford said. “Last year, we beat Pepperdine for EWU’s first ever post season win and they extended an invitation. The asterisk you put by that is who else knows who in the world won or lost today. What else is going on? But I’m pretty confident this season will be rewarded with more play.”

The Wildcats have a chance to continue their postseason and punch a ticket to the Big Dance against Big Sky regular season champion and top seed North Dakota. The Big Sky title game tips at 5:30 p.m. PST.

“They are really good,” Rahe said. “They won the league and they deserved to because they were the best team throughout the course of the season. They are very talented. They have every piece covered. They have good size, good shooters and good athleticism. That’s what good teams are. They are very, very impressive. We had two tough games with them (two losses) during the regular season. But we will be ready to fight tomorrow night.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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