Eagles late surge falls short in loss to Northern Colorado

GREELEY, Colo. — There was disappointment in Greeley, Colo., for the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team versus Northern Colorado in a 78-76 setback Thursday (Jan. 21) in the first of two games versus the Bears.

Trailing by 11 in the second half, Eastern rallied behind 6-foot-9 junior Tanner Groves to take a late lead. Eastern had the ball and a chance to win with 11 seconds left, but a turnover and foul led to a pair of game-winning free throws by the Bears with one tick of the clock left.

Groves led four Eagles in double figures with 20 points, and he also had 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Eastern sank 49 percent of its shots and 88 percent from the free throw line, but the Eagles made just three 3-pointers compared to 13 for the Bears, who sank 43.3 percent of their treys compared to 18.8 percent for EWU.

The Eagles also take on the Bears on Saturday (Jan. 23) at 11:05 a.m. Pacific time. Eastern enters that game 2-2 in the league and 3-6 overall, while the Bears have a 5-4 Big Sky record and are 8-6 overall.

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