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Seattle University gets a chance to get back in the win column against Eastern Washington at 7:10 p.m. PST (710 ESPN Seattle) at KeyArena tonight for the first time since beating Virginia in Charlottesville and then losing by 20 at Pepperdine. Can't figure out this 5-11 team out? Neither can we.
Just for fun, let’s pretend that the fact that the Seattle U Redhawks are up more at halftime than the Washington Huskies were when they played Eastern Washington actually means something.
The Redhawks used a dominant effort on the boards to take a 32-23 halftime lead at KeyArena while holding the EWU Eagles under 30 percent shooting. As usual it wasn’t pretty, but they simply outworked EWU in the paint outrebounding them 27 to 15 and outscoring them 14 to 4 in second chance points.
Most impressive was center Alex Jones who has been aggressive tonight as we’ve ever seen him here at KeyArena, scoring 11 points and getting five boards while also getting to the free throw line at a high rate. Jones and really the entire team has been helped significantly by point guard Cervante Burrell who came off the bench with two assists despite not standing out otherwise in the boxscore – his quickness and ability to get to the basket has been instrumental in SU keeping the heat on and pulling away.
For EWU, Kevin Winford – who was arguably their top player at UW – has eight points on 2-for-4 shooting.
A lot of teams talk about how they worry about themselves rather than the opponent.
Well, the 5-11 Seattle University Redhawks take that idea to the extreme.
It's hard to find any rhyme or reason to the Redhawks' wins and losses and their last four games illustrate that well - after losing in Cheney to Eastern Washington, they came home to lose to San Jose State by 16, then went to Charlottesville to beat ACC opponent Virginia by 6, and returned west to start 2011 with a 20 point loss at Pepperdine.
Go figure.
Tonight they bring it full circle and try to re-establish themselves at KeyArena in a rematch against Eastern Washington.
Of course, the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Washington Huskies have already taken turns running EWU, but there will be a major difference between EWU team that visits KeyArena tonight and the one that previously came to Seattle to visit Hec Ed.
Men's Basketball Set for Rematch With EWU at KeyArena - Seattle University Redhawks Athletics
SCOUTING EASTERN WASHINGTON: The Eagles come into Thursday's game with a 4-9 overall record. Eastern Washington has yet to win a road game, going 0-6 away from home so far this season. The Eagles are scoring 73.1 points per game and giving up 76.7 points per contest. As a team, Eastern Washington is shooting 42.1 percent from the field, including 35.9 percent from behind the three-point line, and 64.0 percent from the free throw line. Jeffrey Forbes leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.6 points per game, helped in part by a .891 free throw shooting percentage, tied for 29th in Division I. Since coming back from an early-season injury, Glen Dean has been averaging 13.5 points per game. Cliff Ederaine, the only Eagle to start every game so far this season, is contributing 9.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.7 blocked shots per game.
It should go without saying that a team that now has its second-leading scorer in Dean back from injury will be a bit better than the won that looked shell-shocked in Hec Ed.
Glen Dean, G (5-foot-10, 170 pounds, So.)
In addition to being the team's second leading scorer, Dean is also the type of player that would have helped a bit in EWU's turnover fest against UW - he is the team's most efficient ball handler in the rotation. As Seattle U likes to put impose a mix of aggressive pressure defenses on opponents, Dean's presence will be significant. In addition, Dean gets to the free throw line at a significantly higher rate than the other guards, which will give them a different sort of perimeter attack.
Kevin Winford, G (5-foot-11, 170 pounds, So.)
Against UW, Winford was the guy who stepped up when Washington shut down leading scorer Jeffrey Forbes. Winford stepped up against UW in the second half after Romar made a few adjustments. He showed then that he can get hot in spurts and is the team's second-best three point shooter (38.8 percent) behind Forbes (43.8 percent).
Again, Eastern Washington is going to be better with keeping the ball in their possession with the return of Dean.
Nevertheless, the one glaring statistical difference between these teams is that Seattle U forces turnovers significantly more often than EWU.
And a sloppy grudge match would be nothing new for the Redhawks.
Seattle U Guts Out A 60-51 Win Against Eastern Washington
You could probably look at Seattle University's 60-51 win tonight in one of two ways - either SU is to be lauded for their effort or it was just a plain ugly game.
A play with under a minute left in Seattle University's 60-51 win over Eastern Washington tonight pretty much sums up all 40 minutes of the action.
With the Redhawks only up five points, center Alex Jones shot one three from the left wing and Seattle U came up with the offensive rebound. After resetting the offense, Jones got spotted up for another three that could have effectively put the game out of reach. After missing that one with a high bounce off the back iron, Seattle U came up with the offensive rebound again. And then EWU fouled with 42.5 seconds left.
For whatever reason tonight, EWU just never seemed to match the intensity of Seattle U tonight and it allowed the Redhawks to maintain control of the game even though they were never quite able to put them away. And the main thing that kept Seattle U ahead was a 40 to 8 advantage in the paint.
Redhawks center Alex Jones was simply dominant tonight, scoring a team-high 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds while Aaron Broussard complemented his performance with 15 points and team-high nine rebounds, close to yet another double-double.
Although Seattle U guards Cervante Burrell and Sterling Carter shot a combined 2-for-16 from the field - not to mention a combined 10 turnovers - they both did an outstanding job defensive containing EWU's top two scorers to 4-for-17 shooting. As against UW, Kevin Winford of EWU ended up as the leading scorer with 11 points.
Jan 06 9:35p by Nate Parham - 0 comments