The Retort

Men’s Basketball Falls in Exhibition Game at Eastern Washington, 67-58

November 20th, 2009 by MSUB Athletics For The Retort

MSUB men’s basketball team opened year two of the George Pfeifer campaign with a hard-fought 67-58 loss at Division I Eastern Washington Sunday afternoon in exhibition play. The Yellowjackets were led by 14 points from newcomers DaVell Jackson and 13 points from Lasha Parghalava. Brandon Moore paced the Eagles with a double-double in a game-high 16 points and 11 rebounds.

“I thought we played really hard and were very physical today,” head coach George Pfeifer said. “I thought in the first 7-8 minutes we were out of sorts offensively and we went 9 of 17 from the free throw line in the second half which was one of the biggest differences in the game after going 12 of 12 in the first half.”

The Yellowjackets opened the game with the early lead and then used a 15-7 run to take a 22-20 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half. The ‘Jackets then build a six-point advantage at 32-26 with 5:27 left in the first half on a Mike McCrary field goal. Since a field goal by DeAndre Chambers at the 15:17 mark, MSUB outscored the Eagles 25-13 in first 10 minutes of play.

EWU then closed the half with a 13-5 run capped by the Yellowjackets making just two field goals in the final five minutes and three field goals and three free throws by the Eagles for a 39-37 halftime advantage.

For the half, the Yellowjackets shot 47.8 percent on 11 of 23 from the floor in their first outing of the season and were a perfect 12 of 12 from the charity stripe. EWU countered with an 11 for 21 performance from the field and 16 of 21 from the line. MSUB knocked down three triples in the opening stanza while EWU was just 1 for 5 from deep.

A triple by Parghalava gave the Yellowjackets a 47-46 lead with 15:43 left in the second half, but it would be the only lead in the second half for MSUB. Alden Gibbs gave EWU the lead for good at the 13:22 mark off a steal by Benny Valentine.

Division I transfer, Mike McCrary, tied the game with a shot from deep moments later, but two free throws by Moore put the Eagles back in front with 12:05 to play. EWU pushed the lead to six on an Alden dunk with 6:07 left, but the Yellowjackets continued to fight and cut the deficit to four with 2:40 left.

A quick 7-0 run by EWU swelled the lead to 11 on a pair of Moore free throws with 40 seconds left, but Chambers scored the last bucket of the game on a layup from Parghalava for a 67-58 score.

Despite the loss, the Yellowjackets made a good showing against a Division I team as fellow Great Northwest Athletic Conference member, Saint Martin’s, lost by 37 (98-61) last week at EWU.

For the game, MSUB shot 31.4 percent on 16 of 51 from the floor. The Yellowjackets were 5 of 16 from deep and 21 of 29 from the line. EWU was 20 of 44 from the field and was just 3 of 8 from downtown to go along with a 24 of 32 outing from the charity stripe. Both teams struggled to shoot the ball in the second half, going a combined 14 of 51 (27.5 percent) from the field.

“I thought we became more comfortable in the second half as we ran our offense better in the second half,” Pfeifer added. “There were a lot of positives to take from this and now we go back to the drawing board and get better.”