CHENEY, Wash. - Wayne Tinkle will likely remember his 46th birthday for a while.
His Montana Grizzlies gave him a 74-60 win over Eastern Washington on Thursday night in front of a season-best crowd of 3,512 at Reese Court, keeping his record spotless as a player and a coach when his team plays on his birthday. The win - tougher than the score might make it seem - guarantees the Griz (7-1 in the Big Sky, 14-6 overall) will finish the two-game road trip no worse than where they started it: in second place. Montana plays at Portland State on Sunday in a game that will be televised by Altitude Sports. "We've been giving him happy birthdays all day, so we had to get the win for him," said sophomore Kareem Jamar, who finished with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
That appeared to be a safe bet at halftime, when the Griz led 40-27 after holding the Eagles to 20.8 percent shooting. But Collin Chiverton breathed life into the Eagles and the crowd, scoring eight straight points as Eastern clawed back into the game. Chiverton, a 6-foot-6 junior sharpshooter, hit a pair of 3-pointers and a layup to get the Eagles within 42-37 not even three minutes into the second half. "I was playing good ‘D,' but he's a helluva shooter and he shoots them from deep," Jamar said. "I was there, but we just needed to get into his jersey a little bit and it make it a little tougher."
With the crowd ringing in the Grizzlies' ears, Eastern pulled within 46-45 on an inside bucket from Laron Griffin, who finished with 12 points. But Art Steward (19 points, eight rebounds, five assists) stepped up with a pair of free throws and Mathias Ward followed with a three-point play, giving the Griz breathing room at 51-45. "When teams come back like that and you have the crowd going, as a kid you always see games like that," Jamar said. "Those are the games you live for. Crowd's going crazy on the road and you hit big shots."
Meanwhile, the Griz had 6-1 guard Shawn Stockton defend Chiverton, who managed just one point from that time forward. "What Shawn was able to do was deny the touches a little bit," Tinkle said. "They made a great move to post him up against Shawn, but Shawn didn't give in. He did a great job on him." "That's what they told me, to get in him and not let him catch it," said Stockton, a Spokane native playing his final game in Cheney, just outside his hometown. "It makes it a lot easier to guard him when he doesn't have the ball."
Eastern was still within 63-57 with 5:25 to play when Griffin followed up his own miss. But the Griz responded with a back-breaking trey from Steward on a skip pass from Jamar. Jamar hit a nice pull-up in the lane to restore a double-digit lead, 68-58, with 3:49 to play and Eastern (3-5, 9-12) never challenged again. Had Eastern ever taken the lead, the story might have had a different ending. "When teams can't get over the hump, even our team, it's kind of demoralizing," Jamar said. "We kept our foot on their throat, took every punch they gave us and pulled it out."
The Griz built their 13-point halftime lead with solid shooting and defense. They shot 50 percent from the field - 6 of 12 from 3-point range - and limited Eastern to 5-for-24 shooting. Derek Selvig had all nine of his points from beyond the arc before being saddled with foul trouble. "The story of this game is the first half - getting down 14-15 points - that's the difference on the scoreboard at the end of the night," first-year EWU coach Jim Hayford said. "If we played like we did in the second half in the first half, it's a different story, but it wasn't. You have to give Montana credit. We shot 20 percent in the first half. You're going to end up being down 13 points at half when you shoot 20 percent."
The Griz can now take aim on Portland State, which dropped a 70-65 decision at home to Montana State on Thursday. "It's huge," Tinkle said of the win, "especially when Eastern is as talented as it is, to come into this environment. We got the win, so now we can think about getting a little bit greedy. We want to keep improving. We can't worry about where everybody else is on the table. We have to take care of business for the Griz."
NOTES: The Griz had 19 assists on their 26 field goals; Eastern had eight helpers on 18 buckets. ... Montana won the rebounding battle 40-36. Will Cherry, who had 11 points, and Steward had eight apiece. Cliff Ederaine led EWU with 13. ... The Griz outscored Eastern 19-3 on fastbreak points and 36-22 in the paint.
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