Bliznyuk breaks Big Sky scoring mark, EWU advances to finals (Mar 10, 2018)
RENO, Nev. (AP) Bogdan Bliznyuk made 13 of 17 from the field and finished with 32 points to become to Big Sky Conference's career-scoring leader as Eastern Washington beat Southern Utah 82-70 on Friday night in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Bliznyuk, who has 2,127 career points, moved past Idaho's Orlando Lightfoot, who scored 2,102 from 1991-94.
The third-seeded Eagles, who have won eight in a row, will play No. 1 seed Montana in Saturday's championship game. Eastern Washington beat the Grizzlies 74-65 in the only regular-season matchup between the teams this season.
Bliznyuk, the conference MVP this season, broke the record with a free throw that gave third-seeded EWU (20-13) the lead for good about five minutes and a jumper by Benas Griciunas capped a 10-0 run that made it 62-45 with 11 minutes to go. Jamal Aytes' layup with 2:37 left capped an 11-2 run and trimmed Southern Utah's deficit to 72-66, but Jacob Davison scored eight points from there as EWU held on.
Dwayne Morgan and Jadon Cohee scored 15 points apiece for No. 10 seed (13-19) SUU.
Davison finished with 16 points and Griciunas scored 14 on 7-of-7 shooting. The Eagles shot a season-high 64.4 percent (31 of 48) from the field.
