NAU season ends in first round of Big Sky tournament
RENO, Nev. -- Austin McBroom scored 16, Venky Jois had 14 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and defending Big Sky Conference tournament champion Eastern Washington beat 11th-seeded Northern Arizona 74-52 on Tuesday night in the first round to snap a four-game skid.
Eastern Washington won three games in last year's tournament at Montana to earn its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Bogdan Bliznyuk added 15 points for six-seeded Eastern Washington (17-14), which will play No. 3 seed Idaho (20-11) in a quarterfinal game on Thursday. The Eagles made 10 of 32 3-pointers -- seven in the second half.
With his last rebound, Jois reached 1,000 for his career.
The Eagles led 36-29 at halftime after shooting 15 of 35 (42.9 percent). Northern Arizona turned it over eight times in the first half and 17 overall.
Ako Kaluna had 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Northern Arizona (5-25), which played eight freshman, one sophomore and one junior in the game.
"I was really proud of our team and how they competed," said head coach Jack Murphy. "We came out here tonight and gave it all we had. The first half we had a ton of energy and you saw it out there. The second half our youth started to show. This was a good learning experience for this young team, and I think our future is very bright."
