GAME NOTES: Big Sky Conference play gets underway tonight, as the Montana State Bobcats play host to the Eastern Washington Eagles at Worthington Arena in Bozeman.
Montana State, at home for the first of back-to-back league dates with Portland State coming to town two nights from now, is suffering through a three-game slide at the moment and is a game under .500 overall as a result. Eight days ago, MSU was beaten down by the New Mexico Lobos in The Pit by a final of 91-46, one of the most lopsided setbacks in recent years for the Bobcats, who just two days earlier had put up a season-low 36 points against Pepperdine in Malibu.
As for the Eagles, they may be a perfect 4-0 at home in 2011-12, but on the road they have just two victories in eight tries thus far. Like the Bobcats, Eastern Washington has been out of action since December 20 when it was handed a 77-61 defeat by the Saint Mary's-CA Gaels on the road. The loss was the third in the last four games for a EWU program that has just two wins in the month of December (Linfield and Pacific Lutheran), but none against Division I competition.
Montana State leads the all-time series with Eastern Washington by a count of 35-21 since the latter made the leap to Division I beginning in 1983-84.
Three players scored in double figures for the Eagles against Saint Mary's last week, paced by Collin Chiverton with his 18 points before picking up his fifth personal foul, but it wasn't nearly enough as the visitors suffered the 16-point road loss. Cliff Ederaine added 11 points and eight rebounds and Jeffrey Forbes 10 points, while fellow starter Laron Griffin made an impact on the glass with a team-best 12 rebounds. Eastern Washington shot only 39.6 percent from the floor against the Gaels, which was a huge turn-around from the squad's season-high 57.1 percent effort versus Pacific Lutheran. Only twice have the Eagles connected on better than 49 percent from the floor this year, but already the group has converted less than 40 percent five times in 12 games. Chiverton leads the team overall with his 18 ppg, thanks to his 42.1 percent effort behind the three-point line which is better than his overall field goal shooting at 40.2 percent.
After shooting only 37.3 percent against Pepperdine on December 20, the Bobcats actually shot the ball worse the next time they hit the floor as they converted a mere 30.0 percent in the loss to New Mexico in Albuquerque. In addition to shooting only 5-of-21 behind the three-point line, MSU also turned the ball over 21 times and not a single starter scored in double figures, instead leaving that up to Tre Johnson and Christian Moon with 16 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench. Aside from guard Jamie Stewart who converted on 4-of-6 from the floor for his eight points, not a single starter made more than just one field goal. Xavier Blount, the team's leading scorer on the season with his 11.6 ppg, made only 1-of-10 from the floor against the Lobos in 22 minutes of work. Johnson not only accounts for 9.9 ppg to place second on the unit, he is also the top rebounder with close to six and a half boards per game for a team that is producing 73.2 ppg but giving up 71.8 ppg this season.
The Bobcats are struggling to find scoring punch of late, and being at home won't necessarily give the team a leg up against Eastern Washington in the conference opener either.
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