The Eastern Washington Eagles rallied from an 11-point deficit to stun the Montana Grizzlies, 69-65, winning the Big Sky championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in its history.
Eastern Washington wins 2015 Big Sky basketball tournament: Eagles rally to beat Montana, 69-65
Eastern Washington makes the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history thanks to a late comeback over Montana.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Eastern Washington jumped out to an early lead, but Montana gradually pulled ahead and took a 30-29 lead into halftime. The Eagles were ghastly on offense, shooting just 28.6 percent from the field in the first half.
The game remained tight for most of the second half until the Grizzlies started pulling away to extend their lead to 11 points. The Eagles weren't done, though -- they made a 14-4 run of their own to take the lead, thanks to clutch three-pointers by Tyler Harvey and Felix Von Hofe. Harvey extended the Eagles' lead with a pull-up jumper and foul with 44 seconds to go. He later got a steal to deny the Grizzlies another scoring opportunity. Eastern Washington iced the game with free throws and came away with one of the biggest wins in school history.
After the cold start to the game, Eastern Washington finished with a 44.4 field goal percentage, while Montana shot 43.4 percent. Harvey -- the nation's leading scorer -- led the Eagles with 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting and got four steals. Drew Brandon added 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Martin Breunig led Montana with 22 points.
The Eagles will likely be a No. 14-15 seed in next week’s tournament, but nobody should be overlooking them, particularly if Harvery has a hot shooting hand again. SB Nation’s Mike Rutherford went into more detail on why you should root for them.
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