Bobcats Finish Season with Tourney Loss to Eastern Washington

Thursday, March 14

Boise, ID

8 p.m.

Montana State University

15-17

Eastern Washington

15-17

Montana State

Eastern Washington

Photo by: Andrew Pedersen

Bobcats Finish Season with Tourney Loss to Eastern Washington

3/14/2019 11:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Keljin Blevins' heroics not enough to carry Cats past Eagles

By: Bill Lamberty

BOISE, Idaho – Brian Fish knows he sounds like a broken record. He also knows he's right.

In identifying rebounding as the key to his team's success throughout the season, he has been right most of the time. The team that grabbed the most rebounds won 25 of MSU's 31 games before the team's Thursday night Big Sky Conference Tournament quarterfinal contest against Eastern Washington.

The Eagles made it 26 of 32, beating the Cats 90-84 in Boise. The Eagles out-rebounded MSU 34-to-25, and converted their 13 offensive rebounds into a 19-3 advantage in second chance points. "That was everything," Fish said of Eastern's opportunism on the glass. "The plus-11 for them on the boards was truly the difference in the game. That was hard to overcome."

Eastern stayed afloat in the first half by turning 10 offensive rebounds in a 15-0 advantage in second chance points, but the used hot shooting in the second half. The Eagles shot 60.9% from the floor after halftime, 55.2% for the game. The Cats shot 45.5%, but MSU's 16 three-pointers matched a season high.

Eastern Washington's Mason Peatling scored 28 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, leading all players in both categories. Keljin Blevins scored a season-high 27 points to lead the Bobcats. Many of his opportunities came as Eastern clamped down on perimeter scorers Tyler Hall and Harald Frey.

"They used a little box-and-one on Tyler," Fish said. "They threw a lot at us. Keljin took advantage of it, and I thought we handled it well."

Blevins concurred. "They box-and-oned Tyler, face-guarded him," he said. "That created opportunities for others."

After MSU held a lead in the late minutes of the first half, a Jack Perry three-pointer to close that period gave the Eagles a 45-44 halftime advantage. The Eagles then scored on six of their first seven possessions in the second half and built a lead that reached seven. But for every EWU run there was a Bobcat answer.

"This team's really close," said senior forward Sam Neumann. "We fight for each other, and we kept fighting tonight."

Eastern led for most of the second half, and after a Kim Aiken three-pointer at 8:10 pushed the lead to 74-62. But Tyler Hall hit a jumper, Blevins hit a three-pointer and a layup, and with just under four minutes to play Neumann hit a triple to pull the Cats within 78-73.

That's when the fireworks really began. After Peatling converted one free throw, Hall hit a three-pointer, Russell Daniels hit both ends of a one-and-one. Then, with 1:24 left Tyler Hall hit the final three-pointer of his Bobcat career, a leaning, angling top-of-the-key teardrop that tied the score at 81. From that point, though, the Eagles scored on every possession and MSU couldn't keep pace.

Hall finished his brilliant career with 2,518 career points, 62^nd all-time in Division I basketball history. His 431 career three-pointers is eighth-most all-time. He hit at least one three-pointer in his last 38 consecutive contests.

The first half was played at a torrid pace. Each team possessed the ball 31 times – Eastern scored on 20 of its possessions, MSU on 18. The Bobcats shot 50% from the floor and 58.3% from the arc, while EWU hit 51.4% of its shots, but just 35.7% from deep. The Eagles proved to be birds of prey, snaring 18 rebounds, grabbing 10 of their own missed shots and turning those into 15 points.

Mason Peatling did a majority of Eastern's first half glasswork. The EWU forward grabbed seven offensive boards and scored 19 points in the first half.

Montana State finishes the season 15-17, the program's second-most wins this decade. The 11 league wins is tied for the most since 2002. The Cats say goodbye to a tremendous senior class, headlined by the historic greatness of Tyler Hall. But Keljin Blevins finished his career with his best scoring game and most three-pointers (six), and Sam Neumann has been a foundational part of the program since his arrival.

#GoCatsGo