Under the Radar Game of the Day: Eastern Washington at Idaho

Eastern Washington at Idaho, 10:00 PM Eastern, watchbigsky.com

Conference play is kicking off across the country this week and tonight we focus in on the conference openers for a pair of teams that we expect to contend for the Big Sky championship as Eastern Washington travels 90 minutes southeast to Moscow, Idaho to take on the Idaho Vandals.  Eastern Washington had one of the top non-conference campaigns among Big Sky schools, entering play tonight at 8-5 overall, though looking to break a three  game losing streak that saw them fall at Northern Kentucky, Xavier and Colorado.  Bogdan Bliznyuk continues to lead the way for the Eagles, including a 25 point effort in the loss last time out at Colorado.  Also keep an eye on Jacob Wiley, who had 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks in the loss at Xavier.

The Idaho Vandals had been one of our preseason picks to contend for the Big Sky title, but struggled during non-conference play, winning just 5 of 11 games, with only 3 of those coming against D1 competition.  Victor Sanders has been carrying much of the team’s scoring load lately, averaging 17.5 points per game over his last four.  Unfortunately, our favorite Vandals player has not been scoring as much as we thought he would, as the great Chad Sherwood has only reached double-digits once this season.  Clearly, with a player with such an awesome name on their roster, the Vandals have just been holding him back waiting for league play to begin.  EWU and the rest of the Big Sky better watch out starting tonight!