USUE Press Release
The Utah State Eastern men’s basketball team lost to the 14th ranked College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles on Saturday night, 114-77, in Twin Falls. Playing their second game in two nights, the Eagles could not keep up with the high-powered shooting of CSI.
USU Eastern fell behind early in the first half, being down as much as 15 within the first seven minutes of the half.
By halftime, CSI led the Eagles by 38 with Jake Hendricks and Charles Jones, Jr. leading the Golden Eagles with a combined 21 points.
“We started the game flat with low energy and CSI started the game with a lot of energy and playing really good defense, which led to easy transition scores for them,” said USU Eastern head coach Vando Becheli.
In the second half, the Eagles turned the corner and actually outscored CSI 52-51, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the first half.
One of the bright spots of the night was the play of two players who were slowed down by injuries earlier this season, sophomore guards Jeffery Yan and Landon Swartz.
“Landon did well, I hope that he keeps getting his confidence back because he can help us a lot. Jeff played great for us coming off the bench because he played defense and ran our team well in the second half,” said Becheli.
Swartz finished the game as the team’s second leading scorer and had five rebounds with two assists off the bench.
“Our team wasn’t shooting well, I recognized that and tried to give a spark by playing good defense, getting into the paint and getting to the free throw line,” said Swartz.
Yan had a team-high seven assists along with four points and three rebounds.
The leading scorer for the Eagles was sophomore Neema Namdar, who finished the game with 20 points.
After the game, Becheli said he hopes his team can learn from the game and use it to improve for future road games.
“I hope our guys learned that we can never start any game without energy or being flat because the opponent will use it as an advantage and give you so much trouble, especially when you are on the road,” said Becheli.
The Eagles will hope to break their two-game losing streak this Thursday on the road against Colorado Northwest.
They will return home Saturday for another home game against Salt Lake Community College. A couple weeks ago, the Eagles lost in triple overtime to SLCC at home in a thriller.
Tip off for Thursday’s game in Rangely, Colo. is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on the CNCC YouTube channel after the women’s game is complete.