The first game of the 2014-15 NCAA College Basketball season took place this morning in Cheney, Washington just outside of Spokane as the Eastern Washington Eagles hosted the Texas Southern Tigers. In an unusual 8 am local time tipoff, the Eagles showed no signs of fatigue as they pulled away in the second half for an 86-62 win at Reese Court.
Junior forward Venky Jois led the Eagles with 22 points and sophomore guard Tyler Harvey added with 21 points all from three-pointers. Senior guard Drew Brandon had the most impressive game though for Eastern finishing just an assist shy of a triple-double. He had 10 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
Texas Southern was led by junior Tonnie Collier who scored 23 points off the bench. Chris Thomas and Deverell Biggs added double-digit point totals as well for the Tigers. What did them in though was their poor shooting from the floor finishing at 30.0% shooting. That percentage was not helped by their three-point shooting. They only hit 16.0% from three-point land, a majority of those shots came in the second half as they tried to get back into the game.
In comparison, Eastern shot an impressive 50.0% from the floor while adding 15 three-pointers.
Texas Southern did come into the game with a little bit of a disadvantage as they were without star player Jose Rodriguez. They will hope to have him back when they hit the court against on Monday when they travel to Bloomington to square off with the Indiana Hoosiers. Eastern Washington welcomes in Utah Valley University on Tuesday.