E. Washington vaults Montana 78-50 into Big Sky final

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Jacob Groves scored a career-high 21 points as Eastern Washington routed Montana 78-50 in the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament on Friday night.

The second-seeded Eagles will meet No. 5 seed Montana State in Saturday’s championship game. Montana State tripped up top-seeded Southern Utah in Friday’s other semifinal.

Groves hit 10 of 13 shots in 27 minutes. Tanner Groves added 18 points for Eastern Washington (15-7). Kim Aiken Jr. added 8 points and 10 rebounds. The Eagles shot 56% for the game (31 of 55) and outrebounded the Grizzlies 40-25.

Eastern Washington dominated the first half and led 44-15 at halftime, holding Montana to a season-low 15 points on 6-for-28 shooting.

Cameron Parker had 15 points for the Grizzlies (15-13). Josh Bannan added 10 rebounds.

___

For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25

___

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up