By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:

PRICE – Utah State Eastern men’s basketball picked up two wins at the Wright Physical Therapy Shootout in Twin Falls, Idaho on Friday and Saturday.

They opened the tournament with a 102-92 overtime win over the Portland Community College Panthers.

USU Eastern got the win despite shooting only 22% from three, 50% from the free throw line and giving up 27 turnovers.

“The guys really just refused to lose this game. With 27 turnovers and how poorly we shot the ball, we gave every reason to not win. But sometime the statbook can’t tell the whole story. Our team just kept fighting,” said USU Eastern Assistant Coach Ray Jones, Jr.

The Eagles were led by sophomore forward Stevan Jeremic’s 23 points and 20 rebounds, both team-highs.

Jeremic scored 19 of his points and 16 of his rebounds in the second half.

“Stevan is capable of those nights every night. He’s been putting in a ton of extra work and his confidence is higher than ever. It’s great to see him coming to life,” said Jones.

It wasn’t only Jeremic that dominated the Panthers in the paint on Friday night, sophomore forward Ognjen Pantovic put up an impressive performance as well for the Eagles.

Pantovic scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for USU Eastern, his third double-double of the season.

“Oggie played tough this weekend. He had a big offensive rebound and layup to tie it into overtime. Stevan and him were really big for us in both games on the boards and finishing around the rim,” said USU Eastern guard Tanner Nygren.

On Saturday the Eagles picked up their tenth win of the season after beating Western Wyoming 77-70.

It was the third win of the season over the Mustangs and their fifth straight win overall.

After trailing at halftime by nine the Eagle came back in the second half by shooting 75% from the free throw line and making 8 of 12 from behind the three-point line.

Jones said it was an adjustment in the first half that helped springboard them to a better second half.

“We made some subs and went into our zone and that gave us a little more life. We went into half time down by single digits and knew coming out we need to play the way we’ve been practicing and we’d be fine,” said Jones.

One of the big reasons why the adjustments worked against the Mustangs was the play of Nygren off the bench.

Nygren scored a career-high 12 points off the bench helping the Eagles climb back for the win.

“He came in and brought a or of energy and made big plays and the guys really fed off of it. Energy is contagious like that with our team,” said Jones.

Sophomore guard Matija Novkovic was the leading scorer with 20 points while Jeremic grabbed a team-high 14 boards against Western Wyoming.

Jeremic also had 12 points, making that his third straight game with a double-double.

Up next for the Eagles is a three-game road trip to Arizona starting with a game against Arizona Western on Friday afternoon.

Nygren says the Eagles will have to use the same energy that has helped them win five straight if they want to be successful in Arizona.

“We just have to keep playing with that same energy. It starts on the defensive end and then the offense will come. We will get back in the gym and be ready for this next trip,” said Nygren.

USU Eastern currently sits at 10-3 overall and have five more games left of the non-conference schedule before their conference opener at home against Colorado Northwest on Saturday January 5, 2019.

Broadcast information regarding the three games in Arizona will made available later this week.

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