Photo Courtesy of Jeff Barrett

Making their way through the beginning of the season the USU Eastern Men’s Basketball team had compiled a perfect 7-0 record. Tuesday night marked their conference opener as they welcomed the Spartans of Colorado Northwestern to the BDAC. The Spartans would get the best of the Eagles in the contest taking the victory 85-65.

The last time these two teams met up was almost a year ago when USUE came out on top 72-69. In this game neither team protected the ball very well as the Eagles had 19 turnovers which was only one more than Colorado Northwestern and each team was able to capitalize with the Spartans collecting 29 points, and the Eagles able to add 25.

Free throw shooting was also an issue for USU Eastern as they shot 43% from the charity stripe.

Leading the way for the Spartans was 6’8” Chuol Deng-Wal, a freshman guard/forward from South Sudan. Deng-Wal dropped in 25 points while grabbing 13 rebounds. Azarien Stephens, a 6’1” sophomore guard added 25 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Sophomore Peyton Falslev, 6’4” shooting guard/forward, led the way for USU Eastern with 15 points. Nathaniel Mims, a 6’5” guard, added 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, in a game where the Eagles could never cut into the Spartans lead, Colorado Northwestern lead by 10 at the half and won by 20.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Eagles. On Thursday night they will welcome the No.25 ranked Snow College Badgers to Price.

Thursday night’s game can be heard on KOAL 107.3 FM and 750 AM. Tip-off is set for 7. You can also stream the action live at: https://network1sports.com/station/koalnet