Eagles face tough competition in young season

In the past few weeks, Utah State University Eastern has played a lot of basketball. The Men’s Basketball team has played against Eastern Arizona College three separate times, Green River College, Treasure Valley Community College, and Arizona Western College. The order of the schedule went as follows: Eastern Arizona twice in a row, Green River, Treasure Valley, Arizona Western, and finishing with Eastern Arizona one more time.

The first game Utah State played against Eastern Arizona unfortunately ended in a loss, with the final score being 59-69. Martel Williams was the leading scorer for the game, where he put up 24 points and picked up eight rebounds. Their second game against Eastern Arizona was a completely different story though. The Eagles stayed ahead the entire game this time, finishing the game with a final score of 77-64. Williams was the leading scorer for this game as well, where he scored 24 points. Dyson Lighthall also heavily contributed USU Eastern’s favor, where he put up 21 points on 83% efficiency and snagging 12 rebounds as well.

For the next game on the schedule, Utah State found themselves playing against Green River College at the Snow Tournament. The Green River Gators took the lead in the first half of the game, entering the second half with an eight-point lead. The Eagles came back in the second half though, scoring 56 points in the second half. The final box score was 97-95 in Utah State’s favor. Williams picked up a double-double, where he scored 34 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and shot 5/6 from the three-point line. Dyson Lighthall and Jack Jamele put up 20 points and 19 points respectively to help contribute to the win.

The next day, USU Eastern faced off against Treasure Valley Community College at the Snow Tournament. The game started off close, but the Eagles ran away with the victory, finishing the game a score of 95-54 in Utah’s favor. Many players from the Eagles scored double-digit points in this game, with Trace Ross scoring 21 points, Martel Williams with 20 points, Dyson Lighthall with 12 points, and Ethan Copeland scoring 11 points. Williams grabbed 10 rebounds, along with Copeland picking up 7 rebounds.

Utah State University Eastern’s next game was not until five days later, where they played against Arizona Western College. Going into the second half, the score was 30-31 in Arizona’s favor. Utah State rallied back for the second half, where Williams would score 19 points in the second half to give the Eagles the lead. Williams would finish the game with 32 points and five rebounds. The final score was 76-67. Ross put up 12 points and three rebounds, along with Lighthall scoring 11 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.

For their most recent game, the Eagles faced off against Eastern Arizona College once again. Despite Utah State’s efforts, Eastern Arizona won the game 72-81. Williams put up 23

points and grabbed seven rebounds. Copeland finished the game with 15 points and five rebounds.