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An experienced Eastern Washington team is stacking wins and soaring toward March

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An experienced Eastern Washington team is stacking wins and soaring toward March


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Erick Doxey photo

Guard/Forward Casey Jones

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When you think of Cheney, college basketball probably isn”t the first thing that comes to mind, but these days maybe it should be. That’s because the Eastern Washington University Eagles have found a consistent formula that’s turning high-octane offense into success in the win column.

The Eagles are 17-9 on the season and an impressive 11-2 in Big Sky Conference play. Their record is no fluke. Under third-year head coach David Riley, Eastern Washington has built a culture that allows players to have fun on the basketball court and, in turn, encourages them to stay and develop within the program. These Eags are old and experienced, and it shows in their results.

“I think our development track record kind of speaks for itself. We had five of the last seven [Big Sky] MVPs. We’ve kind of done all this success with developing our own guys,” Riley says. “I think that’s lost nowadays where people transfer from school to school and they just kind of work on what’s right in front of them. We try to have a long-term vision for each of our guys.”

That long-term vision can only pay off if the players are willing to stick around. At Eastern, the top-five leading scorers are upperclassmen, all averaging over 10 points per game.

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Ethan Price and Casey Jones have spent their entire careers at Eastern. Cedric Coward and Dane Erikstrup are in their second year in the program after transferring up from the D-III and D-II levels respectively. Of those five, only Jake Kyman is a first-year transfer (UCLA to Wyoming to EWU).

When you take an experienced core like that and let them loose on the offensive end, you wind up with some electrifying basketball.

“It’s a fun way to play, and it allows you to be yourself out there” Riley says. “Our guys get to play to their strengths. They don’t have to fit into some box, which is nice, and it’s just a fun group. We’ve got a really low-ego, goofy group. It’s fun to root for.”

He’s not wrong. As of Feb. 16, the Eagles are averaging a shade under 80 points per game behind one of the more uptempo offenses in the entire sport. They’re shooting 49.8 percent from the field, the eighth-best mark in the country. If not for a brutal start to the season that saw the Eagles go on the road to face power conference team after power conference team, those numbers would be even higher.

After reigning Big Sky MVP Steele Venters transferred to Gonzaga in the offseason, EWU wasn’t tabbed by coaches or the media to be Big Sky favorites. The Eagles opened the season with a 1-6 record and losses to Utah, Mississippi, Cincinnati, Stanford, Washington State and USC, all on the road. Their only win in November came in their only home game that month, against non-Division I Walla Walla.

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“I felt like every game [in November] taught us a different lesson, and the beauty of it is it forces you to live in reality, those big games against really good teams,” Riley says. “Because sometimes against lesser teams, if you make a mistake, they’re not going to make you pay for it.”

The Eagles scheduled those games knowing that it would be tough but that they’d be able to learn from them. It’s not the kind of schedule you’d want with a young team, but with an older team like he has this season, Riley’s group wanted the challenge.

“We kind of had a choice between a non-Division I team and Stanford, just the way it worked out. We talked to our veterans that were returning and they were like, ‘Let’s go see where we’re at, let’s get another Power Five game.’”

While all the Power Five games resulted in a loss, it helped lay a foundation for the success that the Eagles are having in Big Sky play. Eastern’s running away with the league race in conference play, multiple games clear of all challengers as the team enters its final five games of the regular season.

Unfortunately, at the Big Sky level, to make the NCAA Tournament you have to win the Big Sky Tournament — in its 60-year history, the league has never sent multiple teams dancing. Last season the top-seeded Eagles fell victim to a 1-point upset in the first round of the conference tournament, which despite an incredible regular season, dashed their NCAA Tournament dreams.

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This season’s Eagles, for the most part, were also last season’s Eagles. They certainly remember what happened a year ago.

“I think it definitely shaped our goals and our vision for the year. We talked about how we have one main goal and then a bunch of secondary goals. So the main goal is to win in [the Big Sky Tournament]. That’s the No. 1 goal. We talked about that on June 20, our first day,” Riley says.

One of the secondary goals, he says, is to win the Big Sky regular season as well. They’re on track to do that with just five games remaining, including two at home next week against rivals Montana and Montana State, the latter of which defeated Eastern in league play this season.

When asked what people around Spokane should know about his team this season, Riley mentions their appealing style of play, the program’s success in having the most wins in the Big Sky over the past 10 seasons, and specifically the quality of this year’s squad. But he twice noted where Cheney is relative to Spokane.

“We’re 20 minutes away to watch some great hoops and come support these guys.” ♦

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Eastern Washington vs. Montana • Thu, Feb. 29 at 6 pm • Reese Court • ESPN+
Eastern Washington vs. Montana State • Sat, March 2 at 2 pm • Reese Court • ESPN+





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Widespread Verizon outage prompts emergency alerts in Washington, New York City

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Widespread Verizon outage prompts emergency alerts in Washington, New York City


Verizon said on Wednesday that its wireless service was suffering an outage impacting cellular data and voice services.

The nation’s largest wireless carrier said that its “engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”

Verizon’s statement came after a swath of social media comments directed at Verizon, with users saying that their mobile devices were showing no bars of service or “SOS,” indicating a lack of connection.

Verizon, which has more than 146 million customers, appears to have started experiencing services issues around 12:00 p.m. ET, according to comments on social media site X.

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Two hours later, Verizon posted an update on social media, saying that its engineers were “continuing to address today’s service interruptions,” but did not say if a specific reason for the outage had been identified or when it could be resolved.

“We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” the company said.

Despite those efforts, shortly after 4:00 p.m. ET, Verizon issued a third statement that contained little new information. The company said teams were “on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue.”

Users had initially reported problems with Verizon’s competitors, T-Mobile and AT&T, as well. But both companies said they were not experiencing any service problems.

“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected,” a spokesperson told NBC News. “However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.”

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A spokeswoman for AT&T also said the company’s network was “operating normally.”

A Verizon store in New York City on Jan. 12, 2024.Angus Mordant / Bloomberg via Getty Images

In Washington, D.C., the District’s official emergency notification system sent out a message to residents saying that the Verizon outage was “nationwide.”

“If you have an emergency and can not connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police district or fire station to report the emergency,” the AlertDC system told recipients.

New York City’s Office of Emergency Management also said it was aware of the outage without mentioning Verizon by name. The city said it was “working closely with our partners” to review the outage and “assess any potential effects on city agencies & essential services.”



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Vance to meet Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday

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Vance to meet Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday


People walk along a street in downtown of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP


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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

NUUK, Greenland — Along the narrow, snow-covered main street in Greenland’s capital, international journalists and camera crews stop passersby every few meters (feet) asking them for their thoughts on a crisis which Denmark’s prime minister has warned could potentially trigger the end of NATO.

Greenland is at the center of a geopolitical storm as U.S. President Donald Trump is insisting he wants to own the island — and the residents of its capital Nuuk say it is not for sale. Trump said he wants to control Greenland at any cost and the White House has not ruled out taking the island by force.

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance will meet Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Arctic island, which is a semiautonomous territory of the United States’ NATO ally Denmark.

Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press in Nuuk that she hoped American officials would get the message to “back off.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Tuesday that, “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

Greenland is strategically important because as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals which are needed for computers and phones.

Trump also said he wants the island to expand America’s security and has cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it.

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But both experts and Greenlanders question that claim.

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told AP. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.

His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.”

Denmark has said the U.S. — which already has a military presence — can boost its bases on Greenland. For that reason, “security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.

Nørgaard told AP he filed a police complaint in Nuuk against Trump’s “aggressive” behavior because, he said, American officials are threatening the people of Greenland and NATO. He suggested Trump was using the ships as a pretext to further American expansion.

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“Donald Trump would like to have Greenland, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would like Ukraine and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping would like to have Taiwan,” Nørgaard said.

Mikaelsen, the student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark which provides free health care, education and payments during study.

“I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us,” she said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources said it’s “unfathomable” that the United States is discussing taking over a NATO ally and urged the Trump administration to listen to voices from the Arctic island’s people.



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HIGHLIGHT | Lawrence Dots a Pass to Washington for a 6-Yard TD

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HIGHLIGHT | Lawrence Dots a Pass to Washington for a 6-Yard TD


DE Dawuane Smoot, LB Foyesade Oluokun, TE Brenton Strange, S Eric Murray, and S Antonio Johnson  speak with the media after practice on Thursday ahead of the Wild Card Matchup vs. Bills.

0:00 – 2:28 – DE Dawuane Smoot

2:29 – 6:24 – LB Foyesade Oluokun

6:25 – 9:25 – TE Brenton Strange

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9:26 – 11:32 – S Eric Murray

11:33 – 13:46 – S Antonio Johnson



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