Two teams with NCAA tournament dreams just a week ago will face off in the National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday.
Washington State, the No. 4 seed, and Eastern Washington will match up in the first round of the NIT at 8 p.m. in Pullman.
The teams met on Nov. 21 at the Spokane Arena, a game that WSU won handily, 82-56.
EWU (22-10) went on a roll after that, winning 18 straight games at one point, only to close with two losses to end the Big Sky Conference season. The Eagles dropped an 81-80 heartbreaker to Northern Arizona on a deep buzzer-beating shot in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament in Boise last week.
Washington State (17-16), which likely needed to win the Pac-12 Tournament to earn an NCAA bid, ended the season on a roll as well, winning seven straight games before falling to Oregon 75-70 on Thursday in the tournament quarterfinals in Las Vegas.
The winner of Tuesday’s game will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 1-seed Oklahoma State and Youngstown State.