Eastern Washington and Portland State will face off on Thursday night in a Big Sky game that will be hard-fought despite the postseason ineligibility of the Vikings.

Portland State has been penalized because of a series of academic issues.

"They were coming off a really good (71-69) home win against Weber State before they lost (71-59) against Northern Arizona," Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine said of the Vikings.

"And even though NAU shot the ball really well against them, I didn't see any decline in effort, or anything like that."

"They were also playying without two starters (junior center Nate Lozeau and junior wing Chehales Tapscott — neither of which is expected to play in tonight games),  and when you're down to 11 scholarship guys because of the (academic) sanctions, that's hard to overcome."