The Utah State Eastern men's basketball team hosted the Region 18/Region 1 Challenge for their first home games of the season. The Eagles welcome No. 10 Snow College, Arizona Western, and No. 15 Eastern Arizona for a preseason tournament.

The Eagles began the tournament against the Arizona Western Matadors on Friday night. Arizona Western's biggest lead of the half was nine points as the Matadors took a 36-42 lead into the half. Isaac Castagnetto led the Eagles with 14 points at the break, and Ike Palmer had seven to help.

In the second half, Eastern battled back to take a six-point lead with five minutes left in the game. AWC then went on a 10-0 run to take a 69-75 lead with just over two minutes left. Eastern was able to cut the lead to two with 76 seconds left, but Arizona Western walked away with an 83-78 win.

Castagnetto scored 22 points to lead the Eagles' attack. Ike Palmer, Bowen Davies, and Kayin Turner each scored 14 to finish with double figures.

Saturday brought a matchup with No. 15 Eastern Arizona. Defense was the name of the game for the Eagles against the Monsters. The Eagles outscored EAC 34-33 in the first half. The 33 points were the lowest first-half total for EAC this season. Kayin Turner (12) and Seven Bahati (10) had double-digits at the half to lead the Eagles.

The Eagles started the second half with the momentum from the first. After seven minutes had passed in the second half, Eastern held a nine-point lead. After a Bahati three with six minutes left in the game, the Eagles' lead never dipped below 19 points. The Eagles closed out the game to upset No. 15 Eastern Arizona, 77-57.

Turner and Bahati each had 23 points in the game. The two scorers combined to shoot 17-24 (71%) from the field, and 6-7 (86%) from three-point range.

The Eagles will stay home for a mid-week matchup with the Yavapai College Roughriders. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. from the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center.