BIG SKY CONFERENCE

* EASTERN WASHINGTON (4-7, 0-1) at CS NORTHRIDGE (5-6, 1-0)

Time--7.

Northridge players said they felt a new level of intensity playing the school’s first game in a legitimate Division I conference Thursday night. Northridge must finish in the top six in the Big Sky to make the conference tournament, the winner of which goes to the NCAA tournament. Eastern Washington, which lost its conference opener, 79-62, at Northern Arizona, is struggling. Rodrick McClure, who had been the starting point guard, was killed in a car accident near his home in Las Vegas on Dec. 26.