Jan. 28, 2007

Final Stats

The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team was able to end its six-game losing streak with a convincing 74-56 win over Sacramento State (3-17, 1-5 Big Sky Conference) on Sunday afternoon (Jan. 28). The Eagles (7-14, 2-6 BSC) as a whole shot greater than 50 percent for the first time in 2006-07, nailing 31-of-56 shots today for a 55.4 percent average.

"I think our shot selection was pretty good tonight," head coach Wendy Schuller said. "When you are able to get fast-break points and points in the paint, you are always going to shoot better from 5-6 feet than from 18 feet."

Nicole Scott came within one of the freshman's career high point total with 18 tonight (she had 19 in an 84-82 loss at Portland State on Jan. 13). Her shooting percentage of 72.7 (8-of-11) is the second-best attained by an Eagle this year (Ashley Knight made 5-of-6 in Eastern's 69-66 win at Montana State on Jan. 4).

Joanna Chadd had a break-out game, as she made both three-point attempts and hit on 4-of-6 shots overall. She had shot just 3-for-36 her last three games, which was a very uncharacteristic stretch for the pure shooter. Overall, she had 10 points tonight.

Also scoring in double figures for the Eagles was Phynique Allen, who tallied 14 points to go with her game-high six assists. The assist total ties for the second-most earned by an Eagle in 2006-07. Sydney Benson, meanwhile, set the rebounding pace in the contest with seven.

"I felt that tonight we played with great speed and quickness and that we made some big plays defensively," Schuller said. "We were able to force a lot of turnovers (20) and Phynique gave us a big spark off the bench today."

After a close first seven minutes, the Eagles then proceeded to pull away from the Hornets on the strength of a 23-5 run, increasing a 13-12 lead with 13:33 left to a commanding 36-17 advantage with 1:25 remaining in the half.

After the break, the lead increased to as high as 31 (64-33) with 9:05 left and the Eagles cruised to the finish line from there.

Eastern returns to Reese Court on Thursday (Feb. 1) with a 7:05 p.m. game versus Montana State (8-11, 3-4 BSC). The Eagles claimed the teams' first meeting in the opening Big Sky Conference game of the season, 69-66, in Bozeman on Jan. 4. Montana then will arrive in Cheney for a 2:05 p.m. Saturday game. The Lady Griz are 18-2, 6-1 BSC, and play at Portland State on Thursday before meeting the Eagles.

"The Montana State and Montana games are both really big games for us on our home court," Schuller said. "We need to take care of business and get some wins. Montana State is playing really well right now and Montana is Montana. It is going to be a tough week, but after tonight I feel a lot better about our team. We have done better handling our assist-to-turnover ratio (23:16 tonight, first time in seven games more assists were attained than turnovers), and that is a good indication that we are playing together more as a team."