Cheney, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team used a dominant defensive effort to top visiting Saint Martin's, 69-39, in a nonconference contest at Reese Court Friday, Dec. 12.

Win-Loss Records
Eastern improves to 4-3 with the win while Saint Martin's falls to 2-7.

What It Means
EWU is now 3-1 at home on the year and 25-7 at Reese Court in the last two-plus seasons.

Turning Point
Up just four, 17-13, with 7:40 remaining in the first half, the Eagles turned up their defensive pressure, holding Saint Martin's to 1-of-7 shooting for the rest of the half while forcing four costly turnovers. EWU outscored the Saints 17-4 over the final eight minutes of the half, extending its lead to 15 points, 32-17, heading into intermission.

A three-pointer from senior Lexie Nelson and a jumper from sophomore Jade Redmon put Eastern up 20, 37-17, just two minutes into the second half. The Eagles would cruise from there, as SMU got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Top Performers
Nelson led all scorers with 23 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field while making four of her six tries from long range. She pulled down a season-high six rebounds and dished out three assists.

Junior Hayley Hodgins added 12 points and five rebounds while both Redmon and freshman Delaney Hodgins chipped in 11 points apiece. Redmon grabbed seven rebounds while Delaney Hodgins added two blocked shots and two steals.

Senior Melissa Williams registered a game-high eight rebounds to go along with six points and two rejections.

Sophomore Tisha Phillips set a new career high with four assists.

Key Statistics
Eastern shot 43.1 percent from the field on the day while holding Saint Martin's to a 22.0-percent clip. The Saints were just 3-of-19 in the first half as the Eagles held SMU without a field goal for the first 12 minutes of the game.

EWU was unstoppable in the paint, scoring nearly half of its points inside the key while limiting SMU to just 10 paint points.

Eastern outrebounded Saint Martin's, 45-33, and outscored the Saints, 14-5, in second-chance points.

The Eagles turned SMU's 15 turnovers in 20 points while the visitors scored just five points off of EWU's 12 miscues.

Quoting Coach Schuller
"More than anything, I thought we were thinking too much early. I thought early on, we were overpassing and turning down shots that we normally take. At halftime, we talked a lot about moving the ball faster. I felt like we were just holding the ball above our heads and looking around waiting for someone to be open. Once we started moving the ball quickly, it opened things up for us and allowed us to play our game.

"Another thing we started doing better was rebounding better on the other end. That gets us running. I thought Melissa was really good inside defensively, and we had good backside help and forced some turnovers and tough shots. It was nice because we were able to get pretty deep into our bench and stay pretty fresh and keep running for 40 minutes."

Game Notes
* Eastern came into the game leading the nation in free throw percentage at 82.7 percent. The Eagles went 13-of-18 (.722) from the charity stripe, their most misses from the line in a game since they missed eight in their season opener back on Nov. 14.

* It was the Eagles' first 30-point win since Eastern beat Northwest, 90-48, on Dec. 17, 2013.

* Nelson moved into 12th all-time on the career scoring list. She now has 1,047 career points.

Tweet of the Game

Video Highlights

Up Next
EWU will take a short flight to Boise, Idaho, tomorrow for a tilt at Boise State on Sunday, Dec. 14. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. PT.