Cheney, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team used a 28-10 run over the first 10 minutes of the second half to turn a nine-point deficit into a 13-point advantage en route to topping visiting Portland, 72-65, in a nonconference game at Reese Court Wednesday, Dec. 17.

Win-Loss Records
Eastern improves to 5-4 with the win while Portland falls to 2-8 after the setback.

What It Means
EWU is now 4-1 at home on the year and 26-7 at Reese Court in its last 33 outings.

Turning Point
A pair of free throws by the Pilots' Cassandra Thompson extended the visitors' lead to seven, 32-25, just 10 seconds into the second half, but sophomore Jade Redmon answered with a lay-up on the other end to ignite a dominating stretch by the Eagles on both sides of the ball. Eastern would go on to score 25 of the next 33 points in the game, opening up a 53-40 lead with 10:21 remaining. Portland was held to 4-of-13 shooting during the stretch while committing six turnovers, a majority of which came as a result of the Eagles' suffocating full-court press.

The visitors clawed back to within five, 53-48, at the 8:48 mark, but five points from senior Lexie Nelson and a jumper from classmate Melissa Williams restored a 10-point cushion, 60-50, with 4:33 left to play. Portland would get no closer than six the rest of the way as the Pilots were forced to foul down the stretch, putting the nation's second-best free throw shooting team at the line. EWU sealed the win by going a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe over the final 30 seconds.

Top Performers
Nelson and junior Hayley Hodgins led Eastern with 16 points apiece as both did a majority of their damage in the second half, accounting for 12 points apiece over the final 20 minutes. They both made a pair of three-pointers while Nelson finished 4-of-4 from the free throw line to go along with four rebounds.

Hayley Hodgins added four boards and three steals while tying her career high with four blocked shots.

Redmon notched her third career double-double, tallying 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds. She added four assists and three steals to her impressive stat line.

Freshman Delaney Hodgins finished with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting, knocking down two triples while adding three rebounds and three assists.

Williams chipped in nine points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. She added three blocks, two steals and two assists to her tally.

Key Statistics
Eastern shot just 28.9 percent in the first half, including a 1-of-14 showing from three-point range, but connected at a 50-percent clip in the second half, knocking down six of its 12 three-point attempts. Portland shot 35.1 percent in the second half after shooting 48 percent in the opening stanza.

EWU committed just eight turnovers on the night, its fewest in a game so far this season. Portland turned the ball over 17 times as the Eagles registered 14 points off turnovers to the Pilots' five.

The Pilots held a slight edge on the glass, 46-39, but both teams pulled down 12 offensive rebounds apiece.

Eastern finished with a season-high 10 blocked shots, three more than its previous season high.

Quoting Coach Schuller
"I thought we were getting a lot of good shots in the first half, and we just weren't knocking them down. As a coaching staff, we talked about how to approach it and, as an old shooter, I know the adage that the only way to get back on is to keep shooting. The main thing we talked about is focusing and not just throwing it up there. We also talked about trying to get baskets in other ways and not just relying on three-point shots. Jade got to the rim at the beginning of the second half and that kind of opened things up for us. Hayley hit a couple of three's and we kind of fed off of that.

"Defensively, we did a good job of getting after it. Even though we got outrebounded, I thought we were tough on the boards tonight. I thought we controlled the tempo and played the pace that we like to play. It's fun basketball for us when we do that, and that's what we want to see from our team."

Game Notes
* The last time EWU had at least 10 blocked shots in a game was back on Nov. 21, 2009 against Corban when the Eagles recorded 11 blocks. Eastern came into tonight's game ranked second in the Big Sky and 17th nationally with an average of 5.9 blocks per game.

* Hayley Hodgins scored her 800th career point in an Eastern uniform with a free throw late in the game. She has scored in double figures in the Eagles' last eight games.

* Nelson sits just four points shy of the top 10 on Eastern's career scoring list. She currently has 1,084 points in 71 career games.

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Up Next
Eastern will board a cross-country flight tomorrow bound for the state of Florida, where the Eagles will play two games as part of the Gator Holiday Classic in Gainesville, Fla. EWU opens the two-day tournament against Georgia Southern on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 9 a.m. PT.