Cheney, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team saw its perfect 4-0 start to Big Sky Conference play come to an end Saturday, Jan. 17, falling to Sacramento State, 73-67, in a league counter at Reese Court.

Win-Loss Records
A battle between the top two teams in the conference standings, EWU drops to 4-1 in league play and 11-5 overall while Sacramento State improves to 7-10 overall and 5-1 in the Big Sky.

What It Means
The loss ends a stretch of seven consecutive wins for Eastern, the program's longest winning streak since 2009-10. It also sees Sacramento State take sole possession of first place in the Big Sky standings through the first three weeks of league play.

Turning Point
With the Hornets up two, 48-46, at the 13:58 mark of the second half, sophomore Jade Redmon knocked down two free throws on Eastern's next possession, igniting a 14-2 run over the next five minutes that put the Eagles' up 10, 60-50. The visitors managed to cut EWU's lead to three, 63-60, with 5:23 remaining, but a lay-up from junior Hayley Hodgins gave the Eagles a five-point edge, 65-60, at the 3:52 mark.

After the game's final media timeout, Sacramento State forced Eastern into a shot clock violation before the Hornets' Takara Burse connected on a three-pointer to bring CSUS to within two, 65-63, with 2:50 left. Following another EWU turnover, Burse scored inside, momentarily tying the game before Hayley Hodgins buried two free throws on Eastern's next trip down the court to put the Eagles back on top.

Those free throws would turn out to be EWU's final points of the game, however, as Sacramento State closed the game on an 8-0 run to steal the victory. The Eagles turned the ball over twice down the stretch, missed all three of its field goal attempts and let CSUS get a crucial offensive rebound on a missed free throw with EWU down two and 13 seconds left.

Top Performers
Hayley Hodgins led all scorers with 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. She played all 40 minutes, recording six rebounds, three of which came on the offensive end, and picked up one steal and one assist.

Freshman Delaney Hodgins registered her second career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds to go along with two blocks, two assists and one steal.

Senior Melissa Williams pulled down a game-high 14 rebound and notched 10 points, good for her sixth double-double of the season.

Sophomore Jade Redmon notched seven points, seven assists and six rebounds while classmate Tisha Phillips came off the bench to score six points.

Key Statistics
Eastern turned the ball over a season-high 28 times, 17 of which came in the first half. The Hornets gave the ball away just nine times, finishing with 30 points off turnovers compared to the Eagles' 10.

EWU dominated on the boards, winning the rebounding battle, 51-31, while holding Sacramento State to 14 offensive rebounds, well below its Big Sky-leading average of 20.5 offensive boards per game.

Eastern shot 49.1 percent from the field and held CSUS to a 37.0-percent clip. Sacramento State made nine three-pointers while the Eagles buried just one shot from long range.

Quoting @EWUCoachSchu
"That game came down to which team was able to make more plays at the end. They had some kids step up and make some big shots and we missed some shots that we should hit. It's frustrating when you play so hard. We didn't necessarily play well, but we played really, really hard, and when you expend that energy and come up just short like we did, its tough.

"I don't think we necessarily need to on anything basketball-related, but we need to work on always having an attacking mindset and wanting to go at people. I just didn't think we attacked the lane enough. I didn't think we had kids that wanted the ball in their hands, especially late. That's something we definitely have to learn from today's game."

Game Notes
* The Eagles' 28 turnovers were six more than its previous season high of 22 on Nov. 22 against SMU and the most in a game since EWU turned it over 28 times against Seattle back on Feb. 8, 2011.

* The loss was Eastern's first of the season when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent. EWU was 10-0 coming into today's game when shooting a higher percentage.

* Senior Lexie Nelson entered the game as the Big Sky's third-leading scorer with an average of 17.5 points per game but was held to just two points, tying her career low in an Eastern uniform.

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Video Highlights

Up Next
Eastern begins a stretch of three straight road games at Northern Colorado on Thursday, Jan. 22. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. PT.