PROVO, Utah – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team had their first road test of the season Saturday afternoon (Nov. 17) as they took on BYU in Provo, Utah. Eastern had three in double figures, but ran into turnover trouble and dropped the contest 80-65.
 
Freshman Grace Kirscher led Eastern with 21 points, the first 20-plus point performance by the Eagles this year. She went 8-for-13 from the field and 3-for-6 behind the arc in her new career-high. Violet Kapri Morrow (16) and Jessica McDowell-White (12) were the other Eagles in double figures.  
 
"Obviously, this wasn't what we were hoping for as an outcome. We saw some better things in terms of some scorers stepping up and some shooting from the perimeter that was better than it's been, but overall, we struggled offensively. When you turn the ball over 27 times, it's going to be hard to win games. We need to make better decisions and take care of the ball," said head coach Wendy Schuller.
 
Uriah Howard got Eastern on the board first, but BYU would quickly respond with a 10-0 run to take the lead. A McDowell-White three-pointer would stop the run, but the Eagles struggled with possession, turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter of play. Eastern would call a timeout and Morrow would nail a jumper to cut the deficit to seven points, but the Eagles trailed by eight after one quarter of play, 20-12.
 
Kirscher scored five points in the second quarter. The first three-pointer of her EWU career would put Eastern within eight points and another jumper put the Eagles within 10 points later on. Heating up, Eastern made four straight attempts from the field, but the Cougars used a 6-0 run late in the second quarter and led by as many as 16 points to lead 40-26 at the half.
 
Amira Chandler opened the scoring for Eastern in the third quarter with four-straight points, but both defenses began to settle in as there were only a combined 10-points scored at the under-five minute media timeout. After the timeout, Kirscher would make both free throws and hit her second three-pointer to cap off a 7-0 run by the Eagles and cut their deficit to single digits, 44-37.
 
Both sides exploded for 22 fourth-quarter points. McDowell-White would make three three-point field goals in the fourth quarter as both sides exchanged baskets. The Cougars used an 8-0 run to lead by as many as 22 points in the fourth frame. However, the Eagles would not back down, specifically behind the hands of Kirscher who scored six straight-points to help Eastern close the game on a 7-0 run. Despite Eastern's late push, the Eagles would fall to BYU by a final score of 80-65.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, Eastern Washington moves to 1-2 on the young season while BYU improves to 2-1. The series record moves to 4-1 in the Cougars' favor.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: The Eagles were led by freshman Kirscher who scored a career-high 21 points, the first 20-plus point performance from any EWU player this season. She went 8-for-13 from the field and capitalized on three out of six three-point attempts while adding four rebounds.
 
Morrow scored in double figures for the third-straight game, scoring 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting while going 5-for-7 from the free throw line. McDowell-White, a freshman, tied her career-best 12 points for her second double-figure scoring game of the season. All 12 points were scored off of three-pointers as she went 4-for-8 from three-point range.
 
Uriah Howard led the team with eight rebounds and also added eight points. Alissa Sealby led the team with a career-best four assists and two steals while going 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
 
KEY STATS: The Cougars were able to score 24 points off of Eastern's 27 turnovers and Eastern scored 19 off of BYU's 17 turnovers. The Eagles out-rebounded the Cougars 36-to-24. As a team, Eastern shot 40.4 percent from the field on 23-for-57 shooting while BYU shot 52.8 percent on 28-for-53.
 
KAPRI'S QUEST FOR 1,000: Senior Violet Kapri Morrow is on the road to joining one of the most exclusive clubs in college basketball, the 1,000-point club. With 16 points against BYU, Morrow now has 848 career points, needing just 152 more to become the 18^th player in Eastern Washington women's basketball history to eclipse 1,000 points.
 
With her 16 points this afternoon, Morrow passes Lori Napier (1992-95) for 28^th on Eastern's all-time scoring list with 848 career points. Morrow now needs just eight more points to tie Julie Page for 27^th all-time.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington returns home for a matchup against Pac-12 foe Utah on Wednesday, Nov. 21. Tip-off is set for 4:05 p.m. Pacific time inside Reese Court. For single-game or season tickets, visit GoEags.com/tickets for more information.
 
MORE COMMENTS FROM COACH SCHULLER:
 
On BYU as a Team: "BYU is a tough team, they have really skilled and talented guards and are big inside, and that gives you problems. Coach Judkins is a great coach and knows how to use the skilled kids to the best of their ability. It was tough for us because we were outsized inside so we tried to move outside where they took advantage of us and found our perimeter players. They were also able to knock down a lot of threes."
 
On Freshmen Kirscher and McDowell-White's Double-Digit Performances: "It's encouraging, I think that they both are starting to get more comfortable with college basketball and our system and what we're trying to do so that's good to see. They're both really talented players who we feel have the ability to be great players for our program. That was a great step forward, but there are a lot of other things offensively that weren't as good."

On Improvements to Make Before Wednesday: "The turnovers are a great place to start and I still think that defensively we have to be better and more disciplined in terms of understanding what we're trying to do in different scenarios and on scouting reports. That's why we play these games and we are going to continue to keep working and get better every step of the way. I think we have a team that has a lot of talent and skill and once we put them together it will be pretty exciting."