CHENEY, Wash. – Escaping sub-freezing temperatures and facing challenging competition at the same time, the Eastern Washington University women's basketball team is heading to Lahaina, Hawaii for the Maui Classic on Dec. 14-15. The tournament is hosted by Oregon State, who was ranked No. 8 in the most recent AP Top-25 poll, and the Eagles will face the Beavers to open play on Friday at 9:30 p.m. Pacific time. On Saturday, Eastern Washington faces UC Riverside to conclude the classic at 7:30 p.m. PT. The games mark the final matchups of the non-conference season.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW: Eastern's game against Oregon State will be streamed live on the Oregon State Women's Basketball Facebook page. The contest against UC Riverside will be streamed live HERE on YouTube. Fans can follow the action via the live stats on EWUStats.com or by following @EWUWBB on Twitter for live, in-game, updates.
 
A LOOK AT THE EAGLES: Eastern Washington is 1-6 on the year and are looking to snap a five-game losing streak after falling at Boise State on Friday (Dec. 7).
 
Violet Kapri Morrow leads the Eagles with 17.0 points per game. Her average ranks her fourth in the Big Sky Conference and 96^th in the nation. The senior has scored in double figures in all seven games this season and is the most active Eagle on the boards with an average of 6.6 rebounds per game, which is ninth in the Big Sky.
 
Jessica McDowell-White averages 9.0 points per game. The freshman has hit at least one three-point field goal in every game this season and ranks eighth in the conference with a 39.5 percent three-point accuracy. She's made 17 on the year and averages 2.4 per contest which is fifth in the BSC.
 
Alissa Sealby averages 1.4 blocks per game and has 10 on the year to rank fourth in the Big Sky. Bella Cravens is also ranked within the top-ten in blocks per game with 1.0, placing her sixth. Morrow and Grace Kirscher lead the Eagles with 1.3 per contest while McDowell-White paces Eastern with 2.4 assists per game.
 
As a team, Eastern Washington is averaging 57.3 points per game and shooting 36.5 percent from the field. They are third overall in the Big Sky with an average of 3.9 blocked shots per game and average 7.6 steals per game which is fifth.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Eastern Washington took on the defending Mountain West Conference champions, Boise State, on Dec. 7 at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. The Eagles gave the Broncos all they could handle, but dropped the contest 67-55.
 
EWU was led by freshman Jessica McDowell-White who scored a career-best 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, including three made triples from behind the arc. For the seventh-straight game, and 10^th dating back to the end of the 2017-18 season, Violet Kapri Morrow found herself in double figures with 14 points. Morrow also led the team with eight rebounds, just two shy of a double-double.
 
A LOOK AT THE BEAVERS: No. 8 Oregon State is 7-1 overall this season with their lone loss coming to No. 1 Notre Dame by a final score of 91-81 back on Nov. 24.
 
The Beavers outscore their opponents by an average of 28.1 points per game which is fifth in the nation. OSU also ranks in the top-ten across all of Division I in assist turnover ratio (9^th, 1.39), assists per game (8^th, 20.8), field goal percentage (8^th, 50.1), field-goal percentage defense (5^th, 31.3), rebounds per game (6^th, 47.4), three-pointers per game (9^th, 10.1) and three-point percentage (8^th, 42.0).
 
Oregon State is led by a trio of double-digit scorers in Destiny Slocum (15.0 ppg), Mikayla Pivec (13.6 ppg) and Kat Tudor (13.3 ppg). Slocum ranks 17^th nationally with 6.4 assists per game while Tudor ranks 24^th with 3.3 three-pointers per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY: Oregon State leads the all-time series, 5-1, as Friday night marks the seventh overall meeting between the two programs. Eastern's lone win came on Dec. 7, 1985 in Cheney with an 81-61 victory. Since then, EWU has dropped five-straight but the two teams haven't met since Nov. 22, 2011. The game also took place in Cheney where Eastern dropped the 74-60 decision. The Eagles are just 8-52 all-time against Pac-12 schools. This is the second Pac-12 opponent for Eastern Washington this season as they hosted Utah back on Nov. 21.
 
A LOOK AT THE HIGHLANDERS: UC Riverside is 2-6 on the season and are looking to stop a three-game skid, most recently losing to Cal Baptist on Dec. 6.
 
The Highlanders are led offensively by Malou De Kergret and Jannon Otto who average 11.1 and 10.3 points per game, respectively. Marina Ewodo averages 2.25 blocks per game which is 29^th in the nation. As a team, the Highlanders average 5.0 blocks per game which is the 30^th-most in the country.
 
UC Riverside averages 56.1 points per game and are shooting 36.0 percent from the field. They allow their opponents to score 66.1 points per game on 38.0 percent shooting.
 
SERIES HISTORY: Saturday will be the third all-time meeting between the Eagles and the Highlanders. They met in back-to-back seasons on Dec. 17, 2002 and Dec. 16, 2003 and Eastern claimed both meetings to remain undefeated against the Highlanders. Both matchups took place in Cheney at Reese Court.
 
KAPRI'S QUEST TO 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 14 points at Boise State, Morrow now has 919 career points, needing just 81 more to become the 18^th player in Eastern Washington women's basketball history to eclipse 1,000 points.
 
Morrow is currently 24^th on Eastern's all-time scoring list. She needs 17 more points to pass Tatjana Sparavalo (2008-11) for 23^rd all-time with 936 points.
 
UP NEXT: Big Sky Conference play begins for the Eagles on the road after a short break for the holidays. Competition picks back up with a matchup at Weber State on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. PT in Ogden, Utah. The Eagles then play at Idaho State, the fifth game of a six-game road swing, on Dec. 31 for a 5 p.m. PT tip.