CHENEY, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team hung tough in a Sunday afternoon (Dec. 2) matchup against Fresno State in Cheney. The game saw 10 lead changes and seven ties in what ended up being a 68-58 loss for the Eagles.
 
Eastern Washington shot 44.8 percent from the field on 26-for-58 shooting and held the Bulldogs to 35.5 percent. Additionally, the Eagles had four players score in double figures, led by Violet Kapri Morrow who had 16. Both Grace Kirscher and Uriah Howard had 12, while Alissa Sealby added 10.
 
"This was a tough loss to a good basketball team. We knew going in that Fresno State had a lot of talent, play extremely hard and are well coached," said head coach Wendy Schuller. "I saw better things from us today, but there are some blaring stats that are hard to win basketball games with. They had 19 offensive rebounds, which is on us, and they shot 17 more free throws than us. We have to do a better job of not fouling and to get to the line as well."
 
Both squads opened the game trading baskets early with Fresno State holding a 10-8 advantage. Uriah Howard connected on a jumper followed by a three-pointer to give Eastern its first lead of the game. The three-pointer sparked a 7-0 run by the Eagles as the lead extended to 15-10. Fresno State responded with a quick 6-0 spurt of their own and led 18-17 after one quarter.
 
The Eagles used a 5-0 run that included another Howard three-pointer and a Violet Kapri Morrow jumper to lead 24-21. After EWU held the Bulldogs without a field goal for nearly four minutes, both teams found themselves in a 27-27 tie. Fresno State then went on an 8-0 run to lead 35-29 and took a 37-31 lead into the locker room.
 
Eastern Washington shot 48.3 percent from the field during the first two quarters on 14-of-29 shooting, including a 57.1 percent performance in the first quarter while holding the Bulldogs to just 38.2 percent (13-34).
 
Fresno State used a three-pointer to open its largest lead of the game by nine points. Back-to-back triples from Jessica McDowell-White cut the deficit to two and the Eagle defense locked down on the Bulldogs, holding them without a three-pointer for over three minutes. However, Fresno State kept the Eagles scoreless for the final 4:26 of the third quarter and used a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 52-44 after three quarters.
 
The Bulldogs had their largest lead at 56-46 when both teams went scoreless for two minutes. Grace Kirscher and Howard scored back-to-back buckets to cut the deficit to six points and forced an FSU timeout. The Bulldogs then used a 7-0 run to lead 66-54. Kirscher responded with four-straight points and cut the deficit back down to single digits, but it wasn't enough as the Eagles fell short and dropped the 68-58 decision.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, Eastern Washington drops to 1-5 on the season while Fresno State improves to 4-2.
 
Today marked the fifth meeting all-time between the two teams with FSU leading the series 4-1. Last year when the teams met, Eastern fell 81-56 in the season opener on Nov. 11. This was the first-ever meeting between the teams in Cheney.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Eastern Washington was led by a quartet of double-digit scorers with Violet Kapri Morrow leading the way with 16 points, her fifth-straight in double figures. Uriah Howard also scored in double figures for the second-straight game with 12. Freshman Grace Kirscher added 12 as well and Alissa Sealby rounded it out with 10 points.
 
Both Sealby, Kirscher and Bella Cravens led Eastern with six rebounds and Sealby also led the Eagles with two blocks. Morrow and Brittany Klaman each dished out three assists.
 
KEY STATISTICS: The Eagles shot 44.8 percent on 26-of-58 shooting and held the Bulldogs to 35.5 percent on 22-of-62. However, Fresno State went 17-for-20 from the line while Eastern only went 1-for-3. The Eagles were also outrebounded 40-to-35 but out-blocked the Bulldogs 5-to-2.
 
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 16 points this afternoon, Morrow now has 905 career points, needing just 95 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 now just needs 31 more points to pass Tatjana Sparavalo (2008-11) for 23^rd all-time with 936 points.
 
UP NEXT: The Eagles now embark on their longest road swing of the season with six-straight games to end non-conference play and begin Big Sky play. The road stretch begins on Friday, Dec. 7 at Boise State for a 6 p.m. Pacific time matchup. Eastern returns to Reese Court on Jan. 7 to host Northern Colorado.
 
MORE FROM COACH SCHULLER:
 
On What It Takes to Win Close Games: "We can't have lapses where we don't execute offensively or defensively where we take a possession off, we have to play a solid 40 minutes."
 
On Takeaways from the Non-Conference Season: "Today we were better than we have been at some things, we're growing and coming together and playing hard. We just have to keep believing in each other and what we're doing. It's a process and we knew coming in that we had a difficult non-conference schedule and it's not going to get any easier. As long as we keep working hard, playing together and buying in then we are going to be where we need to be when we get to Big Sky play."
 
On this Afternoon's Shooting Success: "We did a good job of getting the ball into the middle of the zone and when we did that, we got good shots and that was the biggest key."
 
On the Freshmen's Play: "It's big for them. I hope that they are growing and learning from these experiences and that they keep playing hard. When you're young, you have some lapses but we are continuing to work through them and try to keep getting better."
 
On Grace Kirscher's Play: "She's aggressive offensively. Early on, she was a little bit passive and we sat down and talked about how she needs to be a scorer for us and since then, she's stepped up and assumed that role."