BOISE, Idaho – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team took on the defending Mountain West Conference champions, Boise State, this evening (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.
 
"Boise State is an excellent basketball team and brought their game today. I was pleased to see us force some turnovers, but I thought out turnovers in the first half put us into a little bit of a hole that we just have to continue to try and get out of the rest of the game," said head coach Wendy Schuller. "It's good to see a couple players in double figures and to see us make some positive things happen in the second half. We're going to keep grinding and working, I know this team believes and our whole coaching staff believes in them as well."
 
The Broncos opened up the game on a 7-0 run. The Eagles kept their composure and responded with a 7-0 run of their own, led by Jessica McDowell-White who scored five quick points. Boise State answered back with another 7-0 run to lead 14-7. A McDowell-White three-pointer, her second of the quarter, helped Eastern cut the deficit to two points, 16-14. The Eagles held BSU scoreless for the final four minutes of the quarter and closed the first frame on a 6-0 run to trail by one point, 16-15.
 
The Eagles were able to keep the Broncos off the board for the final two minutes of play, but were outscored 17-8 in the second quarter. Boise State opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run and built their largest lead of the game, 30-17, after another 9-0 run. Uriah Howard and McDowell-White nailed back-to-back threes to help cut the deficit to 10 points, 33-23, to end the half.
 
Eastern Washington trailed by as many as 16 points in the third quarter and were down 46-32 at the media timeout. Alissa Sealby drained a three-pointer and followed it up with a layup to spark a 9-0 run for the Eagles, causing a Boise State timeout. The Broncos hit 1-of-2 from the line with milliseconds on the clock, but the Eagles were able to close the quarter on a 9-1 run to cut their deficit back down to single digits, 49-41. Eastern shot 61.5 percent during the third frame and outscored the Broncos 18-16.
 
The momentum continued into the fourth quarter when a Morrow layup followed by a Brittany Klaman three-pointer kept the Eagles within seven points. However, the Broncos would use a 6-0 run to go up 63-50. Eastern would continue to chip away at the deficit, but were held scoreless for the final three minutes of play and dropped the contest, 67-55.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington is now 1-6 during the non-conference season while Boise State improves to 6-2.
 
Tonight marked the eighth-straight meeting between the two squads and the 44^th all-time in the Division I era. Boise State has now won five-straight over the Eagles.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Jessica McDowell-White 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. Brittany Klaman followed with eight points while leading the team with three assists for the second-straight game.
 
Morrow led the team with eight rebounds, just two shy of a double-double.
 
Junior Bronco Braydey Hodgins, the younger sister of Eastern's two all-time leading scorers Delaney and Hayley, scored 14 points on the night.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington shot 39 percent on the night on 20-for-51 shooting and the Broncos shot 42 percent while going 27-for-65 from the field. EWU shot 35 percent from three-point range with six triples and BSU nailed nine three-pointers on 32 percent shooting.
 
The Broncos outrebounded the Eagles 37-to-33 and had 14 turnovers to EWU's 18. Boise State had 11 steals and 18 assists and Eastern only had two steals and eight assists.
 
UP NEXT: The Eagles escape the cold of Cheney and head to Maui, Hawaii for the Maui Classic on Dec. 14-15, marking the final games of non-conference play. Eastern Washington takes on the hosts, No. 8 Oregon State on the 14^th at 9:30 p.m. Pacific time before closing play the following day against UC Riverside at 7:30 p.m. PT. Eastern is currently on a six-game road trip.
 
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 tonight, 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 now just needs 17 more points to pass Tatjana Sparavalo (2008-11) for 23^rd all-time with 936 points.