CHENEY, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team played host to Montana State on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 13) at Reese Court. The Eagles made strides from their contest against the Bobcats on Thursday, including a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter, but dropped the contest to MSU by a score of 76-64.
 
Freshman Maisie Burnham was the lone Eagle in double figures, scoring 16 points while adding eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
 
"We did some things better than we did Thursday, but we have to shoot the ball better, they beat us at our own game – lots of held defense and kicking it out to shooters and we didn't knock down shots and they did," said head coach Wendy Schuller. "I thought defensively we didn't do the things that we needed to do, we have to be better and more locked in and disciplined in what we should be doing and how we should be doing it, and that costed us."
 
Montana State built a 10-2 lead following an 8-0 run and pulled ahead to eventually lead 15-4. The Eagles responded with a quick four points to cut the deficit to 15-8. Burnham scored six first quarter points and the Eagles held the Bobcats without a field goal for the final three minutes of the quarter, but trailed 21-10 after one.
 
The Bobcats outscored the Eagles 18-13 in the second quarter, with Burnham adding another six points during the frame to reach 12 by half. The Eagles were 5-of-12 during the second quarter compared to MSU's 7-of-16 and faced a 39-23 deficit entering the locker room.
 
Eastern Washington used an 8-2 run to cut its deficit to 48-34 and forced a Montana State timeout. Out of the break, the Bobcats went on a 10-1 spurt of their own to rebuild the 58-35 advantage. Eastern Washington would close the quarter outscoring the Bobcats 7-2 and held MSU without a field goal for the final 2:29, but still trailed 60-42 with a quarter to go.
 
The Eagles heated up late, using a 16-2 run and held Montana State scoreless for the remaining 4:32 of the contest. The run was sparked by a Gabrielle Jung three-pointer and she followed up with two free throws 30 seconds later. Kennedy Dickie then hit back-to-back triples with Jenna Dick making one from three-point range as well to outscore the Bobcats 22-16 during the frame. The surge would come a little too late, as the Eagles fell to the Montana State, 76-64.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington falls to 6-13 overall with a 5-9 mark in Big Sky Conference play while Montana State improves to 13-5 and 10-2.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Maisie Burnham led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points, while also totaling eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
 
A quartet of Eagles in Jenna Dick, Aaliyah Alexander, Kennedy Dickie and Gabrielle Jung scored eight points while Milly Knowles had seven points and seven rebounds. Alexander also had four assists.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Eastern Washington shot 40.7 percent (24-59) from the field, 25 percent from three-point range (7-28) and were 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
 
Montana State shot 42.4 percent overall, knocking down 28 of its 66 attempts from the field. They shot 41.7 percent (10-24) from three-point range and were 10-of-11 from the charity stripe.
 
Eastern Washington out-rebounded the Bobcats 37 to 35 and 14 of its 24 field goals were assisted. They forced 12 turnovers and turned them into 20 points, and also had the edge in the paint – 30 to 28.
 
UP NEXT: The Eagles split between the road and home next week against Montana. They'll face the Griz in Missoula, Mont., on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. Pacific time. On Saturday, Feb. 20, they'll return to Reese Court for the final time in the regular season for another clash with the Griz at 12:05 p.m. PT.