BOISE, Idaho – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team closed the 20-2021 season in the first round of the Big Sky Conference Basketball Championships today (March 8), with a 71-51 loss to No. 8 Portland State. The Eagles, who earned the No. 9 seed, end the season 6-17 overall and 5-12 in conference play.
 
Four scored in double figures for the Eagles, led by Maisie Burnham with 13 points. Grace Kirscher added 12, while Jenna Dick (11) and Kennedy Dickie (10) rounded out the scoring. Both Dickie and Nuria Cunill led the way with seven rebounds each.
 
"Credit to Portland State, we just really struggled to shoot the ball from the field. When you only shoot 30 percent and turn the ball over 19 times, you aren't going to win very many games. I thought our inefficiency on offense was really critical and defensively, I don't know that that was all we had and we're frustrated overall with how we defended," said head coach Wendy Schuller. "I'm always proud of this team, win or lose. They give us what they have and they are great young ladies and we're fortunate to coach them, because they do make us proud. Sometimes, I think you hang winning and losing and you make that your benchmark on whether somebody is proud of you, and that's not always accurate and it's not accurate for this team. I'm really proud of them for everything we've fought through and appreciative of all the people within the conference and Eastern Washington University that have gone above and beyond, it's unbelievable."
 
It was a game of runs to open the first quarter, as Portland State scored 11-straight points to take an 11-0 lead. Kirscher would snap the run with a three-pointer, and a layup from Burnham plus a triple from Dickie made it a 7-0 run for the Eagles who cut their deficit to four points, 11-7. At the end of the first, Portland State grew its lead to 18-13, despite five points each from Burnham and Dickie.
 
Dick opened the second quarter with a three-pointer to cut Eastern's deficit to two points, 18-16, but the Vikings remained in control with a 9-2 run to build a 27-18 lead. The Eagles were able to cut the lead back to single digits after baskets from Kirscher and Milly Knowles, but Portland State took its largest lead of 37-26 into the half.
 
PSU found a 10-0 run in the third quarter to lead 55-34. The Vikings would outscore the Eagles 25-to-16 in the third and shot 53.3 percent from the field compared to EWU's 16.7 percent and led 62-42 with a quarter to play in Boise.
 
Both teams only scored nine points in the fourth quarter and the Eagle defense shut down the Vikings and didn't allow them to make a field goal for the final 7:37 of the game, going 1-of-10 to end the day. However, the deficit was too large and Eastern Washington concluded the season with a 71-51 loss in first round.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: The Eagles end the season 6-17 overall and 5-12 in conference play. Portland State continues its season in the Big Sky quarterfinal tomorrow against No. 1 Idaho State after improving to 12-12. This marks the fourth-straight year that the Vikings have ended Eastern's season in the conference tournament.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Maisie Burnham, the Big Sky Freshman of the Year, led the Eagles with 13 points after going 6-of-6 from the free throw line. She led the team with three assists and recorded one block and one steal.
 
Kennedy Dickie nearly notched a double-double with 10 points and seven rebounds and collected a career-high five steals to go with two assists.
 
Grace Kirscher added 12 points with two three-pointers and Jenna Dick rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points on three three-pointers. Nuria Cunill also added seven rebounds.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Overall, Eastern Washington was 15-of-50 from the field to shoot 30 percent. They made eight three-pointers on 25 attempts and only missed one free throw, 13-of-14.
 
The Vikings shot 40.7 percent overall, making 24-of-59 of their attempts from the field. PSU went 9-of-21 (42.9%) from three-point range and 14-of-19 (73.7%) from the charity stripe.
 
Turnovers troubled the Eagles, as they committed 19 which turned in to 24 Portland State points. Twelve of their 15 field goals were assisted and they were narrowly out-rebounded, 36 to 33. In the paint, they were outscored 24-to-10.
 
MORE FROM COACH SCHULLER:
 
How the Team has Grown from the Beginning of the Season: "We have a really young basketball team and we're shorthanded at that. It has been a long, hard year for us. These young ladies have gone through a lot of things that the public doesn't understand or know what it's been like for them. For us, we just talked in the locker room about being young and facing adversity and how we need to grow from that and I think we have a great group of young women and we can do better things than we did this season. I know they'll work hard in the offseason to get us where they need to be. It's been a very difficult year."