Win and advance is the name of the game in March and Eastern Washington women's basketball heard the message loud and clear. Eastern defeated Montana 72-64 on Monday (March 6) in the Big Sky Tournament and now advance to the conference semifinals. With the win, the Eagles are now 19-10 on the season with Montana falling to 14-16.

"We're excited. Our players played their hearts out and they came out really focused. They've been dialed in this whole weekend as we prepared for Montana," head coach Joddie Gleason said. "Montana came out and went 10-13 in the first quarter and really punched us in the gut. Our players responded really well in the second to get stops and prevent easy baskets at the rim. Then we got our offense going too. It was a huge win and a total team effort. We just made a couple of adjustments on ball screens against [Carmen] Gfeller. Our fives were trying to stop their point guards a little too much. We switched things up to make it a little tougher for them to get downhill. Jacinta Buckley helped to just slow them down. When we started making shots, we were able to limit them in transition."

Jamie Loera and Aaliyah Alexander both set career-highs in the win, scoring 23 and 22 points respectively.

"[Jamie and Aaliyah] have to play big for us to get wins and they stepped up today," Gleason added "Jamie was on a triple double watch again. Both Jamie and Aaliyah hit big shots for us and run the show for us. We try to rotate it through them as much as possible. With Jaydia Martin out, those two have really stepped up scoring this last month."

The Grizzlies opened with a 4-0 run before Milly Knowles posted up inside and scored the Eagles first points. Montana would get the lead to 8-2 with 6:40 on the clock. EWU would cut the lead down to one with Jamie Loera dropping in five points. A three from Aaliyah Alexander would give the Eagles their first lead of the game (9-8) at the 4:52 point of the quarter. The Grizzlies would retake the lead at 14-12 and 3:01 left in the quarter. Alexander kept EWU close with two driving layups in traffic. Montana held a 23-18 lead over the Eagles at the end of one.

In the quarter, Eastern registered a 33.3 shooting percentage, while the Grizzlies had a lights-out 76.9 percent.

Both teams scored on their first possession of the second quarter, with Loera providing the basket for EWU. The Eagles maintained close position to the Grizzlies, answering each score. Loera connected from three to get the score to 31-27 with 5:17 on the clock. A fast break jumper from Jacinta Buckley cut the lead down to a possession. On the team's next possession, Camille Jentzsch knocked down a jumper from the top of the paint to tie the game at 31 and 3:39 left in the half. Buckley gave Eastern the lead with a pair of free throws, but Montana would tie the game back up on its next possession. The Eagles, however, felt the momentum had shifted and seized the opportunity, jumping ahead with a 8-0 run to close the half. Alexander led the charge with five points and Loera notched a pair of steals and three-point play during the run.

EWU shot 52.6 percent in the quarter to take the lead. They held the Grizzlies to 28.6 percent shooting.

Montana opened the second half with four straight points, but it was quickly answered by five-straight from the Eagles. Buckley hit a pull up jumper and Alexander drained another three in the run. The Grizzles then organized an 8-0 run to bring the lead down to 51-49 with 3:34 on the clock. Loera ended the run with a made jumper and Jayden McNeal fired in jumper from the wing to extend the lead. Loera then made it a 6-0 run for the Eagles with another driving layup. After three, EWU had a 57-49 lead.

During the third quarter, Eastern shot 46.2 while Montana had a 35.7 percent.

Starting the fourth, Montana scored five-straight points to cut the lead to 57-54. The Eagles countered with 8-0 run and built a 65-54 lead at the 6:12 mark. The back-and-forth continued with a 6-0 spurt from the Grizzlies would bring the lead under 10 at 65-58 and 4:01 left in the game. The Eastern defense clamped down on the Grizzlies, keeping separation as the clocked ticked down. Alexander delivered with a timely three with 48 seconds left in the game to go up 70-62. The Eagles would win the game 72-64 and shot 30.8 percent in the final quarter. Montana was held to a 29.4 percentage.

Eastern had a 40.9 shooting percentage for the game, while Montana finished with a 41.4 percentage.

Key Statistics
Eastern Washington won its first game in the Big Sky Tournament since 2019 when they defeated Northern Colorado, 59-57 in the semifinals.

With the team's 19th win, Eastern has a 10-game win improvement from last season. It is tied for the best year-to-year improvement in program history.

Jamie Loera tallied nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals in the team's win. Loera matched her career-high in steals for the fifth time this season. The game was also Loera's first career 20-point game at Eastern.

The Eagles recorded 10 steals as a team and now have 12 games this season with 10 or more steals.

Aaliyah Alexander has now scored 20-plus points in three out of the last four games.                                                                                                                                             
Eastern forced 14 turnovers and scored 20 points off of those mistakes.

Jacinta Buckley just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. She added three steals in the game as well.

The Eagles had nine offensive rebounds in the game to Montana's six. The Grizzlies had the edge in rebounding, 37 to 35.

The game had five ties and five lead changes.

Up Next
Eastern Washington will play the No. 1 seed, Northern Arizona, tomorrow at 11 am Pacific Time.

The Eagles split the season series against the Lumberjacks, winning 96-89 in overtime in Cheney (Jan. 29) and losing 55-61 in Flagstaff, Ariz. NAU defeated the No. 9 seed, Northern Colorado, 64-48, to advance to the semifinals.

The two teams last met in the conference tournament in 2015 where Eastern defeated the Lumberjacks in the quarterfinals, 73-57.