by The winning streak came to an end for Eastern Washington women’s basketball team on Thursday night, as they fell on the road to Sacramento State, 59-49. The Hornets used a strong second quarter and consistent shooting to top the Eagles. Eastern’s record sits at 4-12 now and 2-5 in the Big Sky, while Sacramento State improved to 6-9 overall and 2-4 in conference.
“We never could get into a rhythm offensively tonight,” head coach Joddie Gleason said. “We worked hard to get stops. We out-rebounded them but couldn’t covert those into enough buckets at our end.”
The first quarter was a battle between the Eagles and Hornets, with no one taking more than a three-point lead. Andie Zylak led the eagles with five points on 2-of-2 shooting. Eastern jumped ahead by three with 3:31 left in the quarter on a layup from Zylak. The Hornets would close the first on a 4-0 run to take a 16-14 lead. The Eagles shot 31.3 percent from the floor while Sac. St. shot 40-percent.
Milly Knowles tied the game up for Eastern with a layup to open the second quarter. The game continued to be back-and-forth. The Eagles found scoring from Jacinta Buckley, Alexis Pettis and Jaleesa Lawrence. Mid-way through the quarter, the Hornets went on an 8-0 with a pair of three-pointers. Lawrence managed to trim the deficit with a three of her own, but Eastern trailed 34-26 at half. Sac. St. shot 50-percen in the quarter, with the Eagles shooting 35.7-percent.
Sac. St. hot shooting continued into the third quarter, extending their lead with a 14-5 stretch over the first five minutes. Buckley managed to score five points in the quarter for Eastern and Lawrence added another two, but it was not enough to keep up with the Hornets. Sac. St. had pulled away from the Eagles in the quarter and went to the fourth with a 50-33 lead. Eastern was held to 20 percent shooting in the third and Sac. St. continued to shoot well, going for a 43.8-percentage.
Jaydia Martin got her shot going in the fourth, dropping in a three and a layup to try and cut into the Hornet lead. Buckley added two more baskets for Eastern, but Sac. St. was able to match the Eagles scoring. Despite outscoring the Hornets, 16-9 in the quarter, the deficit was too much to overcome and Sac. St. went on to win, 59-49.
For the game, the Hornets had a 40-percent average from the floor, while Eastern was limited to only 29.2-percent shooting.
Top Performances
Jacinta Buckley (Spokane Tribe) scored a team-high, 15 points on 6-of-14(43%) shooting. It was Buckley’s third straight double figure scoring game and the third time she has scored 15 points this season. The sophomore added eight rebounds and two steals.
