Eastern women hope to pick up pieces in home stand

The Eastern Washington’s women’s basketball team finally gets to spend a couple of weekends at home.

And following a pair of losses last week, 83-68 at Northern Arizona Thursday and 85-70 at Sacramento State Saturday, they need to make the best of that time at Reese Court.

Schuller remains stuck one win shy of her 150th victory in her 12 years as Eastern’s head coach.

This week’s games include a contest tonight (Jan. 17) at 6:05 versus Big Sky Conference newcomer North Dakota (2-4 BSC, 7-8 overall) and then Saturday for a 2:05 tip-off against Northern Colorado (3-2, 6-8).

Following those losses the Eagles (3-3, 7-8) find themselves mired in a 3-game losing streak after starting out conference play 3-0. With the Montana schools leading the pack in the 11-team league, and Weber State bringing up the rear, eight teams are in a traffic jam as the schedule will reach its halfway point during the next three weekends when the Eagle play three of four at home.

A quick start did not result in the desired finish last Saturday. Eastern made six of its first eight shots of the game, and enjoyed an 8-0 lead within 90 seconds after tipoff, but the Eagles could not sustain that momentum in the face of a suffocating Hornet press.

A six-plus minute Eastern scoring drought in the second half and 11 unanswered points helped Sac State expand on a 43-38 halftime lead.

Sophomore point guard Kylie Huerta led the way with 14 points, while sophomore guard Lexie Nelson chipped in 11.

Coming off a career-high 16 points Thursday against NAU, redshirt-freshman Hayley Hodgins had another double-digit effort with 10 points in Sacramento. Laura Hughes and Melissa Williams each scored 10. Williams also led the team with 11 rebounds, her second-straight double-double. Fantasia Hilliard’s 22 points and Alle Moreno with 21 led the Hornets.

NAU was playing their first game since 2010 in the newly-renovated Walkup Skydome and shot a season-high 51.7 percent from the field.

Eastern had four players reach double figures, including Hodgins with 16 points. Nelson added 15 while Williams notched her first double-double at Eastern with a career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Chenise Pakootas chipped in 10 points.

Amy Patton led NAU with 23.