Eastern women split on Montana trip

A disappointing start to their Montana road trip had a happy ending for the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team.

Following an 88-83 overtime loss at Montana State, Jan. 5, Eastern collected a rare victory in Missoula against Montana last Saturday, 60-46 at Dahlberg Arena.

Tisha Phillips and Delaney Hodgins were red-hot from the field, combining for 37 points on a 67 percent clip. Phillips led the team with 20 points, while Hodgins was right behind with 17.

“Thursday’s loss was tough to handle, and physically we were a bit beat up,” head coach Wendy Schuller said.

“ I thought we had several players who stepped up and fought through some pain, and really played well to help us get this win.”

Defensively, Eastern played a consistent game, keeping UM’s offense limited and forcing 10 turnovers in each half. With less than three minutes remaining in the contest, Eastern put away Montana. Leading 53-44, The Eagles closed with a 7-0 run that shut the door on any comeback.

“I thought today was a gutsy win for us,” Schuller added.

Thursday’s contest in Bozeman was tight from the get go, as the two teams played to 15 ties and 10 lead changes through four quarters.

Eastern held a two-point lead at 73-71 with 2 minutes, 5 seconds remaining after a Violet Kapri Morrow fast break layup. The Eagles had multiple chances to put the game away at the end of regulation, but they could not find the critical basket, as Montana State knotted the game up at 73-all with 47 seconds remaining.

Montana State (3-1 Big sky, 10-4 overall) outscored Eastern 15-10 in overtime.

Hodgins led a quartet of double-digit scorers for Eastern against the Bobcats with a team-best 19 points. Morrow posted a career-best 18 points in the loss, while redshirt senior Tisha Phillips posted 17 points and fellow classmate Ashli Payne chipped in 13 points.

With the Montana victory, Eastern Washington improves to 7-7 and 2-1 in the Big Sky.

The Eagles return home to Reese Court to face-off against Idaho State tonight (Thursday Jan. 12) starting at 6:05 p.m. They face Weber State Saturday at 2 p.m. at Reese Court.