Eagles lose pair to Griz

CHENEY — The Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team completed a month of February they will want to maybe forget with a pair of losses to Montana last week.

The Eagles dropped a 65-53 decision Feb. 18 in Missoula and 65-62 Feb. 20 at Reese Court in their final home game of the season. Eastern went winless for the month and extend their losing streak to six.

“I’m proud of our kids for being resilient and continuing to battle throughout the course of the game and finding a way to put ourselves in a position to win,” head coach Wendy Schuller said. “We just have to get over that hump.”

In this case that hump might have been the game’s final 10 minutes? The Eagles saw the 45-43 lead they had crafted through the first three quarters slip away as the Grizzlies finished with a 22-17 edge.

With just under 10 seconds remaining, Montana led 63-57 but Kennedy Dickie grabbed a loose ball and immediately nailed a 3-point attempt to cut the deficit to 63-60.

Maisie Burnham made a wide-open layup with seven seconds to go to make it a 64-62 game. But Montana was fouled and nailed 1-of-2 at the free throw line and hung on for the victory.

Dickie led her team, tying a season-high with 19 points, adding seven rebounds and five three-pointers. Burnham had 16 points.

In Missoula on Thursday, if here was one statistical category that might have swung the game in the favor of Montana it was the edge they had at the free throw line. The Grizzlies (9-5 Big Sky, 12-7 overall) were 19-of-23 while the Eagles were just 6-of-8, an element that hardly escaped notice from Schuller.

“It was a tough, physical, game today,” she said. “I thought our effort was good overall, but we fouled way too much and have to be more disciplined defensively.”

Burnham’s 14 points and Dickie with 10 led the Eagles in scoring. Eastern, now 5-10 in Big Sky play and 6-15 overall has next week off before closing out the regular season at Idaho State on Wednesday, March 3, and Friday, March 5.

Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.