One was a nail-biter and the other a virtual breeze by comparison.
And earning a Big Sky Conference women’s basketball home court sweep over Montana with a 65-64 victory over the league-leading Grizzlies, plus a 72-58 win Saturday afternoon against Montana State did a number of things for Eastern Washington’s womens’ basketball team.
First the wins ended a four-game Eagles’ losing streak. Next, it got them back in the hunt for the conference championship. And finally — coupled with the men’s road wins — helped Eastern earn a school-first weekend sweep of the Montana schools.
The banner homestand concluded with the Eagles exploding for 45 second-half points versus Montana State and improve their Big Sky record to 6-4, 13-8 overall.
That was in direct contrast to Thursday when Montana erased nearly all of an eight-point EWU lead in the final 50 seconds, but the Eagles were able to hang on.
Against Montana, Hayley Hodgins led the Eagles with 14 points, while Jade Redmon added 13. Delaney Hodgins had 10 points, seven in the decisive second half.
“We only turned the ball over seven times, so I thought we played smart and with a lot of energy,” EWU head coach Wendy Schuller said. The win was just the Eagles’ 12th victory over Montana in 74 meetings.
Eastern shot 40 percent from the field for the game. They were at 46.9 percent in the second half and outscored the Grizzlies 37-36. Montana was the Big Sky’s best defensive team and Eastern became the first team Montana (9-2, 16-6) allowed to shoot at least 40 percent.
In a back-and-forth game that was tied at the half 28-28, it was EWU that went on a game-changing run midway through the second half. With the score tied 41-41 and 12 minutes, 5 seconds to play, a Delaney Hodgins’ basket helped jumpstart a 12-2 run for Eastern.
Redmon led four Eagles in double figures with a team-high 22 points, going 7-of-9 from the field while making both of her three-point tries against Montana State, which led 28-27 at the half.
The Eagles scored on their first possession of the second half on a jumper from senior Melissa Williams. That ignited a game-changing 16-5 run over the next four minutes that saw the Eagles take a 43-32 lead.
Senior Lexie Nelson scored all 14 of her points in the second half. Hayley Hodgins added 12 points while her sister Delaney Hodgins chipped in 11 points. Williams had 11 rebounds and nine points. Eastern outrebounded the Bobcats, 34-29, and limited MSU to just five offensive boards.
“During halftime, we talked about defense and a couple of little things we needed to make sure we continued to do,” Schuller said. Included were limiting MSU’s touches in the post. Montana State falls to 4-7 in conference action and 10-12 overall.
“I thought we were getting really good looks on that end of the floor in the first half, and I told the team to continue to work because we’re too good of a shooting team not to shoot it better in the second half, and that’s pretty much what we did,” Schuller said. Eastern shot 53.8 percent over the final 20 minutes.
The Eagles try to keep the momentum going Thursday at Sacramento State (8-3, 10-12) and Saturday at Portland State (1-10, 3-19).
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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