Sports Briefs

Eastern women sweep sets up showdown with North Dakota, Northern Colorado

With a sweep of road games at Sacramento State and Portland State last week, the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team stayed within striking distance of the Big Sky Conference lead with the top teams visiting Reese Court this week.

The Eagles so-called “Big Three,” seniors Ashli Payne and Tisha Phillips, along with junior Delaney Hodgins, combined for 50 points in a 68-62 victory Feb. 4 at Portland State. In the opening contest of the road trip, the same players were again the force behind a 72-65 win at Sac State,

Phillips led the trios’ effort with 19 points, followed by 18 points from Hodgins and 13 from Payne at PSU while it was, Hodgins who scored a game-high 22 points. Payne had 21, while Phillips chipped in 12 points for Eastern, which improved its conference record to 8-3 (13-9 overall).

The Eagles trail current co-leaders North Dakota and Northern Colorado — both 10-1 — and who travel to Reese Court this week in the only meeting of the season between the teams. The Fighting Hawks and Eagles tip off at 6 p.m. tonight at Reese Court while the UNC Bears visit for a 2 p.m. game Saturday.

“Anytime you can get a road sweep in the Big Sky it’s a good weekend,” head coach Wendy Schuller said. “Today wasn’t always pretty, but we stepped up and made sure to get stops when we needed to,” she added of the PSU win that earned the Eagles the sweep.

The Eagles found themselves in control for nearly the entire game, but PSU closed to within 47-46 with just over seven minutes to play. An offensive rebound gave sophomore Violet Kapri Morrow an open jumper that would ignite a brief 7-2 run to seal it.

At Sac State, after the Hornets took a 31-29 lead with 7 minutes, 56 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Eastern went on a 10-1 run that gave them the breathing room they needed.

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Wiley earns pair of national honors

Jacob Wiley, the Eastern Washington University senior graduate transfer from Newport, Wash., has been honored by NCAA.com as the National Player of the Week in NCAA Division I for his performances last week in victories over Sacramento State 77-72 and Portland State 130-124 in three overtimes.

In addition, ESPN analyst Dick Vitale named him as his National Player of the Week. Wiley was also the Mid-Major Player of the Week for the second time this season as selected by College Sports Madness, and was Big Sky Conference Player of the Week for the third time.

He scored 83 points in those victories to set one of 11 school records and four Big Sky Conference marks in which he and his team were involved.

In two games last week, he made 32 of 46 shots from the field (70 percent) and 19 of 25 free throws (76 percent), and averaged 14.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks and had double-doubles in both games.

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