Eagle women earn road split at Sacramento State

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Grace Kirscher and Maisie Burnham each scored 19 points to help the Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team to 73-61 win on the road at Sacramento State Jan. 30. The gives the Eagles a split with the Hornets after dropping the first game, also on the road, 82-76 on Thursday, Jan. 28.

Eastern never trailed in Saturday’s game, shooting 52.8 % from the field, 28 of 53, while hitting 9-of 20 3-pointers. Kennedy Dickie added nine points while collecting eight rebounds, with freshman Nuria Cunill, playing in her second start, grabbing nine boards to lead the Eagles in that category.

“I’m really proud of our team,” head coach Wendy Schuller said. “I thought we played extremely hard and had great effort and energy from everybody, especially on the defensive end.”

The first quarter saw three ties before the Eagles used an 11-0 run to build a 19-8 lead. The momentum carried into the second quarter as Eastern Washington used two separate runs of 8-0 and 7-0 to lead by 20 points, 39-19, before the Hornets closed the half with the final five points.

The third quarter was low scoring, with 6-0 spurt towards the end of the frame highlighted by a 3 from Dickie helping the Eagles take a 54-38 lead into the final 10 minutes. 

The Hornets came out and swiftly outscored the Eagles 7-2 in the first minute and a half to cut the deficit to 56-45. Sacramento State would out-score EWU 23-19 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough.  

Thursday, the Eagles erased a 12-point deficit to lead by five points with less than five minutes remaining in the contest, but came up short and fell by a final score of 82-76.  

Five Eagles scored in double figures, led by Burnham with a career-high 25 points. Jenne Dick followed with 14 while Aaliyah Alexander added 13. Dickie (12) and Grace Kirscher (11) rounded out the top-scorers of the evening.

Eastern improves to 6-9 overall, 5-5 in the Big Sky Conference. The Eagles split between home and the road when they take on Idaho, hosting the Vandals on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6:05 p.m. inside Reese Court with the game broadcasted locally on SWX.

On Saturday, Feb. 6, Eastern travels to Moscow for another matchup with Idaho. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. on Pluto TV Ch. 1060.