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CHENEY, Wash. – The Idaho State women's basketball team lost 58-41 to Eastern Washington Thursday evening at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash. After a close first 20 minutes of play, Eastern Washington pulled away in the second half, out-scoring the Bengals 38-26.
Sophomore guard
Grace Kenyon paced the Bengals with 10 points while junior forward
Lindsay Brown grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for her second-straight double-digit rebounding performance. Sophomore guard
Saylair Grandon added eight points and four rebounds.
Idaho State (8-7, 2-2 BSC) shot 29.3 percent from the field to Eastern Washington's 29.1 percent, but a season-high 26 turnovers plagued the Bengals and led to 24 of EWU's 58 points. Eastern Washington (8-7, 3-1 BSC) converted 25-of-32 attempts at the charity stripe while the Bengals shot just 46.7 percent from the free throw line for seven points (7-of-15).
With 4:52 left in the first quarter, ISU tied the game 4-4 following a layup from freshman forward
Sai Tapasa, but EWU went on a 6-1 to close the quarter leading 10-5. A layup from senior guard
Freya Newton eight seconds into the second quarter cut EWU's lead to three, 10-7 but a layup from the Eagles' Tisha Phillips extended the lead once more to five points.
The Bengals put together a 4-0 run over the next 3:26 to cut EWU's lead to one, 12-11 but the Eagles' outscored ISU 8-4 to close the second and gain a 20-15 advantage heading into the break.
Idaho State cut the Eagles' lead to one twice in the first 2:30 of the third quarter, but the Bengals were unable to close the gap. Eastern pulled ahead by double-digits in the final quarter and made 23-of-26 second-half free throws to clinch the 58-41 win.
Idaho State out-rebounded Eastern Washington 44-40 and limited current Big Sky scoring leader Delaney Hodgins to just seven points on 1-of-11 shooting from the field. The Eagles were led by senior guard Tisha Phillips with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-10 from the floor to go along with six rebounds. Hodgins pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds and had three steals.
"We can check almost all the boxes in terms of our defensive and rebounding goals; we now have to figure it out on the offensive end," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "We're pleased with our effort. It will give us a chance down the road."
Idaho State continues play on the road as the Bengals travel to Moscow, Idaho to take on the Idaho Vandals in a rematch of the 2016 BSC tournament championship game in which the Vandals defeated ISU 67-55 to advance to the NCAA tournament. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. MST at the Cowan Spectrum.
