by Eastern Washington women’s basketball team broke through Saturday afternoon and won their first Big Sky game of the season, with a 56-52 victory over Weber State. The Eagles record improves to 3-11 on the season and 1-4 in conference.
“It was about these girls locking in defensively,” head coach Joddie Gleason said. “Are coaching staff does a great job getting us prepared. They were locked in today and they executed our scout and our plan. We held them to 52 [points] and any time you can do that; you give yourself a chance.”
Sophomore forward Jacinta Buckley (Spokane Tribe) helped drive the win and described the victory. “It feels so good to get the first win and I’m just ready for the rest of them!”
A strong defensive effort and a balanced scoring attack powered Eastern to the win, as they held the Wildcats to a 32.7 shooting percentage and only 22.2-percent from three. Two eagles scored in double figures, with Buckley leading the team with 14 points and Jaydia Martin adding 11.
Andie Zylak came out shooting in the first quarter, scoring five points and driving a 7-2 run for Eastern Washington to start. Jordyn Boesel connected with a three-pointer to double up the Wildcats at 12-6 with 3:25 left in the quarter. Both teams went through a scoring drought to end first, but Weber had closed the gap to 14-11. The Eagles went 4-of-12(42%) from the floor and 2-of-5(40%) from three, while limiting the Wildcats to a 30-percent shooting mark.
The scoring issue continued into the second quarter for Eastern, as Weber used an 8-0 run over 5:23-minute stretch to take a 15-14 lead. Buckley ended the drought with a layup to retake the lead. The Wildcats would pull ahead at the media timeout, leading 20-16. Jaleesa Lawrence gave the lead back to the Eagles after she lined up a three from the left side. Lawrence’s three was part of a 7-0 run, over a 4:13-minute period, from Eastern to push them in front 23-20 heading to halftime.
After a defensive battle in the first three minutes of the third quarter, Eastern went to work and raced ahead of the Wildcats with a 9-0 run. Martin led the charge with a pair of three-pointers, after not recording a make in the first half. The Eagles had a 32-22 advantage over Weber with 5:36 on the clock. Both teams would trade shots for the rest of the quarter and Eastern held a 38-31 advantage at the end of the third. The Eagles were effective in driving into the paint and scoring, getting layups from Alexis Pettis and Núria Cunill, along with a short jumper from Boesel to close out the quarter. Eastern returned to its hot start from the first half, shooting 40-percent.
Weber began to chip away at the Eagles lead to start the final quarter, closing the gap to 41-38 at the eight-minute mark. Eastern stretched the lead out to 48-40 with a layup from Buckley and a three from Boesel with under five left to play in the game. The Wildcats mounted a strong charge with an 8-0 run, over a minute-and-a-half, to tie the game with 3:30 left in the game. A pair of free-throws from Buckley broke the tie and handed the Eagles the advantage. Buckley then scored a key bucket with 44 seconds left to extend the Eastern lead to 52-49. The Eagles converted their free-throws down the stretch and earned the win, 56-52.
Gleason described team’s mentality in the final stretch of the game. “We called a couple of timeouts during that stretch and we were just telling them to take and breathe and relax. We told them to play to win; we’re not out there to play to “not lose”. We’re going to play to win and to do that, we had to execute. We have to defend and rebound. We just tried to take a breath because we were pretty amped. I didn’t want them to take a step back, but they answered. That’s attributed to our tough schedule. We played some really good teams and we have been in similar situations.”
Eastern Washington finished with a 35.7-shooting percentage.
Top Performances
Jacinta Buckley recorded her third double-double of the season, grabbing 10 rebounds along with her team-leading 14 points. Buckley also set a new career-high, with four steals.
