by Eastern Washington women’s basketball faced Montana State on Thursday night at Reese Court. The Eagles battled tough all game, but the Bobcats came out on top, 65-55. Eastern limited the MSU offense for three quarters, but an efficient shooting performance in the fourth quarter pushed the Bobcats ahead.
“It was a tale of two halves. In the second half we scored 40 points and the in the first we scored 15. It’s tough to beat anyone scoring 15 in a half,” head coach Joddie Gleason said. “I felt like we were more aggressive and played downhill in the second half. In the first half, we allowed their switches to kind of take us out of our attack mode. I thought our players made good adjustments at halftime and executed what we asked them to. [Montana St.] is a good team and executed their action down stretch, hit shots, moved ball, and found people inside for and-ones. We got good looks and didn’t finish. It was 27-21 in the fourth so it’s not like they blew us out.”
Jaydia Martin returned to her scoring ways, leading the team with 14 points on 5-of-10(50%) shooting, going 2-of-4(50%) from three-range.
“I watched some film and I realized just to take my time,” Martin said. “I did rush a little bit, but taking my time makes the game a lot easier with finding teammates and also getting open shots.”
Eastern and Montana St. worked to get their offense going in the first quarter. Jacinta Buckley scored an early layup for the Eagles, and the Bobcats picked up three and a short jumper. MSU was up 5-2 after five minutes, but Martin tied the game with a three at the media timeout. The Bobcats were able to put together a 6-0 run and grab an 11-5 lead with 1:30 left on the clock. Eastern cut into the lead with three made free-throws from Martin and Alexis Pettis to trail 11-8. For the quarter, the Eagles were 2-of-13(15%) from the floor and the Bobcats were 4-of-14(29%).
The second quarter was another defensive battle between the two teams, with the first half of the quarter seeing only five points. The scoring picked up down the stretch, as MSU built a 16-10 lead before the Eagles reeled them back to 16-13. A string of Eastern fouls allowed the Bobcats to go to the line, converting four free-throws. Adding a face-break layup, MSU was up 22-13 with a minute left in the half. Buckley would halt the run with a layup, and the Bobcats would add one free-throw to bring the score to 23-15 in favor of MSU. Eastern was 3-of-10(30%) in the quarter, while the Bobcats went 3-of-15(20%).
The Eagles got a spark at the beginning of the second half, as Pettis drilled a three-pointer to cut the MSU lead to 23-20. The three was part of a 7-0 run by Eastern to open the quarter. After an MSU basket, the Eagles responded with a layup for Pettis, followed by a three from Jaleesa Lawrence to give the lead back to Eastern. The Bobcats responded with their own three and were now up 28-27.
Jordyn Boesel gave the team lead again with a deep three. Yet again, the Bobcats hit their own three in response and back-and-forth battled continued. A layup from Lawrence put the Eagles in front, with the MSU striking back right away with an old-fashioned, three-point play. The game stayed tight in the third, with Montana State holding a 38-34 lead going to the final quarter. Eastern shot well in the quarter, going 7-of-15(46.7%) from the floor, and holding the Bobcats to 4-of-14(28.6%).
In the fourth quarter, the game continued to be a close contest, with MSU being unable to separate from the Eagles. Martin began to take over the game for Eastern, scoring six points and bring the team to within three of the Bobcats. MSU would then get the separation they wanted, going on a 14-0 run to pull away from Eastern, 57-40. Lawrence would break the run at 3:05 left in the game with an and-one opportunity, converting the free throw. The Eagles made a late push with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to single digits, powered by baskets from Martin, Boesel and Andie Zylak. The deficit was too much to overcome and MSU held on to win, 65-55.
Top Performances
Jaydia Martin had a team high 14 points and added eight rebounds. Martin added two steals to give her 30 total this season. Martin has scored in double figures in 17 of the team’s 19 games.
Jacinta Buckley (Spokane Tribe) scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Buckley was 5-of-12(42%) from the floor and set a career-high with three blocks, while matching her career-best with three assists.
