Eastern Washington women win up tempo game against Omaha 96-82
Facing a hot-shooting, fast-paced Omaha team, the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team demonstrated once more on Wednesday one of its best assets: its depth.
Milly Knowles scored a career-high 16 points, matched a career high with 13 rebounds and made 8 of 8 shots to help lead the Eagles to a 96-82 nonconference victory over the Omaha Mavericks at Reese Court in Cheney.
“They were pretty undersized,” the graduate student Knowles said of the Mavericks, “so we were able to get the ball inside a bit more and get some good looks.”
Eastern, which holds the top spot in the Big Sky, improved to 11-3 overall .
The Eagles also earned a point for their conference in this week’s Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
The Eagles also got 23 points from junior Jaleesa Lawrence, matching her career high, and 22 points from senior Jacinta Buckley. The Lewis and Clark High School graduate also grabbed 11 rebounds for the 13th double-double of her Eagles career.
Their scoring output came on a night when starters Aaliyah Alexander, Jamie Loera and Jaydia Martin were limited by foul trouble much of the game. They each finished with four fouls and a combined 26 points – 18 of which came from Loera, who sat all of the second quarter.
“I think that our depth is definitely one of our keys,” EWU head coach Joddie Gleason said, “and we really needed it tonight with all the foul trouble we were in.”
Loera had 11 points after halftime, when the Eagles surged ahead by as many as 16 points.
The senior point guard also had seven of the team’s 24 assists, two shy of Eastern’s season high.
In a fast-paced game, the Eagles attempted 70 shots, their fourth most of the season, and made 11 of 31 3-pointers. Omaha (4-10) averages 75 points per game, 20 more than Eastern has allowed per game this season. The 82 points given up by the Eagles set a season high.
The Mavericks were led by senior Aaliyah Stanley, who made a career-high 11 of 17 shots (including 6 of 6 3-point attempts) and scored 32 points.
“We knew that they wanted to run and get up and down,” Gleason said, “but that’s a way that we can play as well.”
Eastern outrebounded Omaha 42-26 and scored 46 points in the paint.
The Eagles will play at North Dakota at 11 a.m. Saturday, wrapping up their part in the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge.
“Playing nonconference (games) after Christmas is not something we’ve done before, but this was a really fun game, and to go to North Dakota on Saturday will be really fun, too,” Knowles said. “It’s another way to prepare us for those conference games.”
The Eagles will resume conference play at Idaho on Jan. 13.
Idaho turns back Denver on the road
Led by Sarah Schmitt’s 13 points, Idaho rallied to beat host Denver 60-51.
The Vandals (7-5) outscored the Pioneers (4-9) 22-11 in the fourth quarter.
Amalie Langer added 12 points for Idaho.