Laura Hughes and Lexie Nelson have career highs.

Elohino Theodore
Staff Writer
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Eastern Washington earned their first win of the regular season on Dec. 6 against Cal State Northridge, 73-53.

At the beginning of the game, Cal State Northridge went on an 8-2 run. After the run, senior center Laura Hughes scored four points, followed by a jump shot from junior guard Lexie Nelson to tie the score 8-8.

After the tie, the Eagles took their first lead of the game with 10-8. For the next five minutes, Eastern went on a 14-4 run to lead by 10 points. Cal State Northridge then countered back with a run and cut the Eagle’s lead to only four, 26-22.

Hughes later stopped the Matadors’ run with a jump shot, which led to Eastern scoring the next eight points to regain another double digit lead. With about a minute left in the first half, Cal State Northridge’s center, Bernadette Fong cut the Eastern lead to 10 points, making the score 37-27.

But, EWU junior forward Melissa Williams managed to score before the first half was over to give the Eagles a 12 point lead heading into the locker room. In the beginning of the second half, Senior guard Aubrey Ashenfelter and Williams scored, putting the Eagles up by 16, leading to a score of 43-27.

At the 17:27 mark, the Matadors cut the lead to 11, however the Eagles would continue to answer back. Eastern would increase their lead to 24 points for the next seven minutes. Cal State Northridge later cut Eastern’s lead to 16 points, bringing the score to 66-50.

But for the rest of the second half, it would not be enough. Eastern would build their lead back up to 20 points to achieve their win. The Eagles shot 46.7 percent followed by finishing 14 of 19 shots from the free throw line.

There were several Eagles with notable statistics. Hughes finished with a career high of 21 points. Sophomore guard Hayley Hodgins scored 15 points; Nelson had 13 points, six rebounds and a career high of seven assists for the night and Williams had a team high of eight rebounds.