By Elohino Theodore

The EWU women’s basketball team fell to the University of Montana’s overwhelming dominance 81-64 on Jan. 9.

Early in the first half, EWU struggled to shoot the ball. The Eagles were down by nine after Montana made six free throws. Freshman guard Bethany Montgomery made a 3-pointer to cut Montana’s lead to six points; though, Montana would continue to stay aggressive going on a 12-6 run for the next five minutes.

With five minutes left in the first half, EWU fought back to cut the deficit to five. Montana once again answered back with multiple jump shots to rebuild their lead to nine going into halftime.

In the beginning of the second half, Montana continued their non-stop scoring by increasing their lead to 18. Eastern would continue to hang on by cutting Montana’s lead to eight points.

Sophomore guard Hayley Hodgins scored a 3-pointer to cut Montana’s lead to six points with 12 minutes left in the second half, this caused Montana to call a timeout. The Grizzlies ended up scoring a 3-pointer after the timeout, that 3-pointer would start an 11-0 Montana run that went on for three minutes.

EWU answered back to cut the Grizzlies lead to 10, however that would be the Eagle’s final answer. With 3:43 minutes left in the game, Montana would increase their lead to 18 points to hold on for the win.

Eastern ended up shooting 38.0 percent for the game, Montana also outrebounded Eastern 38-26 and the Eagles ended up getting 20 points from their bench. Junior forward Melissa Williams and Montgomery contributed with eight points.

Junior guard Lexie Nelson and freshman guard Jade Redmon each had 11 points and Hodgins finished with 10 points. As a team Eastern has 24 points in the paint followed by 14 points off of turnovers.

Eastern will continue their road trip at Montana State University on Jan. 11.