By Elohino Theodore
Hayley Hodgins scores a career high of 26 points.
EWU competed against Northern Arizona University on Jan. 16 where they beat the Lumberjacks 92-68.
Despite the slow start in the beginning of the game, the Eagles were ready for the Lumberjacks. “Coming off of the few losses in Montana, we really kind of got fired up, and we knew we needed this win, and we did what we did to take care of business,” sophomore guard Hayley Hodgins said.
The Eagles shot 51.6 percent from the floor for the game. Three Eastern players scored at least 20 points. “We really tried to focus on ourselves, and doing the things that we do well, sticking to our rules defensively. And offensively just really being good execution wise, and I thought that we carried that over from practice into tonight’s game,” head coach Wendy Schuller said.
At the start of the game, Northern Arizona went on a 7-2 run. Hodgins cut the Lumberjack lead to three points with a jump shot with 14:53 on the clock . For the following 10 minutes in the first half, the Eagles went on a 32-5 run. Eastern would lead by 22 points with 5:40 left in the first half.
Northern Arizona would diminish Eastern’s lead to 16 points with 1:46 left in the first half. Hodgins later responded with a buzzer beater 3-pointer at halftime to give EWU the lead, 46-27.
Beginning the second half, the Eagles would continue to be aggressive and increased their lead to 28 points. Northern Arizona matched the intensity by getting to the free throw line 21 times in the second half. The Lumberjacks would cut Eastern’s lead to 17 points with 5:55 left in the second half.
The Eagles answered back by junior guard Lexie Nelson scoring four points in a row to increase Eastern’s lead to 20 points.
Eastern shot 58 percent in the second half; their defense held Northern Arizona to 33 percent. Overall, the Eagles shot 52 percent, EWU also shot 10 out of 18 3-pointers.
Aside from the positive statistics Eastern was also able to put on the board, however, there was a glaring negative statistic of 15 turnovers for the game. Nelson believes that was more of a product of the game and not a pattern.
“A little bit towards the second half, it got a little bit hectic. So we just got to make sure we have our composure and just relax and make good strong passes and just be crisp out there. But we’ll work on that and we’ll be good to go,” Nelson said.
Eastern scored 38 points in the paint and out-rebounded the Lumberjacks 43-33. EWU had 21 assists along with 29 bench points and 17 second-chance points. Hodgins scored a career high 26 points and had two steals. Hodgins also scored five 3-pointers to tie her career high, while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Nelson contributed with 21 points, senior center Laura Hughes scored 20 points off the bench along with grabbing nine rebounds and senior guard Aubrey Ashenfelter chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds.
EWU will compete against Sacramento State on Jan. 18 at Reese Court.
