EWU women’s basketball had their home opener against Eastern Oregon University on Nov. 13 with an overwhelming win of 64-40.

The only senior, Hayley Hodgins had a strong performance being the team’s top scorer with an overall 24 points and five steals. Including those 24 points, Hayley Hodgins has a total of 1,209 points and made it to the sixth spot on the all-time EWU’s NCAA Division I career scoring list.

The game started off with an Eastern lead of 21-8 at the end of the first quarter and went into the half with a lead of 10. The defense dominated in forcing turnovers with a total of 14 turnovers in the first two quarters, 17 steals overall, while Eastern had 10 less turnovers. Those forced turnovers ultimately lead to adding 31 points to the scoreboard for the Eagles.

The other key players in this win were sophomore Delaney Hodgins with 13 points and two steals, junior Tisha Phillips with a solid defensive game with four steals and a block, and freshman Alissa Sealby with eight points in her college basketball debut.

The Eagles shot 43.4 percent, 23 for 53, while Eastern Oregon shot 23.8 percent, who also only made 10 field goals. The Eagles dominated on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive with an overwhelming better performance of shooting percentage and turnover ratio.

Head coach Wendy Schuller was happy with the way her young team played their first game. “This was our first real game of the year, and I think that showed in a lot of ways. Our young players did a really nice job of stepping up. I’ve said from day one, I love the mentality of our team and the eagerness to work and to learn, and I thought today showed that,” she said in an interview with GoEags.com

The Eagles carried over their dominance in offense and defense to their second game on Nov. 15 against Air Force with a dominant win of 65-44. In the opening quarter alone, the Eagles scored a total of 25 points and never gave up their lead from there.

Hayley Hodgins opened the game with the first basket and consistently scored throughout the game leading the team with 20 points and six steals, along with three blocks.

The Eagles had an aggressive press that the Air Force struggled to break which led to the Eagles forcing 25 turnovers, 12 of those being steals.

Freshman Violet Kapri Morrow led the team in rebounds with eight altogether along with scoring seven points. Phillips stood out in this game as well with nine points on the scoreboard.

This game was also head coach Schuller’s 200th career win. “I thought we played extremely hard and disrupted their offense quite a bit and made things happen. Our goal is to make teams uncomfortable running their own offense, and I think our team did a pretty good job of that today,” Schueller said via goeags.com

The basketball team travels to Gonzaga University on Thursday, Nov. 19 to hopefully continue their winning streak.