With a loss against Portland State University, the EWU women’s basketball team went from being first place in the Big Sky conference to tied with Montana State University in first place. Eastern lost, 81-79, to Portland State on Jan. 28, but had a dominant 100-83 win over Sacramento State on Jan. 30. The team is now 8-1 in conference, 14-7 overall.

The Eagles made a late comeback in the game against Portland State, but it was not enough to stay undefeated in conference. After the first quarter, EWU was down, 24-9, shooting 4 of 20 from the field. EWU was eventually able to fix its offense in the second quarter, making a 3-point shot and cutting Portland’s lead to 42-32 at halftime.

EWU had a better second half compared to the first, but it still struggled putting points on the board which led to the team being down, 68-50, with only nine minutes left in the game. EWU made a quick comeback to tie the game, 78-78, with one minute left to play.

Portland State sealed its win over Eastern with a 3-point bucket with 35 seconds left in the game. Portland improved to 3-15 with a win and 1-6 in the conference. This loss ended EWU’s seven-game winning streak.

Guard Hayley Hodgins led the team in scoring with 33 points — 15 of which came from beyond the 3-point arc. She had three steals throughout the game. Forward Delaney Hodgins was close to a double-double, scoring 11 points and nine rebounds for the team. Forward Mariah Cunningham was a high scorer with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Eastern shot 37 percent from the field, while Portland State shot 41.8 percent. PSU turned the ball over 19 times and EWU turned it over 12 times.

“We didn’t deserve to win this game tonight. Portland State played their tails off. They played hungry and with nothing to lose. They came out from the get-go, playing hard and playing well. We didn’t give the effort we needed to from the opening tip, and you can’t play five minutes of hard basketball and expect to win,” head coach Wendy Schuller said in an interview with goeags.com.

The Eagles came back strong off their loss when they played Sacramento State, scoring 100 points for the first time this season. EWU shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second quarter alone. In result of a total of 26 turnovers for the Eagles, CSUS was able to keep the score close going into the half, 45-44.

EWU’s defense came out for a successful second half and kept CSUS from scoring in the first six minutes. The Eagles were up, 73-60, in the fourth quarter and their score continued to rise from there. Overall, EWU shot 55 percent in the second half, 6 out of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Forward Ashli Payne led the team in scoring with 23 points and had eight rebounds. Delaney Hodgins scored 16 points along with eight rebounds and three steals. Guard Tisha Phillips scored 15 points and guard Violet Morrow scored 12 points.

Hayley Hodgins scored 21 points, making it her 37th game in a row to score in double digits. With 10 games left in the season, she will need to average at least 9.9 points per game to break Eastern’s Brenda Suther, who played from 1983 to 1987 and is the current all-time NCAA Division I lead scorer.

The Eagles continue their hunt for the first place title against Northern Arizona at Reese Court on Feb. 4.