With nine seconds on the clock in regulation, junior forward Uriah Howard hoisted a 3-pointer that would’ve sent the game to overtime, after EWU faced an 18 point Sacramento State lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

Her shot fell short, and Sac State walked out of Reese Court with a 73-70 win.

The third quarter was a major problem for the Eagles (3-5, 4-13), just like it was in Thursday’s loss to Portland State. The Hornets (3-5, 7-9) outscored the Eagles 24-12 in the third quarter as EWU shot just 2-10 from the field and committed eight turnovers against Sac State’s full court pressure.

EWU head coach Wendy Schuller was displeased with the trend of poor third quarter play.

“This has been a resounding theme over the last several games,” Schuller said. “It can’t keep happening. We prepare too hard and the team plays too hard for us not to come out (of halftime) ready to go…I don’t think we’re playing with enough emotion, I don’t think we’re playing hard coming out of halftime.”

In the past three games—a win at Montana State and losses versus PSU and Sac State— EWU has been outscored in the third quarter 67-33.

EWU managed to outscore Sac State 26-13 in the final period. With a little over nine minutes remaining, Sac State led by 18, but Howard and senior guard Kapri Morrow nearly led the Eagles all the way back. Morrow’s 3-pointer with one minute 40 seconds on the clock drew EWU within one, but the Eagles couldn’t get over the hump.

“We started to play hard,” Schuller said. “What we talked about in was emotion. We need to play with emotion.”

The only EWU players to score in double figures were Morrow (27) and Howard (16). Morrow said being down has helped boost the team somewhat in fourth quarters.

“We get a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter because we’re usually down,” Morrow said. “We know we need to pick it up by the fourth…we just have to play like we play in the last five minutes for the whole game.”

EWU committed 21 turnovers and made 22 made shots from the field. Schuller said most of the turnovers were mental errors.

“(We) have to make better decisions with the basketball,” Schuller said. “That’s all there is to it. We just made some bad decisions.”

Next up for EWU is a road tilt at Southern Utah on Jan. 31. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.