In the first round of the 2025 Big Sky Basketball Championships, both Eastern Washington basketball teams played in close games but were eventually eliminated.
The women were the seventh-seeded team and took on the eighth-seeded Sacramento State Hornets. EWU defeated Sacramento State in both of their regular season matchups.
The Eagles held a 22-15 lead after the team’s leading scorer this season, graduate student guard Peyton Howard, scored 7 points in the first quarter. She finished the game with 13 points, the second highest point total for Eastern Washington this season.
Freshman forward Kourtney Grossman led the way for the Eagles in the second quarter with 7 points. Her 14 total points were the most for EWU, and her 12 rebounds led all players from either team.
Howard and Grossman’s strong first and second quarters helped Eastern Washington end the first half up 42-32. However, the Hornets stormed back in the third quarter.
Senior forward Katie Peneueta and junior forward Fatoumateh Jaiteh each scored 6 points for Sacramento State. The Hornets’ combined 20 points during the third quarter was their highest scoring period during the game.
Sacramento State’s defense also played a key role in the quarter. The Eagles were limited to 9 points and made 4 of their 12 shot attempts. During the second half, Eastern Washington made 1 of 11 three-point shot attempts.
EWU entered the fourth quarter trailing by one point, but with two minutes remaining in the game, senior guard Alexis Pettis made a jump shot to give the Eagles a 62-61 lead.
The two teams began trading buckets. Senior forward Jaydia Martin, who transferred to Sacramento State from Eastern Washington this season, made a jump shot on the Hornets’ next possession. She led all players with 26 total points.
Grossman answered fourteen seconds later with a three-pointer to put the Eagles up by two points, but Martin responded with a layup to tie the game at 65 apiece. With 45 seconds left, Howard made a layup for the Eagles, and Martin matched her with two free throws.
The score was tied at 67, and Sacramento State had possession of the basketball. Junior guard Benthe Versteeg drove to her right, released a runner, and swished the shot with 11 seconds left to put the Hornets up by 2 points. Howard missed a jump shot on the Eagles’ ensuing possession, and Sacramento State moved on to the next round of the tournament.
The men entered the tournament as the eighth seed and were matched up against the seventh-seeded Northern Arizona Lumberjacks. The Eagles lost by nine points in the two teams’ first regular season matchup and lost by 20 points in the second meeting.
The first half was closely contested. NAU came out on top with a 34-30 lead behind strong performances from their key players. Senior guard Trent McLaughlin, junior forward Carson Towt, junior guard Jayden Jackson, and junior forward Diego Campisano are the Lumberjacks’ four highest-scoring players this season, and the group led the team in the first half.
McLaughlin scored 10 points, Towt scored 8, Campisano scored 7, and Jackson added 5. Towt, who leads the NCAA in rebounds with 12.4 per game, also had 5 rebounds in the first half and finished the game with 12.
Eastern Washington’s top scorer from the first half was sophomore guard Mason Williams. He scored 12 points and finished the game with 20 points to lead the team. He was the only Eagle to reach a double-digit point total.
With just under 14 minutes remaining in the second half, junior forward Angelo Winkel made a dunk to cut the NAU lead to 46-43. This was the closest that EWU got to the Lumberjacks.
One minute later, junior guard Ryan Abelman made a layup that started a 10-0 run for Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks were able to maintain a lead of at least 10 points for the remainder of the game. The final score was 66-53 for NAU.
The women finished this season with a 11-20 overall record, and a 7-11 record in conference games. The men went 10-22 overall, and 6-12 in conference play.
