CHENEY, Wash. – In a battle between the top two teams in the Big Sky standings Sacramento State trailed 67-65 with less than a minute to play but ended the game on an 8-0 run to give Eastern Washington its first conference loss of the year and end its seven-game winning streak, 73-67.

Sacramento State (7-10, 5-1 Big Sky), off to its best start to a Big Sky season in program history, won its fifth straight game and took over sole possession of first place in the Big Sky Conference. Eastern Washington (11-5, 4-1 Big Sky) made one of its last six field goal attempts of the game and committed a whopping 28 turnovers as the Hornets beat the Eagles in Cheney for the first time since the 2009-10 season.

In its 5-1 start to Big Sky play Sacramento State has now defeated five of the top six teams picked in the preseason Big Sky media poll. Three of those wins have been on the road, as the 5-1 record has been achieved with just two home Big Sky games.

Alone in first place in the conference with a half-game lead over 4-1 Eastern Washington and Montana, the Hornets will play seven of their 12 remaining Big Sky regular season games at home in The Nest. Next week Sacramento State hosts Idaho State at 7 p.m. Thursday and Weber State at 2 p.m. next Saturday.

With 58 seconds remaining in regulation time on Saturday, the Eagles turned the ball over and Sacramento State senior Fantasia Hilliard leveled the score at 67-67 with a layup. EWU missed two shots on its next possession and had to foul senior Takara Burse, who made one free throw to put the Hornets up a point, 68-67.

With the shot clock off the Eagles inexplicably took a quick, contested deep jumper that missed, and Hilliard grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 13 seconds left. She made the first free throw and missed the second, but Hornet junior Adella Randle-El rebounded the miss and made two free throws after she was fouled. Down by four, the Eagles turned the ball over again and Randle-El added a breakaway layup to give the Hornets a six-point win.

Burse, Randle-El, and Hilliard scored most of the Hornet points on Saturday, with Burse leading the way with a season-high 20 points, five rebounds, and four steals on 8-of-15 shooting. Randle-El had a career-high 18 points with four steals while shooting 7-of-12 from the field and Hilliard hit three 3-pointers and totaled 14 points, four assists, and four steals.

The two teams came into the game leading the Big Sky in scoring but both struggled to put points on the board throughout the game. The Hornets shot just 35% in the first half but led most of the half and were up 33-30 at the break thanks to 17 first half turnovers by the Eastern Washington and a subsequent 15-2 edge in points off turnovers for the Hornets.

In the second half the Hornets led 48-46 with just under 14 minutes to play before the Eagles found a hot streak, going on a 14-2 run over the next five and a half minutes to take a game-high 60-50 advantage with 8:35 to play. Hilliard hit a three to stop the bleeding but the Eagles still led by five with three minutes left.

Burse scored the next five points, hitting a three and making a layup to tie the score. Two free throws put the Eagles back on top by two with 1:46 to play but the home team wouldn't score again. Eastern Washington made just one field goal over the last six and a half minutes of the game, and none over the final 3:58 as the Hornets claimed the win.

Eastern Washington came into the game leading the Big Sky in 3-point percentage at .354 but was just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc on Saturday. The Hornets went 9-of-26 from long range and shot 37% for the game while the Eagles shot 49%. The teams made the same number of field goals though the Hornets created 18 more shots off 17 steals and 14 offensive rebounds.

Sacramento State was nearly undone by its worst free throw shooting performance of the season, going just 10-for-22 at the line overall, but made four of their last six attempts with the game on the line. The Eagles had a 51-31 edge in rebounds for the game but the biggest number was the turnovers as Eastern Washington had 27 and the Hornets had just nine, leading to a 30-10 Sacramento State advantage in points off turnovers for the game.

Junior Hayley Hodgins led the Eagles with 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting, but senior Lexie Nelson, who came into the game ranked fourth in the Big Sky scoring 16.5 points per game, had just two points on 0-of-7 shooting from the field and committed seven turnovers. Delany Hodgins and Melissa Williams both had double-doubles with a game-high 14 rebounds for Williams.