CHENEY, Wash. — Sophomore Benthe Versteeg finished with her fourth double-double of the season while Irune Orio and Summah Hanson also reached double figures in points, but a huge third-quarter explosion by host Eastern Washington helped lift the Eagles to a Big Sky Conference regular season title and a 72-59 victory over Sacramento State on Monday night in Cheney, Wash.
The Hornets moved to 5-24 overall and 4-14 in Big Sky play, clinching the No. 8 seed in this coming weekend's conference tournament, slated to take on No. 7 Idaho State in the first round on Saturday (March 9) at 1:30 p.m. PT. The winner will take on No. 2-seeded Northern Arizona in the second round on Sunday (March 10) at 1 p.m. PT.
Eastern Washington improved to 16-5 overall and 16-2 in league to clinch the title outright, besting the Lumberjacks by a single game in the standings.
Versteeg finished with a team-high 16 points and 10 assists on Monday against EWU, collecting her fourth points-assists double-double of the year and moving into third place on the school's all-time single-season list with 189 for the year. Versteeg needs just six more to match Fantasia Hilliard's 2013-14 total (195) for second and eight more to tie Hilliard's single-season record of 197 set in 2014-15.
Orio finished 5-of-7 from the field en route to an 11-point night, adding three rebounds, a block, and a steal to her final stat line.
Hanson, who added 10 points and eight rebounds against EWU, finished in double figures for the 10th consecutive contest. Now with 405 points for the year to extend her school Division I Era freshman record, Hanson is averaging 15.0 ppg over that 10-game stretch while shooting .444 (56-for-126) from the field.
Trailing by only seven points after the first quarter, the Hornets went to work in the second quarter, eventually whittling the deficit down to just a single point at 18-17 on a jumper by Orio with 7:58 remaining in the opening half, scoring the first six points of the second stanza.
Eastern Washington rebuilt its advantage back to seven late in the quarter, but a three-pointer by
Solape Amusan brought the Hornets back to within four with 1:54 remaining. That would be as close as Sacramento State would get the rest of the way, however.
The Eagles closed the first half with the final four points and extended their scoreless run to 11-0 over the first 2:48 of the third to go up by 15 points until
Kaylie Edge scored inside to stop the bleeding. Eastern Washington picked right back up on its next possession, draining a three-pointer and sinking a pair of free throws to make it a 16-2 run to go up by 18 and the Eagles never looked back
EWU won the third quarter, 26-11, shooting .692 from the field to just .286 for Sacramento State, and leading by as many as 23 points heading into the fourth quarter.
Sacramento State won the fourth quarter in a big way, outscoring the Eagles by a 22-12 count, but the hole was already too deep. The Hornets shot 9-of-11 (.818) from the field in the final period while holding the Eagles to just 5-of-14 (.357) at the other end.
Eastern Washington finished with four players in double figures, led by 14 points each from Jamie Loera, Jaleesa Lawrence, and Aaliyah Alexander.
