ONE AND DONE: Eastern Washington Bounces ‘Cats from Big Sky Tournament

Wednesday, March 13

Missoula, MT

5:30 p.m.

Montana State University

17-13

Eastern Washington

19-11

Montana State

Eastern Washington

Photo by: John Sieber

ONE AND DONE: Eastern Washington Bounces ‘Cats from Big Sky Tournament

3/13/2013 9:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Tom Schulz

It took less than a minute for Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year Hayley Hodgins to turn a back and forth game into an insurmountable Eastern Washington advantage as the Eagles soared to a 68-53 win over Montana State, Wednesday night in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

Leading by one-point at the 16:33 mark of the second half, the 5-foot-10 native of Pasco, Wash., took over the contest connecting on a three-pointer from the left baseline. Following a Montana State (17-13) turnover, Hodgins converted a mid-range jumper. Thirty-three seconds later, Hodgins again connected on a baseline triple to give the Eagles a 40-31 cushion with 15:08 remaining.

“We were undisciplined,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “We had turnovers on our end and Eastern Washington was a half-step ahead of us on the other.”

Following Hodgins' offensive explosion, sophomore guard Lexie Nelson added five straight points, and an Ashley Ashenfelter jumper capped a EWU 15-0 run to give the Eagles a 47-31 lead with 12:44 left.

The Eastern Washington (19-11) run negated a strong second half start for the Bobcats. Coming out of the gates, Ashley Brumwell wiped away the EWU halftime lead, with a layin. Emily Allen scored seconds later on a jumper from the free throw line to give MSU a 29-26 margin.

“I thought we opened both halves, well,” Binford said. “Then we started losing our mentality and our tempo got stagnant.”

The Eagles held a slim 26-25 advantage at intermission. MSU was paced in the first stanza by Kalli Durham, who notched six points. The Bobcats held the early lead until Kylie Huerta hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Eastern Washington its first lead with just under eight minutes to go in the period.

MSU shot 32 percent to open the game and held a 22-17 advantage under the boards. Binford also gave the Bobcat freshmen corps its first taste of Big Sky tournament play as Lexi Dawkins, Jasmine Hommes, Lindsay Stockton and Peyton Ferris were all on the floor at the same time along with senior Latisha Adams.

For the game, Durham, Brumwell and Rachel Semansky each had eight points, while Jackie Elliott added seven. MSU also held a 39-34 rebound edge and were led under the glass by Stockton with a team-high six boards.

The Bobcats ended the game shooting 37 percent from the floor, while Eastern Washington hit at a 48 percent clip, including 57 percent in the second half.

Eastern Washington had five players in double-figures led by Nelson with a game-high 18 points.

Semansky finished her Hall of Fame career at MSU with a career 1,351 points and 887 rebounds. Her rebound total is second best in school history and she became just one of two women's basketball players to record over 1,300 points and 800 rebounds.

“It's been the time of my life,” Semansky said, fighting back tears at the postgame press conference. “Playing basketball at MSU has been a huge blessing.”

Montana State finished its sixth straight winning season under Binford's direction. The Bobcats will lose the services of Semansky and Adams to graduation.