Press Release
Utah State Eastern women’s basketball lost two games in the SLCC Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
The Eagles played a solid first half on Friday against Western Nebraska but ultimately lost to the Cougars 67-66. In the first half, the Eagles led the Cougars by as much as 16 points with just over two minutes left. Within the final few minutes of the first half, Western Nebraska was able to cut the lead to nine heading into halftime.
Utah State Eastern head coach Chelsey Warburton said turnovers and execution is what allowed the Cougars to come back in the second half take the game.
“They played hard but they would make the wrong read or take the wrong shot,” said Warburton.
The Eagles had 18 turnovers on Friday, which led to 21 points off turnovers scored by Western Nebraska.
Down two points with less than three minutes to go in the game, freshman guard Brooklyn Barrus hit a three-point shot to give the Eagles a point lead. With 29 seconds left and a one point lead, sophomore Harlee Willoughby missed two free throws. After the missed free throws, Western Nebraska would be fouled and go on to win the game 67-66 after making two free throws.
After the game, sophomore Madison Loftus said that her team didn’t play the way needed to at the end to get the win.
“We didn’t play together at the end and we didn’t play full 40 minutes. Too many times we played really good but then had spirts of bad play,” said Loftus
Loftus led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points. Barrus finished the game with 15 points on 5-7 shooting from three-point range. Sophomore Kaitlin Toluono finished the game with a team-high 13 rebounds along with 8 points.
The following afternoon, the Eagles lost to Casper College for the second time of the season by a score of 64-55. Saturday’s game was very similar to Friday’s game where turnovers and mistakes on offense plagued the Eagles throughout the game.
Warburton said that poor free throw shooting didn’t help the Eagles, either. They shot 46.7 percent from the foul line against Casper. For most of the game, the Eagles and Casper were close but at the end of the game Casper pulled through for the win.
“We were pretty even with them across the board until the last two minutes,” said Warburton.
In the final two minutes of the game on Saturday, the Eagles missed four shots and allowed Casper to finish the game on a 9-0 run. During that late run by Casper, the Eagles were outrebounded 4-1 as well.
With both losses, the Eagles now have a 6-3 overall record heading into this week’s games. They will travel to Ephraim for the Badger Tournament and play three games in three days starting with a game on Thursday night against Fort Carson.
USU Eastern will return home next weekend for two games at the BDAC before Christmas break for the players.