Photo by Jeff Barrett
As the Lady Eagles head into the final games of the season, they welcomed in the College of Southern Nevada Coyotes. This was the third time these teams have faced each other with each team splitting the first two, but it was the Lady Eagles that won the season series, taking the game 75-60 in the final home game of the season at the BDAC.
Brooklyn Palmer led the Eagles with 18 on 7-12 shooting. At the end of the first quarter, she had a layup, putting Eastern up by two, and they never trailed in the game again.
The Lady Eagles came out in the second quarter and continued to push their style of play on both sides of the ball, putting up 19 in the quarter while holding the Coyotes to just 11. USU Eastern pushed the lead to 10 headed into the half.
In the third, Alexandria Olson scored six of her 11 on a couple of buckets from behind the arc, the second one putting USU Eastern up by 13 in the quarter. Add that with a timely layup by Ashelynn Birch with :02 seconds left to push the Eagle lead to 17. In the fourth, the foot was on the pedal and it was pushed all the way to floor as Eastern put the Coyotes away, pushing the lead to as high as 23 at one point, taking the win and moving to 13-13 on the regular season and 9-7 overall.
Southern Nevada was led by Destiny Brown, who scored a game high 26. Kayla Javillo had nine and Ayanna Scott scored seven. As a team, the Coyotes shot 34.8 % from the field, compared to 39.1 for the Eagles.
Up next for USU Eastern are two games against Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC) on Tuesday and Thursday in Rangely, Colo. In one contest against CNCC this season, the Eagles took care of business 98-88 in overtime at the BDAC.
After that, the conference championships will begin on Feb. 24 at Salt Lake Community College. A conference champion will be crowned on Saturday, Feb. 26.