Photo by Jeff Barrett
By Jordan Buscarini, KOAL Drive Time Sports
Ella Bradley connected on two late three-point shots to help the USU Eastern Lady Eagles overcome a gritty Colorado Northwestern performance for a 98-88 overtime win Saturday afternoon at the BDAC in Price.
Trailing at the end of each of the first three quarters, the Lady Eagles outscored Colorado Northwestern 21-15 in the fourth quarter to force a fifth period. The extra five minutes was more than enough for USU Eastern to keep its perfect conference record intact, moving to 3-0 in SWAC play.
“Colorado can shoot it very well and it took awhile for us to adjust,” said head coach Chelsey Warburton. “We struggled for a little bit with their zone, but we got the looks we wanted and finally took advantage of it in overtime.”
Bradley gave the Lady Eagles a late lead in regulation with a timely three-point make off the right wing. In overtime, she converted again, this time putting USU Eastern ahead for good as she finished with a 16 points on 5-6 shooting from the field.
Sophomore guard Kinlee Toomer paced the tempo as she recorded her first triple-double of the season by scoring 18 points, grabbing 10 boards and handing out 10 assists. As a team, USU Eastern assisted on 26 of the 31 field goals made throughout the game.
“We had 26 assists and I think we did a great job of distributing and hitting the open person. We are a faster paced team, but we had 18 turnovers, which is too many,” said Warburton. “We needed this win to get to 3-0 and I’m extremely happy with our team’s efforts.”
Brooklyn Palmer was a problem for Colorado Northwestern throughout the contest as she led all scorers with 25 points, while also finishing with 15 rebounds. As a team, the Lady Eagles had six players reach double figures in the win.
Colorado Northwestern relied heavily on their outside shooting as they finished 11-23 from beyond the arc. After scoring 49 points in the first half, the Spartans were held under 20 points in both the third and fourth quarters as their offensive production began to slow.
Rebecca Fraley scored 20 points to lead CNCC, while Aiesha Feagins added 19 to complete the 1-2 punch for the Spartans. For the game, the team shot 42 percent from the field and 47 percent from the three-point line.
Saturday’s win marks the sixth straight for the Lady Eagles, who are now 6-4 overall and 3-0 in conference play.
The season will continue on Monday as USU Eastern travels to Nevada for three non-conference games in three days before heading into the Christmas break.