Mountaineer Women Dominate Knights, 82-54
Liz Brice
LA GRANDE, Ore- The Mounties (6-3, 2-1 CCC) started the game off the game by taking the lead and never looked back against the Knights of Warner Pacific (5-6, 1-2 CCC), posting an 82-54 Cascade Collegiate Conference victory.
Eastern led the entire way; however the Mounties struggled the first half to keep Warner Pacific off the boards, giving up 13 to Eastern's 7 offensive boards. The Mounties were stagnant for a period of time, until Brianna Smith came off the bench to spark energy to the Mountie offense, hitting 5 for 5 from behind the arc. The Mounties continued to push the ball, scoring 12 points off the fast break, and went into intermission leading 37-26.
EOU came out with the same energy the second half and began to pull away for good. The Mounties out rebounded the Knights 42-39. Eastern shot 49 percent from the field and 63 percent from behind the arc on the game. EOU had 34 bench points to Warner Pacific's 15 bench points.
Brianna Smith led with a game-high 22 points and 6 rebounds. Ashlee Michelson added 15 points, Tana Stickney had a game-high 11 rebounds and chipped in 9 points, and Jenny Fiso had 9 points and handed out 7 assists.
Smith noted on today's game, "All week in practice we worked hard and we came out determined and ready to play. We wanted to go into Christmas break ending on a good note, and prove to Coach that we can do the little things."
The Mounties will have a small break before returning back to face NCAA Division I Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash. at 7:05 p.m. on December 30th.