Rosebud Guthrie scored 10 points for Eastern in Sunday's win.
BOX SCORE
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 24 Eastern Oregon University women’s basketball team eased past Linfield College Sunday, 66-45.
The Mountaineers (10-1) (2-0) led NCAA Div. 3 Linfield College by as many as 31 points in the game. A Stevie Isaac free throw with 7:35 remaining the game gave EOU a 59-28 advantage. The Wildcats led 4-0 to begin the game, and had their last lead, 8-7, at the 13:38 mark of the first half.
Eastern then went on a 29-7 run to finish the half, and take a 36-15 lead into the locker room at halftime. The gap was closed to 19 points twice in the second half.
Kyle Miller led EOU to its seventh straight win with a game-high 11 points. The junior scored all of her points in the first half, and finished 3 of 7 from the field. The Cheney, Wash. native threw five assists. Shaylee Nielsen and Rosebud Guthrie each came off of the bench to score 10 points and grab six rebounds. Nicole Redd added five assists.
After being outrebounded 17-14 in the first half, Eastern Oregon ended up with 33 rebounds to Linfield’s 29. The Mountaineers threw 20 assists, compared to the Wildcats’ nine. EOU shot 51 percent from the field, and finished 7 of 17 from behind the perimeter.
Linfield was held to 35 percent shooting from the field. Eastern entered the game third in NAIA Div. 2 holding opponents to 20 percent shooting from three-point range. Sunday, the Wildcats were held to 2 of 19 shooting from behind the arc, 10 percent.
Gretchen Owens was the lone Linfield (5-4) player to finish scoring in double digits with 10 points. Kaely Maltman grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Sunday’s game was the first the Mountaineers were ranked in since EOU was last in the poll at No. 24 on Feb. 27, 2008. That was the final rating of the 2007-08 season and Eastern finished that year 25-6 in the national sweet 16.
Eastern Oregon travels to Southern Oregon (7-6) (1-1) Friday for its next game. The Raiders were second in the CCC preseason coaches’ poll with one first place vote. SOU is coming off of a 67-57 loss to William Jessup Saturday.
EASTERN OREGON – LINFIELD POSTGAME NOTES
- Eastern is on pace to equal or break the best start in school history, which came in 2007-08 when EOU started 15-1.
- The Mountaineer women and men are each 10-1 at the same time for the first time in school history.
- EOU has won 59 of the past 75 games in Quinn Coliseum.
- Eastern Oregon is now 18-6 all-time versus Linfield, and has won three straight over the Wildcats.
- The Mountaineers are now 10-0 when leading at halftime, Eastern’s lone loss this season was the only time it trailed at halftime.
- EOU is 7-0 when it outrebounds opponents and 9-1 when its bench outscores the opponents bench.
- No opponent has shot over 50 percent from the field in a game this season versus Eastern.
- The Mountaineers are sixth in the nation in assists per game after throwing their 202nd assist of the season Sunday.
- Nicole Redd threw a collegiate career high five assists versus Linfield.
- Kyle Miller led EOU in scoring for the 13th time in her career and scored in double figures for 33rd time while at Eastern.