CHENEY, Wash. — The Montana women's basketball team saw its four-game winning streak come to an end Saturday in a 61-56 loss to Eastern Washington at Reese Court.
Perimeter shooting wasn't as prolific for the Lady Griz in this game, as they made 9 of 34 3-point tries and shot just 33.3% from the floor collectively. With the loss, UM slipped to 15-6 overall and 7-3 in the Big Sky standings.
The Lady Griz trailed by 13 points (37-24) with 7:38 remaining in the third quarter. Montana pulled within 57-54 late, but a tying 3-point attempt by Carmen Gfeller missed with 13 seconds leftr and EWU was able to close the game from the foul line.
“Credit to them. We couldn’t get our pace up high enough,” Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger stated in a press release. “We got some good looks, then we started to get a little hesitant and you can’t do that.
“They are aggressive and a good defensive team for a reason. They rotate quick, so you have to move the ball fast and pass on time. A lot of it was on us not doing what we were supposed to be doing.”
Jamie Loera led Eastern Washington — and all scorers — with 19 points and also pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds. Jaleesa Lawrence added 18 points and Aaliyah Alexander had 17 for the Eagles (17-5, 7-2 Big Sky).
Mack Konig paced the Lady Griz with 16 points while hitting three 3-pointers. Gfeller had a double double of 14 points and 12 rebounds. Dani Bartsch pulled down 11 rebounds for Montana.
UM returns home next week for Big Sky home games against Northern Arizona on Thursday and Northern Colorado on Saturday.
