Box Score
RENO, Nev. (March 8, 2017) – There will be no repeat champion in the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball tournament.
Eastern Washington knocked off the defending champion Idaho Vandals 73-64 in the quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon at the Reno Events Center.
The fourth-seeded Eagles (18-12) advanced to face regular-season champion Montana State in Friday’s semifinals at 12:05 p.m. PST. Fifth-seeded Idaho finished its season at 16-14.
Eastern Washington scored the first eight points of the game and never relinquished its lead, although the Vandals challenged on several occasions.
Eastern Washington junior forward Delaney Hodgins, the third leading scorer in the league during the regular season, led the Eagles with 23 points, making 4 of 7 from beyond the arc. Senior guard Tisha Phillips added 19 points and sophomore guard Violet Kapri Morrow chipped in 15.
Sophomore guard Mikayla Ferenz, the MVP of last season’s tournament and the second leading scorer during the regular season, led the Vandals with 23 points. No other Idaho player reached double digits in points.
After the Vandals finally got on the board on a Ferenz 3-pointer, the Eagles stretched their lead to 15-3 on a pair of buckets from Hodgins and a trey from Phillips.
Idaho battled back to within three, 20-17, on a 3-pointer and a deuce from Sue Winger. Morrow and Phillips hit back-to-back treys to stretch Eastern’s lead to 33-20. But the Vandals pulled to within 34-29 by halftime.
Hodgins hit three 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes of the second half as the Eagles took charge, 47-39, and ended the third quarter with a 54-44 lead.
Ferenz hit one of her five treys early in the fourth quarter to cut Idaho’s deficit to 56-49, but that was as close as the Vandals could get.
Eastern owned a 49-34 edge on the boards, led by Ashli Payne’s 12.