The USU-Eastern Lady Eagles extended their winning streak to three with back-to-back victories over Gillette and Fort Carson Friday and Saturday at Snow College in Ephraim, UT.
A week after splitting a two-game season opening road trip, the Lady Eagles improved to 2-1 with a 56-53 win over Gillette. The following day the Lady Eagles easily topped Fort Carson 86-61 for their third win of the season.
Falling behind 17-9 at the end of the opening quarter to Gillette in the weekend’s first game, the Lady Eagles stormed back to tie the contest at 33 going into the break. After playing to a third quarter tie USU-Eastern outscored Gillette 12-9 in the final 10 minutes.
Freshman guard Madison Loftus scored a team-high 16 points to go along with five steals in the win. Maile Richardson posted a team best seven boards and scored 10 points. Fellow freshman Baylee Leiter also reached double-figures scoring 10 points off of the bench, and added four rebounds to the stat sheet.
Despite committing 20 turnovers for the game the Lady Eagles shot 39-percent from the field and 43-percent from behind the three-point line. USU-Eastern’s defense held Gillette to just 33-percent from the field and only 20-percent from deep.
The following day a brilliant second half performance helped secure the second victory of the weekend. Holding just a five point at the break, the Lady Eagles outscored Fort Carson 53-33 in the final two quarters.
Loftus once again paced the Lady Eagles offense as she and Bryndie Ballam both scored 17 points. While only two managed to score in double-digits, 13 others managed at least one field goal in the win.
Statistically USU-Eastern dominated by out rebounding Fort Carson 54-24 and connecting on 57-percent of their shot attempts.
USU-Eastern will continue the non-conference with a trip to Arizona where they will play three games in four days. First up on the trip is a meeting with Glendale on Wednesday. After taking a break on Thursday the Lady Eagles will wrap up the road trip against South Mountain and Chandler-Gilbert on Friday and Saturday.