By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information
PRICE – Utah State Eastern Women’s Basketball lost to the Snow College Badgers 73-63 on Saturday in Ephraim.
Both teams slugged it out in the first half but a hot start to the second half put the Badgers over the top on Saturday.
“It was a tough game but we tried to play together and hard. Sometimes it went well and sometimes it did not.I’m happy that we tried to play hard the whole game,” said USU Eastern guard Lamija Coric.
In the first half the Eagles were able to not let the Badgers get out to a big lead and matched almost every three point shot made by Snow.
“The team did a great job in the first half of not letting Snow go on a run,” said USU Eastern Head Coach Chelsey Warburton.
Each team shot 50% from three and made at least three shots from beyond the arc in the second quarter.
The Eagles would trail 37-33 at halftime with Abby Butler and Emmery Wagstaff leading the way with nine points a piece.
After halftime the Badgers would come out firing and go on a 11-0 run and not let the Eagles score until 5:30 left in the third quarter.
“We did not start the 3rd quarter well which put us in a hole early.
USU Eastern would close out the third quarter on a run of their own and ended the half trailing only by 6.
Coric would score 9 of her 11 points in the third quarter to help the Eagles stay in the game entering the fourth quarter.
The Badgers would make shots and put the game away in the fourth quarter outscoring the Eagles 16-12 on 46 percent field goal shooting.
USU Eastern finished the game with a better shooting night than prior games, ending with a 41.1 percent field goal percentage.
Wagstaff led the team in scoring with 16 points off the bench. Coric started in Wagstaff’s place and both players had solid performances.
“Em had a couple of tough shots she knocked down for us. I think both of us tried to do what was best for the team and to get us back into the game,” said Coric.
Sophomore Alyssa Crumley was second on the team in scoring with 12 points.
Saturday’s loss to Snow puts the Eagles at 15-7 overall and 3-4 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play.
Up next for USU Eastern is a two-game road trip to College of Southern Idaho and Salt Lake Community College.
The Eagles will play CSI on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Salt Lake at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Both road games will be broadcasted live on the Scenic West Digital Network.