Eastern Washington women edged by North Dakota

Makailah Dyer and Samantha Roscoe scored 19 points apiece and visiting North Dakota edged Eastern Washington 75-71 in Big Sky play on Thursday.

Delaney Hodgins led Eastern with 19 points and Tisha Phillips added 15, while Ashli Payne and Symone Starks added 10 points apiece. Eastern struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just 2 of 12.

The Eagles (13-10, 8-3) led 21-18 after the first quarter, but conference-leading UND (16-7, 11-1) responded in the second with a 20-14 run to lead 38-35 at intermission.

It stayed close, and a fastbreak layup by Hodgins made it a one-point game with 3:02 left. North Dakota responded with back-to-back buckets and made its free throws down the stretch to hold the Eagles off.

With tonight’s loss, Eastern drops back-to-back conference home games for the first time in six seasons. The Eagles dropped consecutive contests to Portland State (Feb. 23) and Idaho State (Feb. 25) at Reese Court in the 2011-12 season.

The Eagles lose a full game in the standings to the three teams they are chasing atop the Big Sky standings, as Northern Colorado, North Dakota and Montana State each picked up a victory on Thursday. Eastern still sits in fourth place by just a half game over Idaho State, who won its fourth-straight game Thursday.

The Eagles host Northern Colorado on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.