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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tisha Phillips leads Eastern Washington women’s rally over Montana

From staff reports

Tisha Phillips scored a career-high 26 points on 8 of 11 shooting and Eastern Washington overcame an 11-point third-quarter deficit to pick up a 64-57 win over Montana on Thursday in Big Sky play in Cheney to give the Eagles just their second-ever season sweep of the Grizzlies.

It is the fifth time this season that Phillips has scored 20-plus points in a game this season. Phillips, who has been battling through an injury over the last week, came off the bench and hit 4 of 5 from beyond the arc and added three assists.

Delaney Hodgins posted her third double-double of the season with an 18-point, 10-rebound night against the Grizzlies. Despite being held to one point on the night, Ashli Payne pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Tonight’s victory over Montana marks the first time since the 1979-80 season that Eastern has won both regular season meetings. With the unbalanced Big Sky Conference schedule, this season marked the first time since the 2014-15 campaign the two programs played twice in the regular season.

“We didn’t play great offensively, but we were able to find away just like we did at Southern Utah,” said Eastern head coach Wendy Schuller. “We were really good rebounding tonight. I thought that was able to keep us into the game and give us an opportunity in the end. Ashli and Delaney were really aggressive on the glass. They crashed the boards really hard throughout the game.”

Eastern had to earn the sweep the hard way, as they trailed by 11 with 5:43 remaining in the third quarter. The Eagles scored the first three points of the fourth quarter, as Phillips put a cap on a 22-5 run that saw her team erase an 11-point deficit and take a nine-point lead.

Eastern closed the game out on a 5-0 spurt to pick up a seven-point victory.

The Eagles will play for third place on Saturday, as they face Montana State. Eastern Washington is just a half-game back from the Bobcats in the Big Sky standings coming into the contest. Tip-off is set for 2:05 p.m.