Eagles Like Digesting Their News
How’s this for an exceptionally yummy McDonald’s happy meal?
The Eastern Washington women’s basketball team was down to the last of its four options as far as getting into the Big Sky Conference tournament. After losing to Montana 72-62 Saturday night, the Eagles needed Cal State Northridge to beat Sacramento State.
“We were sitting in a McDonald’s in Missoula and we got the score that (Northridge) was down by nine points at the half,” EWU coach Jocelyn Pfeifer said. But instead of boarding the bus, the Eagles decided to stick around. They continued to work the phones in hopes of getting the news they wanted. But no one seemed to know the outcome.
“All of a sudden, Anna’s (assistant coach West) dad calls the McDonald’s and tells us Northridge won. He tracked us down after calling four other McDonald’s.
“The place erupted,” Pfeifer said. “First, we were very down and next thing, we were very up. Everybody was crying, hugging, cheering.”
It has been four years since the Eagles played in the six-team tournament. They didn’t last long then, losing to Weber State 71-63 in their first game. As in 1996, Eastern (11-15) enters this year’s tournament as the sixth seed and will play third-seeded Idaho State, a below .500 team at 13-14 but 11-5 in conference games. Eastern, fifth-seeded Northern Arizona and seventh-place Portland State were all 7-9 in league play. Tipoff will be at 11:05 a.m. today.
Two of EWU’s conference losses came against ISU, 83-62 at Cheney and 72-55 at Pocatello, Idaho, when the Eagles were coming off a 12-day layoff. This time, the Bengals are coming off a 12-day layoff.
Sophomore post Mandi Carver is ISU’s most feared player, posting 14.4 points per game and a league-leading 10.6 rebounds per game. EWU’s best rebounder Allie Bailey (second at 9.3) is out for the year because of a dislocated left elbow.
However, senior Tracy Ford Phelps, Eastern’s All-Big Sky Conference first-team player, has picked it up lately. She scored a career-high 31 points against Montana State last week.
“I wanted the seniors to go so badly,” Pfeifer said. “It also heads us in the right direction, and the kids deserve it.”
WSU’s season winds down
It all comes to an end this weekend for Washington State when it plays host to UCLA on Thursday and Southern California on Saturday. It couldn’t come soon enough for coach Jenny Przekwas, who has witnessed just four wins.
When asked about her first-year impressions of the Pacific-10 Conference, Przekwas responded “Besides it being hell?”
Washington State (4-22, 1-15) is coming off a miserable effort against Washington that extended its losing streak to nine games.
“It wasn’t our worst game, but certainly the worst in a while,” said Przekwas, whose team shot 1 of 15 from 3-point range.
The Bruins (16-10, 10-6), an NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist last year and ranked as high as No. 4 in November, beat Stanford last Thursday then blew it against eighth-place Cal. The Bruins, losers of six of the past 10, might need a pair of wins in Washington to assure itself of an NACC Tournament bid.
USC (13-13, 8-8) could be heading to the WNIT, but first there’s Washington on Thursday and then on to Pullman. The Trojans have won four of their last six and have nearly doubled last season’s 7-20 record.
“A road trip in the Pac-10 spells trouble to anybody,” said Trojans coach Chris Gobrecht. “Washington and Washington State have got to be the two best bottomof-the-conference teams in the country.”
More from the Pac-10 and beyond
Game of the week: Oregon State at No. 24 Oregon on Friday, when the Ducks could assure themselves of at least a share of the title for the second straight year. The game is expected to draw as many as 7,000 spectators or more (It must be nice.).
If the Ducks win, Oregon has an excellent chance of becoming a host team for the first two rounds of the NCAAs. But right now, the team that’s a lock to play host in the West is No. 9 UC Santa Barbara, winner of 23 straight and 48 straight Big West Conference games.
“Santa Barbara is having a great year, but our battles in the Pac-10 are very, very challenging compared to the challenges in their league,” Oregon coach Jody Runge said.
The Pac-10 has had at least four teams in every NCAA Tournament since it sent just Stanford and Washington in 1989.
This sidebar appeared with the story: Area women’s basketball leaders Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt Avg.
Alli Nieman, UI 214-451 108-172 16 20.4
Anna Getz, NIC 109-147 411-67 79 14.5
Jessica Malone, GU 134-283 59-89 78 14.5
Susan Woolf, UI 121-310 83-100 57 14.1
Tracy Ford Phelps, EWU 127-340 51-69 46 13.9
Jamie Wakefield, Whit 138-327 74-110 8 13.8
Alke Dietel, WSU 132-303 32-47 59 13.6
Heather Cox, NIC 145-329 55-76 15 13.3
Star Olson, Whit. 121-298 46-67 31 12.3
Bernice Stime, CCS 149-320 58-94 5 11.4
Amy George, CCS 132-318 56-91 44 11.3
Holly Bruno, GU 80-244 38-51 42 10.9
Julie Moore, EWU 119-234 29-40 0 10.7
Jen Kerns, WSU 88-230 50-66 38 10.6
Amy Lewis, NIC 98-254 77-98 49 10.4
Rebounding
Allie Bailey, EWU 9.3 (213); Nieman, UI 9.3 (252); Wakefield, Whit. 8.9 (222); George, CCS 6.4 (174); Sydney Perno, GU 6.4 (178).
Assists
Getz, NIC 4.5 (139); Lewis, NIC, 4.0 (89); Katie Nyseth, WSU, 4.1 (107); Kerns, WSU, 4.0 (101); Karie Pruett, CCS 3.6 (114).
Steals
Stime, CCS 3.4 (100); Wakefield, Whit., 2.2 (49); Pruett, CCS, 2.1 (66); Nieman, UI 1.9 (50); Nyseth, Getz, NIC 1.8 (55).
Schedule
Today: Eastern Washington vs. Idaho State at Missoula, Big Sky Conference tournament first round, 11 a.m.; Idaho vs. UC Santa Barbara at Reno, Nev., Big West Conference tournament first round, 12:30 p.m.
Thursday: UCLA at Washington State, 7 p.m.
Saturday: USC at Washington State, 7 p.m.