Eagles prepare nest for Huskies
The Washington women’s basketball team makes a rare appearance in Spokane County next week.
UW plays Eastern Washington at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Reese Court in a doubleheader with the Eagles men, who play Evergreen State.
“We’re pleased to come over,” 11th-year Huskies coach June Daugherty said. “We believe you have to play the best to be the best, and we have to prepare for a difficult conference schedule. Eastern Washington is a quality team.”
The Eagles lost by 11 in Seattle last year, the first matchup with UW in 10 years. UW’s last trip to Cheney was 1990. EWU beat the Huskies in 1980, the only time in 19 meetings.
Daugherty said the game also gives her program additional in-state exposure – good for fans and potential recruits – outside the usual Pac-10 trip to Pullman.
The Huskies have a home game against Gonzaga on Dec. 15 and Daugherty said the prospects are good that they will return the trip next year.
“Scheduling for all of us in the Northwest is tough, everyone will tell you that,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of returns, one-for-ones, two-for-twos. It took us a while to get it to fit. Both of those teams are well coached, the staffs do a great job. It will be a challenge for us against high-quality opponents.”
GU lost a 14-point game in Seattle three years ago and last got the Huskies at home in 1997. The Zags are 0-16 against UW.
The Huskies, who lost their opener Tuesday at Marquette, play Friday at No. 12 Purdue. UW was one of six Pac-10 teams (Stanford, Arizona State, Cal, USC and UCLA) in the season-opening coaches’ poll and was 26th in the first Associated Press voting.
Hornets buzz local schedule
Sacramento State is touring the area, playing at Gonzaga tonight, Friday at Washington State and Sunday at Idaho. It is the home opener for the Cougars (0-2) and Vandals (0-1).
GU (2-0) then goes to Montana, Portland State and a tournament in Hawaii, where the opener is against Top 25 team UCLA. Second-ranked North Carolina also is in the field.
WSU’s Cougars, who fell to Top 25 Kentucky in their opener, have an auction after Friday’s 4:30 p.m. game to finance a foreign tour next summer. WSU plays at Portland and Santa Clara next week.
Idaho goes to the Colorado State tournament Thanksgiving weekend.
EWU, 2-0 for the first time in 10 years, plays Friday against NAIA Corbin College. After the Huskies game the Eagles head to a tournament in San Antonio.
Tip-ins
Four area players, Emily Westerberg and Regan Pariseau (Central Valley), Aubree Johnson (Post Falls) and Briann January (Lewis and Clark), are starting for 13th-ranked Arizona State, which plays Dec. 6 at Gonzaga. The Sun Devils (3-0) opened the season by winning a home tournament at which Westerberg (MVP) and January made the all-tournament team. ASU beat then 18th-ranked New Mexico, which starts sophomore Angela Hartill (Deer Park) at forward. … GU coach Kelly Graves is two wins shy of 100 at the school. … Zags senior Stephanie Hawk is the first West Coast Conference Player of the Week. … Janelle Bekkering, expected to be a starter from the day she signed with Gonzaga, torn an ACL in the summer and will redshirt. She was the youngest of 24 players invited to tryout for the Canadian National Team. … Davidson senior Brynn Kelly (Ferris) returns home for two games next month, Dec. 18 at EWU and Dec. 20 at GU. … NAIA Montana Tech, which lost a close game in EWU’s opener, beat Montana State. The Orediggers feature Jessica DePell (Freeman), Angela and Rebecca Gimeno (St. George’s) and Natalie Shaw (Colfax) in the starting lineup.