Eastern Washington women’s basketball holds off Washington State 71-69

PULLMAN – Eastern Washington extended its winning streak to three with a thrilling victory over a bigger in-state program. For Washington State, it was another lump during the team’s most disappointing start in recent memory.

EWU let a sizable lead slip, but stormed back in the fourth quarter and held on through a frantic finish, topping the Cougars 71-69 on Wednesday at Beasley Coliseum.

The Eagles (6-4) went up 71-66 with 2:30 remaining, but WSU’s Charlotte Abraham responded with a 3. After a couple of misses on both ends, Eastern drew a foul, but guard Ella Gallatin couldn’t hit either free throw.

WSU guard Eleonora Villa misfired on a 3-point attempt, but EWU tapped it out of bounds, giving the Cougs (1-9) one more try. Abraham’s contested jumper missed the mark at the buzzer, and Eastern survived.

EWU raced out to a game-high 17 points, 45-28, late in the second quarter, but WSU answered with a 16-2 run over about seven minutes (EWU shot 1 of 15 in that stretch) in the third to take its first lead, 55-53.

Gallatin tallied 22 points, guard Elyn Bowers added 20 and forward Jaecy Eggers had 18 for EWU, which shot 44.9% and 6 of 20 (30%) on 3s. Kourtney Grossman collected 18 rebounds.

Abraham totaled 22 points and Villa had 16 for the Cougs, who shot 39% from the field and 8 of 33 (24.2%) on 3-pointers.