While the rest of us were enjoying warm beaches or Netflix marathons, our lady Eagles were working hard on the court home and away. After a loss to University of Toledo and two wins over Ball State and Northern Illinois University, Eastern’s Women’s Basketball team finished up the break standing at 16-11, 8-7 in the MAC.
The action began with a rematch at home against the Toledo Rockets in which the Eagles fell 81-72. The following Wednesday, the Eagles headed to Muncie, Ind., to take on Ball State University where they left with a win, beating the Huskies 56-41.
Saturday, Eastern beat the Northern Illinois University Huskies in the Convocation Center, winning 60-52.
This victory was especially exciting for the Eagles because they had fallen 54-48 to the Huskies on the previous match-up on Jan. 3.
The first half seemed as though the game could go either way with five ties throughout the first 20 minutes. The Eagles narrowly won the half, heading into the locker room leading 26-24.
After the half, the Eagles used a 40.4 percent shooting average to hold the lead for the rest of the game. The Huskies had a few late runs but were never able to cut the deficit smaller than 6. When the buzzer sounded, the Eagles were up by 8 defeating the Huskies 60-52.
“We came out in the second half, right from the get go, I thought we had great energy, great focus,” coach Tory Verdi said.
The Eagles came to the win by combining great defense with some impressive offensive efforts. Eastern was lead by Cha Sweeney with 21 points. Another key contribution was the first double-double for Sera Olzelci, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“I thought Sera was tremendous today,” Verdi said after Saturday’s game.
This week will be Eastern’s last before the MAC conference begins on Monday, March 9. The Eagles will see their next action when the host the Western Michigan Broncos this Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
