Eastern Women's Basketball put forth another tremendous effort on Saturday at the NEST, but once again came up short in a 60-52 loss to Widener. The Pride grabbed the early lead and led the majority of the contest. The Eagles battled the entire way, but were unable to get over the hump.
The Pride came out firing as they built a 15-4 lead in the first eight-and-a-half minutes. However, Eastern closed the gap with four straight points to end the quarter.
Ebony Johnson hit a pair of free throws and
Wynter Bess followed with a fastbreak layup to make it 15-8 at the first quarter break.
Jeriyah Johnson opened the second quarter with a triple, and a layup from
Taryn Woodson in the paint cut the Widener advantage down to just one point. However, the Pride responded with four quick points to increase their advantage back to five points. Another Johnson basket made it 19-16 with 7:17 remaining in the first half, but the Pride ended the quarter on a 12-4 run to take a 28-20 lead.
Eastern played their best basketball in the third quarter. The Eagles shot eight-of-13 from the field (61.5 percent) and four-of-five from beyond the arc (80 percent), while outscoring the Pride 20-16. Three-pointers from Johnson and
Kayla Worsley-Wooten opened the third quarter, cutting the Widener lead to five, before another three-pointer from Johnson and a basket from Woodson made it a two-point game with 7:25 remaining in the frame. The Eagles continued to battle, eventually grabbing their first lead of the contest at the 3:48 mark on a layup from Woodson, but the Pride quickly regained the lead for good on their next possession and took a 44-40 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles were able to get as close as three points in the final period, but the Pride were able to pull away, leading by as many as nine points before securing the eight-point triumph.
"Another tough loss," Eastern Head Coach
Eric Houston said. "We have the pieces to get it done, we just made some key mistakes. I have seen major improvements. We took care of the ball and got some great looks. Defensively, we turned them over, but we missed a lot of defensive assignments. We will look to right the ship next weekend."
Woodson led the Eagles with 16 points, ten points coming in the second half, on eight-of-10 shooting, to go along with six rebounds, four steals, and a pair of blocks. Johnson finished with 11 points, while Bess scored 10 points off the bench. Worsley-Wooten added nine on three-of-six shooting from beyond the arc. As a team, the Eagles shot 36.2 percent (36.2 percent) from the field and seven-of-17 (41.2 percent) from beyond the arc.
Eastern will be back in action this coming Saturday, Dec. 17 to take on PSU Brandywine in non-conference action. The contest is set to begin at 1:00 pm.
