| Sophomore guard Veva Whitear dodges a Colorado Northwestern Community College opponent in a Jan. 15 home game. The Lady Eagles defeated CNCC in two games last weekend in Rangely, Colo. |
In the biggest wins of the season, College of Eastern Utah’s Lady Eagles crushed Colorado Northwestern Community College’s women’s basketball team last weekend. On Friday, the game ended 77-61 and Saturday ended 68-48.
After a non-conference win Tuesday against Air Force Prep, Dave Paur, head coach for the CEU women, said “We have a huge winning streak; we’ve got three in a row. It’s better than nine losses in a row.”
Eastern Utah’s biggest victories before the weekend in Rangely, Colo. had been by eight points against Brookdale Community College and Gendale Community College, both non-conference teams. CNCC lost by six points against CEU in a game in mid-January.
“They were looking at us as their only chance to win a game this year,” explained Paur. “We were looking at it asking if we want to finish last or second-to-last. Now by winning those two, if we beat Snow twice, we bump ahead of Snow.”
CEU sank 44 percent of attempted field goals both Friday and Saturday at CNCC, compared to an average of 33 percent for the season.
Krislyn Wallace scored 14 points, leading her team by making 58 percent from the field. Veva Whitear shot 100 percent from the line, making all nine attempted. The team attempted 10 total free throws. Whitear also made nine assists, made seven steals and scored 13 points. Whitney Fardig made six rebounds and a block.
CNCC’s Brittany Ure led the game in scoring with 15 points and made three steals. Teammate Karie Reeves made six assists and a block while Cassie Goff made nine rebounds.
After their sizable win on Friday, the Lady Eagles kept their momentum Saturday, by continuing their high shooting average and strong defense.
“We played our best game of the year,” said Paur. “We’ve made some changes in our offense; we’ve spread it out more, and we’re attacking. I think that’s helped us. In defense, our transition is better. We’ve been getting murdered because we don’t get from one end of the court to the other quickly enough. We’re doing a better job at that now.”
Wallace made 22 points, and nine rebounds. Whitear made 10 points, again shooting 100 percent from the line, made eight assists, and six steals. The 5-foot-4-inch sophomore maintains the conference lead for steals, with 50 this season.
The Spartans’ Emily Kennington made 19 points, three steals and a block, while Ure made seven rebounds.
CEU continues their road series with two games in St. George this weekend against fourth-ranked Dixie State College.
“Do we have enough to beat Dixie – who knows?” said Paur. “Salt Lake beat them twice last week. That never happens to Dixie on their home court. They’re probably going to be mad. It doesn’t matter if they’re mad. Who cares? If we shoot like we did in Colorado, we can compete with anybody. But it’s transition and rebounding – we struggle inside.”