Utah State Eastern Women’s Basketball loses to CSI

    The Utah State Eastern women’s basketball team lost on the road Saturday to the College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles 76-72.
    Coming off a loss against Snow College on Thursday, Utah State Eastern was determined to get to 2-2 in the conference standings.
    USU Eastern Head Coach Chelsey Warburton said after the game that she was proud of the fight her team showed with the adversity they faced throughout the game.
    “The team battled the entire game. We had two players go down with injuries, but the bench came in and did a wonderful job,” Warburton said.
    Things got off to a good start for the Eagles in the first quarter until the last two and half minutes, when the Golden Eagles went on a 7-2 run to finish the period.
    The second quarter was a battle for the Eagles with CSI getting out in front of them by as much as 9 points. CSI shot 55 percent from 3-point territory in the first half, something that gave the Eagles problems.
    Being down 5 points at halftime, the Eagles came back strong in the third quarter with an 8-3 run to tie the game up at 34-34 within two minutes of the second half.
    “We fought. We could have given up, especially after two key players went down. But we kept fighting to the end,” USU Eastern guard Madison Loftus said.
     Both teams shot well in the third quarter with CSI outscoring USU Eastern 28-27.
    In the third quarter, sophomore Autumn Kay led the Eagles in scoring the third quarter with two made threes.
    “Autumn’s minutes were key, she gave us a spark off the bench and played tough defense,”  Warburton said.
    The Eagles came back from being down eight in the fourth quarter to cut the CSI lead to three with less than two minutes to play.
    In the final minute and a half of the game the Eagles missed three free throws and two jump shots that would end up costing them.
    CSI would hold on for the win and take over the top spot in the Region XVIII standings.
    Loftus finshed the game as the Eagles’ leading scorer with 20 points. She also had three rebounds, three assists and four steals.
    Kay finished the night with 17 points off the bench with three rebounds.
    Sophomore Rashel Blazzard scored 13 and grabbed seven rebounds and four assists on Saturday.
    The Eagles now sit at 1-3 in conference and 14-7 overall heading into the second part of the conference schedule.
    All three of their losses in conference have been by a combined total of 13 points.
    “We know were right there, we just have to keep working hard and we’ll figure it out,” said Loftus.
    Up next for Utah State Eastern is a road game on Thursday night against Colorado Northwest at 5:30 p.m.