The women’s basketball team defeated the Eastern Washington University Eagles, 79-72, Monday carried by double-digit scoring performances from four different players.

More than 700 showed up to Moody Coliseum to watch as EWU gave the team a real challenge but came out on top. The Wildcats are 2-0 this season, outscoring their opponents by an average of 34.5 points a game so far.

“This was one of the biggest Div. I wins in our program,” said Julie Goodenough, head coach. “They gave us all we could handle tonight. They’re very well-coached, very skilled basketball players, so this was significant win for our team.”

The Wildcats were able to out-rebound the Eagles, 43-31, in their first game back at home after being physically worn and out-rebounded in their loss against University of Texas at San Antonio, 70-57.

“We absolutely got beat up by UTSA last week and a lot of it was on the boards, so that was an emphasis in preparing for this game,” Goodenough said. “We knew that we could not give this team second-chance points because they’re such a prolific scoring team; they have really good scoring weapons, so we knew that it had to be one shot and done and our players did a great job of that. Rebounding was a huge emphasis going into this game and we knew that that would have to be a battle that we won tonight if we wanted to end up with the win.”

The game was close throughout with the Wildcats extending their lead to 12 near the middle of the first half and the Eagles reaching as far as six points ahead five minutes into the second half, but the Wildcats wouldn’t relinquish their lead near the end of the second half, going 10-2 in the final 3:28 to secure the win.

“We had a little bit of adversity; we had a few tough calls and I’m telling you, Moody erupted,” Goodenough said. “They felt like we were being mistreated a little bit and it really energized our team. Our team started getting defensive stops and just scoring at will in transition, and the Moody crowd was fired up and the energy from the crowd tonight really ignited our team in the last four minutes of the game. It was just phenomenal. It gives you a huge home court advantage when the fans get behind you like that.”

Goodenough said she was impressed how the team moved around the ball throughout the game and got every ballplayer involved in the win.

“It was a very great team effort tonight,” she said. “Every player that came in off the bench did exactly what we needed them to do.”