Eastern makes history
Coach Dave Paur is trying to make history tonight (Feb. 28) in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, as his lady Eagles try to defeat Snow College Badgers for the fourth time this season. The third win came at home last weekend when his team beat the Badgers and Alumni, but got blown out by Salt Lake Community College.
On Valentine’s Day, USU Eastern’s Women’s basketball team had a stellar game against the Alumni All-Stars. They dominated them 78-57. Eastern played a consistent game, maintaining their lead almost the entire game.
Amy Arbon had an impressive defensive game with two blocks and a steal.
This archived article was written by: Jordan Weihing
Coach Dave Paur is trying to make history tonight (Feb. 28) in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, as his lady Eagles try to defeat Snow College Badgers for the fourth time this season. The third win came at home last weekend when his team beat the Badgers and Alumni, but got blown out by Salt Lake Community College.
On Valentine’s Day, USU Eastern’s Women’s basketball team had a stellar game against the Alumni All-Stars. They dominated them 78-57. Eastern played a consistent game, maintaining their lead almost the entire game.
Amy Arbon had an impressive defensive game with two blocks and a steal.
Hailee Parry had one of the best performances the school has ever seen, scoring a career high of 28 points and tying a school record with seven three pointers! Head Coach David Paur said of her improvement this season, “She has turned into a really great player.”
The win against the All-Star team helped boost the morale of the team and start the next couple games off on the right track. Paur feels the performance was key in helping them stay confident in the next games. He said, “It gives you some optimism when you feel good about yourself and you won.”
Eastern maintained their moral on Feb. 16 when they went up against Colorado Northwestern. The game seemed like it would be neck and neck with the score being tied at 13 with six minutes left in the first half, but Eastern went on a scoring rampage leading at the half 30-15.
Parry kept up her hot performance from the previous game, leading the team in scoring with 19 points. Amy Arbon was just behind her with 11 points.
The team’s defensive game was just as impressive as their offense. As a team, Eastern caused Colorado to turn the ball over 20 times. Their defense was emulated best by the performance of Lerissa Quintana who had one block and three steals. The game would finish with Eagles on top, 61-49.
On Feb. 21, was Fan Appreciation Day. What better way to show appreciation than to return home from the win against Colorado and make history against Eastern’s biggest rivals: Snow College. In the previous two meetings with Snow, Eastern had come out on top. If they win again, they would do something the school has never done before: beat Snow College three times in a row.
The stands have been more full than they had ever been this season. Paur said, “It always helps when you have a lot of people.” Whether it was the boost of confidence provided by the two-game winning streak or the amount of fans in the stands, our Eagles played great.
Parry, Lerissa and Gabriella teamed up to score a combined 38 points. On top of that, Parry dished out six assists.
While their teammates were working on offense, Brooke Slade, Isabel Costa and Amy Arbon were controlling the paint with a combined effort of 20 rebounds. The team effort allowed Eastern to make history beating Snow 61-50.
The past games had been memorable, but the momentum finally hit a wall when the Eagles met their match against Salt Lake Community College on Feb. 23 when they suffered a 26-point loss, 76-50.
Parry was the high scorer for Eastern with 11 points. Arbon fought for the paint with 10 rebounds. But it was an uphill battle for Eastern all night, never having a lead against SLCC the whole game.
Eastern shot 25 percent from the field, compared to SLCC who scored 50 percent. Paur explains, “For some reason we just don’t match up well against them.”
See if Eastern can make history again Thursday, Feb 28 at 5:30 p.m. against Snow College as the SWAC tournament starts in Coeur d’Alene. Fans can log on to iHigh.com to watch live coverage of the games.
Snow and Eastern are both heading into this game coming off a loss. Snow was beaten for the very first time at home against Colorado on Saturday.
When talking about the matchup against Snow, Paur said, “Both teams have got to recover, whoever does it the quickest will win.” If Eastern is able to win again against Snow, they will make history again being the first time they ever beat Snow College four times in a row.
Paur said, “We gotta believe that we can beat Snow a fourth time…we beat them four times in a row, we’re going somewhere that we’ve never been before.”
If Eastern wins, they will play against the league champions, College of Southern Idaho, on Friday.
