CHENEY, Washington--Despite a 20-point effort from Rhaiah Spooner-Knight, and two other scorers in double digits, the Utah Valley University women's basketball team dropped a 68-64 decision at Eastern Washington on Thursday at Reese Court.
 
In addition to Spooner-Knight's 20 points, Georgia Agnew had 15, and Mariah Seals had 10 points. Taylor Gordon tallied eight points, Sam Loggins chipped in six points, and Rebecca MaWhinney rounded out the Wolverine scoring with five. MaWhinney also tied her career-high in rebounds with 11, with eight coming in the first half.
 
"I think there were a lot of things we did really well, there were a lot of opportunities to score on the offensive end, we held a good team to 68 points, it came down to us not making shots," head coach Cathy Nixon said. "We missed a lot of layups and put-backs that would have put us over the hump. We just need to try to get better as a team and use this as a learning opportunity."
 
From a 10-10 tie with just under three minutes left to play, UVU pulled ahead to close the first quarter 14-13. Utah Valley then opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run to extend their lead 20-13.
 
The Eagles tied the game at 31-all with a Payne three-pointer just two minutes into the third quarter. The lead then changed five times, and tied six more times before Eagle Violet Kapri Morrow hit a three to take a 47-46 EWU lead.
 
The Eagles opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run, until the Wolverines responded with a 7-0 run of their own to close the gap to just one at 58-57 with 3:11 to play. After two Hayley Hodgins free throws, Utah Valley ran for five more and tied the contest at 62-62. Delaney Hodgins hit a jumper with 1:56 left to play to take a 64-62 lead. Mariah Cunningham laid it in with 19 seconds left to give Eastern Washington a four-point cushion. Despite an Agnew layup with two seconds remaining, two earlier missed Wolverine lay-ups and two Eagle free throws sealed the 68-64 loss.
 
Utah Valley had just six turnovers on the night, and shot 40.0 percent from the field.
 
The Wolverines will continue on the road to Eugene, Oregon to see the Ducks on Saturday Dec. 5 in Matthew Knight Arena.