Charday Hunt scored a game-high 25 points as Sac State held on to defeat the No. three seeded Eastern Washington Eagles 74-67.

The Hornets are now in a three-way tie for third place in the Big Sky Conference with a 4-5 record in conference play and 6-16 overall. The Eagles and the Northern Colorado Bears hold the third place spot with the Hornets after the Bears lost to Weber State 66-55.

Junior Erika Edwards and Sophomore Emily Christensen both had double-doubles; Edwards scored 15 points and 13 rebounds and Christensen scored 10 points and 10 rebounds.

In the first half, the game was close with several lead changes, but with 8:23 to go, the Hornets took charge and ended the half with a 37-21 lead.

The Hornets then took its largest lead with 9:55 to go in the second half with a score of 61-41. It was then that the Eagles went on a 21-3 run and was two points away from recapturing the lead with the score 64-62 with 3:20 to go. The Hornets then went on a 6-2 run, which included a three-pointer by Edwards making the score 70-64. After the Eagles responded with a three-point play by Chene Cooper, the Hornets answered back with four additional points from free-throws securing the win for them.

The Hornets shot 53.8 percent (28 of 52) for the game while the Eagles shot 40.6 percent (28-69). The Hornets also beat out the Eagles in rebounds 42-30, but the Eagles forced 23 Hornet turnovers. Fifteen of them were committed in the second half, which helped the Eagles edge closer to the Hornets. The bench for the Hornets outscored the Eagles 26-17, which included Ashley Garcia scoring the first six points in the second half.

Christensen had a perfect field-goal percentage that night (4-of-4) and was 2-of-5 from the free-throw line.

“We made stops when we needed to at the end, so that was good,” said Christensen.

Hunt, who was just two points shy of breaking her career-high scoring record of 27 points, said that one of the biggest areas that the team needs improvement in is playing the full 40 minutes of the game.

“If we would have played the full 40 minutes then we would have beaten the team by 20 points at least,” said Hunt.

Head coach Dan Muscatell was pleased that his team earned a huge win that night and everyone pulled through and held on to the win towards the end of the game. However, Muscatell feels that the winning momentum that the team has been carrying was reflected from the first half and not the second.

“I think we’re feeling good about ourselves and it definitely showed in the first half but I don’t think the second half is going to be a “carry-over” effect,” said Muscatell. “I think we just need to get everybody going. We need to get the ball moving and let everybody touch it.”

Senior Atty Boyer, the Hornets’ second highest scorer, went scoreless and only played for 12 minutes.

Portland State, who is tied for first place in the Big Sky will come to the Hornets Nest Saturday with a scheduled tip-off at 2:05 p.m.

Nick Hunte can be reached at [email protected]