Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Eastern Washington
Sara Tuomi Leads Wildcats Past Eagles
2/14/2008 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sara Tuomi scored a career-high 28 points and led Weber State to a 73-58 win over Eastern Washington Thursday night at the Dee Events Center. The win is WSU's first home conference victory this season and moves them to 10-12 overall and 4-6 in Big Sky action.
Tuomi was 8-13 from the field and a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line in leading WSU. The 28 points breaks her previous career-high of 26 points, set last year at Utah State. The senior from Billings, Montana has scored in double figures in all 22 games this season and has scored 24 or more points in four of the last five games. She also moves into tenth place on Weber State's career scoring list. She finished Thursday's win with a team-high eight rebounds and needs just two more to move into tenth on that list.
The 12-12 shooting from the free throw line is tied for the third best single-game shooting in WSU history. In addition, Tuomi has now made 43 consecutive free throws, making now seven straight games without a miss. She has made 55 of her last 56 free throws, and is currently ninth in the nation in free throw percentage.
Thursday's win was the 22nd straight home win for the Wildcats over Eastern Washington, but the first home conference win this season for the ?Cats. The Eagles led 8-7 with 13:50 to play and led again at 15-16 with 7:12 remaining in the first half. From there Weber State went on a 10-2 run over the next three minutes and took a seven-point lead into halftime. The second half was all Weber State as the ?Cats never trailed by less than nine points and led by as many as 18 points in route to the win.
Eastern Washington committed 29 turnovers, the most by a Weber State opponent this season. Weber State turned those into 32 points. The Wildcats also improved to 10-1 this season when the opponent has more turnovers.
Weber State shot 41 percent from the field and was 22-36 from the free throw line. Eastern Washington outrebounded the ?Cats 45-32.
In addition to Tuomi, two other Wildcats scored in double figures with Tonya Schnibbe adding 12 points and six assists and Janie Rayback contributing with 11 points.
The win moves the ?Cats into sixth place in the Big Sky standings with six games remaining. Weber State will take on Portland State Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the Dee Events Center. The Vikings are coming off an 81-63 win at Idaho State Thursday night and are in second place in the Big Sky standings.
Saturday's game will be Think Pink game, as Weber State joins over 900 colleges and universities across the nation in participating in National Think Pink Week, sponsored by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Think Pink is a global, unified effort across the nation to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.
All fans wearing pink will be admitted free to Saturday's game and 300 pink T-shirts and 500 Think Pink bracelets will be given away.
