Peyton Howard’s three-point play in final seconds lifts Eastern Washington over Idaho 63-60

With 33 seconds left, the score tied and both teams huddled during a timeout, Joddie Gleason told the referees that she was prepared to call a timeout once Eastern Washington got the ball back.

But after senior Alexis Pettis snatched a loose ball and – with the game still tied – looked upcourt toward senior Peyton Howard, Gleason changed her mind and let the situation play out.

She was glad she did.

As the clock ticked under 6 seconds, Pettis lofted a pass to Howard, who absorbed a foul, sank a layup and completed a three-point play with 3.9 seconds left, giving Eastern a 63-60 Big Sky Conference victory over the Idaho Vandals on Saturday at Reese Court in Cheney.

“I saw the clock and I just saw Peyton running, and I knew I could get it to her,” Pettis said. “It’s really all on her.”

Gleason, her head coach, smiled and interjected.

“That’s a good pass,” she said.

“When you get a steal like that, it’s kind of like, let them play with their instincts and intuition,” Gleason said, “because that shot’s probably going to be better than the shot we get after drawing up (a play). Sometimes you just have to let them loose and let them play.”

The victory elevated the Eagles (10-15, 6-7 Big Sky) into fifth place in the standings with five games left in the regular season.

Idaho, which has lost four of its past six games, dropped to 16-8, 8-5.

The Vandals never led Saturday, but they crawled out of a deficit as deep as 16 points and overcame 19 turnovers to tie the game at 60 with 1:34 left when Olivia Nelson scored the last two of her game-high 20 points.

Nelson scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and finished 9 of 19 from the field. Last month, in Idaho’s 67-57 victory over Eastern in Moscow, Nelson scored 29 points.

“Last game we felt like they were too comfortable in their offense,” Gleason said. “Nelson is such a good point guard that you can’t really guard her one-on-one, so we really tried to help and dig and make things tough for her.”

Howard scored Eastern’s final seven points and finished with 19 to go with four rebounds, three assists, four turnovers and three steals. The Eagles had 14 steals , their most against a Division I opponent this season. Pettis had five of them and added 13 points.

Idaho outrebounded Eastern 46-28, the largest negative margin for the Eagles this season.

But Eastern made 15 of 16 free throws and turned the ball over just 10 times, two more than its season low.