HILO, Hawai'i – The Eastern Kentucky University women's basketball team rolled to a 78-49 victory over the University of Hawai'i at Hilo on Wednesday night at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium behind a 20-point performance from senior guard
Alice Recanati.
Wednesday's win pushes the Colonels' win streak to six, marking the longest consecutive win streak since 2005. EKU also moves to 7-3 on the season, 7-1 against non-power-five programs, and 5-2 in true road contests.
Recanati dropped 20 points for the sixth time in her career and first time this season against Hilo, going 7-for-10 from the floor with a 4-for-5 showing from beyond the arch. The Italian's four made threes tied her career-high value for the second time in the last two seasons. She added six assists and three rebounds in the win.
Additionally, senior guard
Kaitlyn Costner scored 19 points with six rebounds and five assists. Wednesday's showing marked her seventh time in the last eight games ending in double figures.
Freshman
Liz Freihofer scored 11 points while
Jasmine McGinnis-Taylor and
Raphaela Toussaint neared double-doubles. Both student-athletes left Wednesday's game with season-high rebound totals, McGinnis-Taylor ending with 13 and Toussaint with 10.
Despite a cooler shooting performance from the Colonels, who had a five-game streak of 44 percent or greater from the field snapped in the win, EKU was able to out-physical the Vulcans on the glass with 51 rebounds and had assists on 21-of-28 made field goals.
Hawai'i Hilo's Keirstyn Agonias led the Vulcans with a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double going 8-for-10 from the floor in 36 minutes of action. Jazmine Soto also scored 16 points in the loss connecting on 6-of-8 shots from the charity stripe. UHH shot 32 percent from the floor and had its second highest made three-point field goal (5) total of the season.
The Colonels jumped out to a 10-2 run in Wednesday's win and never relinquished its lead despite great efforts from the home team. Costner had 13 points and Recanati had 12 points at the intermission giving the Colonels a 41-26 lead after 20 minutes of play.
In the second half, EKU had big offensive outputs from its starters and reserves to end the contest in a lopsided 78-49 victory. The Colonels won the third quarter 17-11 and fourth quarter 20-12, both end of quarter runs sparked by freshmen Freihofer and
Mya Wardle who combined for 14 points in the game.
EKU shot a season-high 47 percent from beyond the arch, which was nearly 16 points higher than its season average heading into the game.
The Colonels will fly back to the mainland tomorrow and prepare to host the three-team EKU MTE at Transylvania University's Clive M. Beck Center from Dec. 15-17 in Lexington.
EKU will host Indiana State on Monday afternoon and square off with Northern Illinois on Tuesday night. ISU and NIU will kick off the tournament on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, fans can purchase tickets to all three games online
here.
