PORTLAND, Ore. – Returning to action for the first time in over a year, the defending CCC champion Bushnell Women's Basketball tasted defeat on Friday afternoon, opening the 2020-2021 season with a 69-64 loss to Eastern Oregon University in a non-conference meeting, hosted at Multnomah University.
 
Head Coach Chad Meadors said, "For the last year, we've had 380-something days that we haven't played and it is just amazing to be back on the court. There is no substitution for playing games and we got to play a really good team out of the shoot."
 
Leading 56-46 after shooting 63% in the third quarter, the Beacon offense went cold just as the Mounties heated up over the final ten minutes. EOU outscored the Beacons by 15 in the final stretch, with Bushnell shooting just 3-for-16 from the field as they hit just one of their final ten attempts.
 
"We had our chances," said Meadors, "but the bucket just really tightened up on us and they made shots. We need to close out a little better. We got the looks we wanted down the stretch and just missed some shots."
 
The Beacons (0-1) were led by sophomore Aspen Slifka who scored a game-high 16 points. Senior Morgan McKinney added 12 points, shooting 5-for-6 and Kayce Mock hauled in 14 rebounds, three steals, and four blocks, all game highs. Bushnell shot 42.9% from the field, and hit five three-pointers.
 
Junior Sarah Reinecker, who lost most of her sophomore season due to an early injury, returned to the court with ten points, hitting a pair of three-pointers.
 
Meadors said, "We got beat up pretty good on the boards and yet we did a lot of really good things. They had a hard time guarding us and we had some great performances today. This team will bounce back and I'm excited to see what we do over the next six weeks. There is a lot of talent on the floor."
 
Eastern Oregon (1-0), out-rebounded the Beacons 47-32 and hauled in 14 offensive boards. They finished the day shooting 39.7% from the floor. The Mounties were led by Beverly Slater, scoring 14 points and Maddy Juul who added ten. Sailor Liefke added seven points, six rebounds, and a game-high nine assists.
 
The teams will face off again on Saturday, playing at Multnomah once again, with an 11:30 am tipoff.