burdkl@lopers.unk.edu
The UNK women’s basketball team won both of its games last week against Northeastern State and Rogers State. With the victories, Carrie Eighmey achieved her 200th career win as a head coach, including her time at both Hastings College from 2012-2015 and UNK since 2016.
Eighmey has 132 wins so far at UNK and had 68 in her time at Hastings College. She attributes the success of her career to those surrounding her.
“It’s really just a testament to the teams that we’ve had, the teams we’ve been able to coach and their ability to win games,” Eighmey said. “So, I’m really the fortunate one because I’ve been able to coach a lot of really, really good players and they make you look like you know what you’re doing.”
Working alongside Carrie Eighmey are assistant coaches Devin Eighmey and Bailey Morris.
“When you find ways to win games in your career, it’s usually because you have a really, really good staff,” Eighmey said. “Any head coach that’s any good, has really good assistant coaches and I have two of the best.”
Win number 199 came on Thursday, with a 71-49 win over Northeastern State.
The Lopers finished the matchup shooting 47% from the field and had 18 assists on 25 made shots. Leading the way for UNK was forward Elisa Backes, who had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists.
“Anytime you’ve got a player like her on the floor that’s such a 3-point shooting threat, she stretches the floor,” Eighmey said. “Her shooting ability really helps us space the floor and she’s been shooting the ball really well as of late.”
Eighmey hit 200 wins on Saturday, when UNK beat Rogers State 70-62.
After being down 17-16 at the end of the first quarter, UNK ramped up its defensive efforts against the Hillcats, who were on fire from the 3-point line, shooting 52% for the game.
“I thought collectively we did a really good job of getting as many stops as we could, considering that they were shooting it so well,” Eighmey said.
Along with the Hillcats’ hot shooting, the mix of defensive looks provided a challenge for the Lopers, who had a season-high 21 turnovers.
“We didn’t get as many shots, so we had to be really efficient with the shots that we did get because we had so many turnovers,” Eighmey said.
UNK had a well-rounded offensive performance, with Trinity Law scoring 17 points on 5-6 shooting, Shiloh McCool adding 16 and Klaire Kirsch getting a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Lopers’ 52% shooting and 19 assists on 24 made shots helped them overcome a turnover-filled game.
UNK will travel to Missouri this week to take on Central Missouri and Lincoln.
