After splitting a pair of games earlier in the week, the Eagles closed out their three game trip to Hawaii on Saturday, taking on the Chaminade Silverswords.

From the jump, the Eagles were the better team on the floor.  Jasmine Rachal knocked in a pair of free throws to get the scoring started, Riley Friauf added a jumper of her own, and Jasmine hit a three to give the Eagles a quick 7-0 lead.  The first quarter was low scoring, however.  After the hot start, the Eagles cooled on offense, but their defense did enough to limit Chaminade on the other end.  At the end of one, the Eagles led 11-8, with Friauf leading the team with six points and Jasmine adding five.  No other Eagle scored in the first.

In the second, the Eagles were able to find their way on the offensive end and take a double digit lead into the halftime break.  After Chaminade tied the score at 12 just minutes into the second, the Eagles went on a run.  Led by Jasmine's continued strong play, Michaela VanderKlugt's two buckets, and an offensive spark from Grace Smith off the bench, the Eagles took a 33-22 lead into halftime.  Jasmine finished the first half with 15 points on five-for-eight shooting from the field and two-for-three from distance.

"We needed to play an uptempo and get our guards to play more aggressive within our offense," said head coach Christine Collins-Kiernan.  Rachal certainly met the challenge. 

While the first half was the Rachal Jasmine show, the second half was VanderKlugt's time to shine.  In the second half alone, VanderKlugt scored 20 points on just eight shots from the field.  She was eight-for-eight from the free throw line, as well, and pulled down every rebound in sight.  For the game, VanderKlugt finished with 24 points and 18 rebounds.  Rachal finished with five points in the second half to bring her total to 20 for the game. 

After the slow offensive start for both teams in the first quarter, the Eagles turned it up and never looked back.  CUI shot 48 percent from the floor in the second half and knocked in five of their seven three point attempts.  They also made 18 free throws in the second half alone.  Though Chaminade hung with the Eagles in the third quarter, they never threatened to overtake them, and CUI went on to win 80-65.

While the Eagles played well on the offensive side, coach Collins-Kiernan credited their defense, as well.  "As a whole, we played a solid team defensive game and took care of defending the three point line."

After winning two out of their three games in Hawaii, the Eagles return home next week to take on Academy of Art on Thursday, Jan 2.4 at 5:30 p.m. at CU Arena.  The men's teams will battle afterwards as part of a scheduled doubleheader.

For the full Concordia University Irvine women's basketball schedule, click here.