The women’s basketball team kicked off the regular season this past weekend, hosting two games inside Hanner Fieldhouse.

The Eagles easily defeated North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) with 65-50 on Friday night and demolished Thomas University with 106-43 Sunday afternoon. From tipoff through the final buzzer, the Eagles looked better than both teams in all facets of the game.

Center Patrice Butler, senior, scored the team’s first 11 points against NCAT, knocking down three three-pointers and a pair of free throws in less than three minutes.

“I feel like I owe it to my team, we’ve been working so hard during the preseason and three, four long weeks of the spring practice,” Butler said on her quick start.

The starting center put up 22 points on Friday and 14 on Sunday, going 6-11 from three point range on the weekend.

The Eagles’ defense had an abundance of steals against NCAT and took the ball away even more against Thomas, racking up an absurd 24. The volume of threes that the Eagles hit and steals would make it extremely tough for the opponents to keep the games close.

The Aggies of North Carolina A&T were held to a measly three points in the third quarter, and the Knight Hawks of Thomas only mustered 12 points in the entire first half. Capitalizing on sloppy passes, the Eagles scored 20 points off of 21 Aggie turnovers and 53 points off of 34 Thomas turnovers.

Wanting his team to play more up tempo and aggressive this season, head Coach Kip Drown was pleased with the pace his squad played with.

“It was a nice opener, a nice way to start the year,” Drown said.

The Eagles now face a grueling four game road stretch, beginning with Clemson on Wednesday night. To return back to Hanner undefeated, the Eagles will have to cut back the amount of turnovers and continue to have active hands on defense.