SPOKANE — Sandpoint bowed out of the Eagle Holiday Classic with a 65-36 loss to Cheney (Wash.) on Saturday morning.

“The score didn’t turn out the way that we wanted or the way we’re capable of playing,” Sandpoint head coach Will Love said. “But on the other hand we have to look at other lessons that we have to learn from this. We’re trying to make everything with this young group a learning experience, and one of those things is that we have to figure out our approach for back-to-back games.”

Another slow start plagued the Bulldogs snowballed into their largest defeat of the year, mostly in part to Cheney’s ball movement, reliance on transition scoring and junior guard Maggie Smith’s game-high 15 points. All nine Cheney players that saw the floor scored at least two points.

“One of the things the girls are struggling with right now is their defensive assignments,” Love said. “That falls on me. We have to practice that because we have a hard time finding out who guards who in transition, then if we stop the ball, how we rotate. Those are a few of the things we’re going to work on between now and the next game.”

The Bulldogs led for one minute and 27 seconds, then the Blackhawks rattled off a 14-1 run to gain separation in the first quarter. Dawson Driggs (12 points, six rebounds) and Hattie Larson (11 points, four rebounds and seven steals) tried pulling the Bulldogs closer in the second, but Cheney’s lead proved to be insurmountable.

Sandpoint (2-9) will host West Valley (WA) on Jan. 5 at 4:30 p.m.

Sandpoint 7 17 5 7 — 36

Cheney 20 18 14 13 — 65

SANDPOINT — Driggs 12, Morgan 2, Edwards 1, Larson 11, Petit 5, Lish 2, Banks 0, Phillips 3.

CHENEY — Draper 7, Smith 15, Evans 5, Loffredi 8, Pemberton 10, Hertel 2, Sargent 2, Deatherage 10, Singer 3.