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NAMPA, Idaho (Nov. 30) -- Senior JESSICA VANDYKE (Chester, Mont./Chester-Joplin-Inverness HS) posted her fourth 20-point game in five starts, and junior COURTNEY JOHNSON (Kent/Kentwood HS) scored 19 points off the bench, but the Central Washington University women's basketball team saw its three-game win streak snapped with an 80-75 loss to Colorado Christian University on Saturday afternoon at the NNU Thanksgiving Classic.

The Wildcats fell to 3-2 on the season, while CCU evened its record at 2-2.

Johnson led a balanced scoring attack in the first half with 10 points, but the Wildcats saw an early five-point lead disappear at the hands of the hot-shooting Cougars. CWU tied the game with 9:49 left to go in the opening half on a basket by sophomore JASMINE PARKER (Spokane/Mead HS), after which time Colorado Christian went on a 16-5 run to get its first double-digit lead of the game. CWU did close out the first half on a 13-6 run, capped by a Johnson three-pointer with 21 seconds to go before halftime, but the Wildcats still trailed 37-33 at the intermission.

That spurt carried over into the second half, as CWU scored the first five points of the period on a three-pointer by VanDyke and a jumper by sophomore MELANIE VALDEZ (Richland/Chiawana HS), but that was the final lead of the game for the Wildcats. Colorado Christian regained the lead on its next possession, and the Cougars did not trail again the rest of the way. CWU closed to within two with 7:48 left, but then went without a field goal for the next four minutes as CCU pushed its lead back to 11. The Wildcats finished the game by scoring nine of the final 13 points but were unable to complete the comeback.

"We battled back and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end of the game," CWU head coach Shawn Nelson said. "Although we didn't shoot the ball as well as we had (in Friday's win against Cal Baptist), we were still able to put up 75 points and get the shots that we wanted. We scored enough points to be able to win."

Among those shots that the Wildcats wanted -- and want on a regular basis -- are three-pointers, where VanDyke and Johnson made four treys apiece, as CWU finished 10 of 34 from long range. Parker nearly had her first double-double of the season with 12 points and nine rebounds, while junior ERIKA LOCKER (Ferndale) came off the bench to score 10 points and hand out four assists.

"Turnovers played a huge factor today," Nelson said. "(CCU) converted our turnovers into 27 points, and we also were unable to get into any sort of offensive rhythm because of those turnovers."

The Wildcats, who had committed just 19 turnovers combined over their previous two games, finished with 17 miscues in Saturday's loss. They did have a slight edge over the Cougars in that department (18-17), while finishing with a 36-34 advantage on the glass. Twenty-one of Central Washington's rebounds came on the offensive end, where they finished the game shooting just 38.8 percent.

Colorado Christian, which shot nearly 59 percent from the field (30 of 51), had three players score in double digits. Starting guard Jessica Murdoch was 10 of 14 shooting and tallied a game-high 26 points, while Maddie Page came off the bench to score 13 points -- including three of the Cougars' four made three-pointers -- and Gillian Foster had 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.

CWU will remain on the road next week, opening Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with visits to Saint Martin's University and Western Oregon University on Thursday (Dec. 5) and Saturday (Dec. 7), respectively.