Nampa, ID (Nov. 14) – Erika Locker hit a three-point shot with one-second left on the clock to force overtime in the season-opener for the Central Washington University women's basketball team, but the team eventually fell to Cal Baptist University 68-64.
 
The loss is the first for the Wildcats in this young season.
 
Senior Courtney Johnson (Kent, WA, Kentwood) led all scorers with 22-points making seven out of her 15 shots.
 
"I thought defensively we were good," First year Head Coach Jeff Harada said. "I want commend Melanie Valdez's (Richland, WA, Chiawana) effort tonight, she shut down the PAC/West Freshman of the Year. She was averaging 16 shots per game and she held her to just five shot and two points. Her job was to stop number 3, and she did that."
 
With eight minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Johnson-Locker tandem combined for nine straight points as the Wildcats took their first lead of the game, 15-14. Two minutes later, Johnson would connect on another mid-range jumper to put Central on top again, 17-15.
 
"Courtney played all 45 tonight and she didn't even look tired," Harada said of his forward.
 
The Wildcats would go into halftime with a 25-21 lead behind 13 Lancer turnovers in the first period. CBU finished the game with 19 turnovers, which matched CWU's 19 for the contest.
 
"We did a nice job defensively of taking them out of their offensive flow in the first half," Harada said. "I thought their second half their energy was better than ours, they had a sense of urgency since they were down."
 
Central opened the second half with another Johnson-jumper and two free throws by freshman Jasmin Edwards (Lynnwood, WA, Lynnwood High School) to inflate the lead to 28-21.
 
"Edwards had a great first game, as a freshman, to come in and control the tempo and offensive was a good sign." Harada said of his starting point guard.
 
Edwards finished second on the team with 17 points and added three assists to go along with three rebounds.
 
The Wildcats shot 34.5 percent on the night compared to the Lancers' 40.3 percent and were outrebounded 46-40. Central shot 79.2 percent from the charity stripe highlighted by Johnson's perfect night from the line, she converted all seven of her attempts.
 
With 22 seconds left in the second half, the Wildcat were trailing 56-53 until Edwards made a layup to cut the lead to one. The Wildcats fouled on the inbounds play, which lead to two free throws made by the Lancers as the lead grew to three. Then Locker hit the game-tying shot.
 
"We wanted to set up some action on the ball, and knew their defense would jump to the first pass," Harada said. "Erika's defender sagged off as she trailed the play and hit the shot in rhythm. It looked good when she let it go, and fortunately it went in."
 
The Wildcats shot just two of six in the overtime period and were outscored 10-6.
 
"It felt like a heavy-weight boxing match," Harada added. "They would go on a run, then we would go on a run, back-and-forth all night long, and they landed the final blow."
 
Up next for the Wildcats is Hawaii Pacific University. Start time for the game is set for 3:15 p.m. MST.
 
"We executed well for the first game, I thought everyone had some butterflies, but we have to get some things right," Harada said. "It's execution, and it's timing, and it's being consistent. Good team execute at the end of the games, I liked the effort overall, and a lot of people stepped up tonight. As disappointing of a loss this was for us, we need to get over it and lace em' up tomorrow, and get after it against another good team."