CHENEY, Wash (Nov. 30) – The Central Washington University women's basketball team went toe to toe with NCAA Division I Eastern Washington University Sunday evening losing 70-83.
 
The Wildcats now stand with a 3-2 record as they head into Great Northwest Athletic Conference play this coming week..  Eastern Washington, who competes in the Big Sky Conference, also has a 3-2 record.
 
"We shot the ball well tonight but they answered all our runs. I am very happy with our effort on both ends, and a lot of credit goes to them [Eastern Washington], they shot well tonight." CWU Head Coach Jeff Harada said about his team's performance.
 
Central Washington was led by freshman Jasmin Edwards who led the team with 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting.  Edwards also led the team with five assists and added five rebounds.
 
"Jasmin is a warrior," Harada said of his freshman point guard.  "She brings it and comes to play every night.  Its not about stats or numbers for her its about competing hard every night, and we can count on her to do that."
 
Despite falling behind 11-1 early, the Wildcats managed to go into halftime down 39-43.  Central Washington never led in the opening period but did tie the score three different times, the last coming off Jasmin Edwards' lone three pointer of the half to tie the game at 28.  Edwards led all scorers at the half with 12 points missing just one of her first six shots.
 
"We had poise tonight," Harada explained.  "We tried chipping away one point at a time, and when we got in rhythm we put some nice runs together."
 
Central Washington outshot the Eagles in the first half hitting on 14-of-27 shots (51.9 percent) and 6 of 10 shots from behind the arc.  The Eagles shot 46.9 percent making 5 of 7 threes.
 
The Wildcat offense cooled off in the second half shooting 37.9 percent making 11 of 29 shots from the field.  Eastern Washington on the other hand enjoyed better production in the second stanza connecting on 51.6 percent of their shots en route to the 80-73 victory over CWU.
 
Joining Edwards as double-digit scorers for CWU were Chantel Heath with 12 and Hannah shine with 11.  Courtney Johnson, who is the Wildcats leading scorer so far this season scored nine points and brought down a game-high nine rebounds. 
 
"This was a great game for us to prepare for conference," Harada said.  "If we can bring the intensity that we had tonight, we should be in position to get some wins this week."

Central Washington next opens its conference schedule with two home games starting with Saint Martin's on Thursday followed by a matchup with Western Oregon on Saturday, both are slated for a 5:15 p.m. tipoff.