BILLINGS, Mont (Dec. 19) – The Central Washington University basketball team suffered its first loss in five games, falling to hot shooting South Dakota School of Mines 69-55 Friday afternoon.
 
The loss snaps the Wildcats' four-game winning streak and they now sit with a 7-3 record heading into Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
 
The Wildcats dug themselves an early hole, trailing South Dakota Mines 20-7 with 12:06 remaining in the first half.  The Wildcats started the game making just three of their first 15 shots, but after a coach Harada timeout Jasmin Edwards found Alexis Berrysmith for back-to-back baskets.
 
Despite the slow start, and hot shooting by the Hardrockers, the Wildcats battled back, and a three-pointer from Edwards closed the Hardrockers advantage to 27-22, forcing a timeout.  Following the timeout, Berrysmith connected on a jumper to narrow the Wildcat deficit to just three points.  A three pointer by Erika Locker and a pair of free throws by Courtney Johnson cut the Hardrockers lead to just one, but South Dakota Mines answered with back-to-back three pointers to gain a 36-29 lead and ended the half with a 38-29 advantage over CWU.
 
The Hardrockers shot the lights out in the first half making 52.2 percent of their shots and connected on 8-of-13 three pointers in the period.  The Wildcat offense came to life later in the half and ended up shooting 34.5-percent but was outrebounded 18-8.
 
The Hardrockers continued their scoring ways to start the second half building a 50-32 lead less than four minutes into the stanza.  South Dakota Mines would lead by as many as 20 points, but a three pointer by Johnson with four minutes left cut the Hardrockers lead to just 12.  Central Washington just couldn't slow down the Hardrockers eventually losing 69-55.
 
Edwards and Johnson led the Wildcats with 12 and 11 points respectively.  The Hardrockers shots 45.7 percent from the field and were a scorching 65.0 percent (13-of-20) from behind the arc.
 
South Dakota Mines was led by the duo of Megan Rohrer and Payton Humpal who combined to score 44 of the teams 69 points making 9 of 15 shots from three point territory.
 
 
After a Holiday break the Wildcats will return to action when they travel to Alaska to take on Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 1 followed by a matchup with Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 3.