ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 10) -- The Central Washington University women's basketball erased a 10 point second-half deficit to defeat Simon Fraser University 66-54 Saturday evening in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
The win snaps a four-game losing streak for CWU who improves to 8-6 on the season and evens its Great Northwest Athletic Conference record to 3-3.  Simon Fraser drops to 7-6 and 3-2 in the GNAC.
 
The Clan started the first half off hot making six of their first nine shots to take a 17-9 lead at the 11:58 mark in the first half.  A jump shot by Hannah Shine and a steal and fast break score from Jasmine Edwards allowed the Wildcats to pull to within four with over eight minutes remaining. 

"We talked about getting stops at the defensive end and taking it one possession at a time," Head Coach Jeff Harada said. "There is no 10 point shot. We knew the way they were scoring that it would come down to getting stops. Credit to the team because they really stepped up and got rebounds."

An Erin Chambers three-pointer put the Clan up by ten 31-21 with five minutes to go.  Alexis Berrysmith followed by scoring a layup for the Wildcats then sank one of two free throws to pull to within seven points.   Back-to-back layups by Jasmine Parker followed by a jumper by Ericka Locker as the half ended allowed the Wildcats to enter halftime down just 34-37.
 
Parker and Edwards led the Wildcats with eight first-half points while Johnson and Berrysmith each added six.
 
Simon Fraser shot a scorching 58.3 percent in the opening half making 14 of its 24 shot attempts.  The Wildcats shot a respectable 42.4 percent and forced nine first-half turnovers, which allowed CWU to outscore SFU 10-3 in points off turnovers.
 
India Matheson started the second-half off for the Wildcats scoring a layup on an assist by Edwards, but the Clan responded with a three pointer to retain a 40-36 advantage with over 18 minutes left.  Matheson again scored in the paint and Edwards followed with a layup over three defenders to tied the game.

"I'm so happy for the kid," Harada said speaking of Matheson. "She comes to practice with her hardhat every day and busts her tail off. She has earned every minute out there. Just to see her experience the success and carry her practice effort over to the game makes me happy."

The Wildcats took their first lead of the game at 42-40 on when Edwards found Parker in the lane for a open basket.  The lead was short lived as the Clan responded with a three pointer to regain the lead.
 
Edwards nailed a three-point shot with time expiring on the shot clock to help the Wildcats obtain a 45-45 tie with 10 minutes remaining.   Two Berrysmith free throws and a Parker layup gave the Wildcats its largest lead of the contest at 49-45.
 
After the Clan tied the game up for the fourth time Johnson rolled off a Parker screen and nailed a trey, giving the Wildcats a three-point advantage.  Matheson added back-to-back baskets to give the Wildcats a seven point lead at 56-49. The Wildcats never looked back and finished the game with the final 66-54.

"We really paid attention to the defensive plan and executed better in the second-half," Matheson said. It was a team effort defensively and we boxed out and everyone held their player to what they were supposed to do."

The Wildcats outrebounded the Clan 43-23 and had 16 offensive rebounds which led to 20 second chance points.

Edwards led CWU with 16 points eight assists and seven rebounds and played all 40 minutes.  Johnson and Parker each scored 13 with Parker recording a double-double hauling down 10 rebounds.  The Wildcats got a huge boost from India Matheson who had a career high 10 points and eight rebounds on 4-of-5 shooting.
 
Erin Chambers who came into the game as the nations leading scorer averaging 24.4 per contests, was held to just 16 points and committed eight turnovers.
 
Central Washington will next travel to play Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific for its first two games of a three game road trip next week.