Women's Basketball | 1/13/2015 1:55:00 PM
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 13) – Fresh off a come from behind victory over Simon Fraser at home, the Central Washington University women's basketball team will look to carry its momentum on the road when they face Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific this week.
"This is a really big week for us," CWU head coach
Jeff Harada said. "Getting a couple of road wins to close out the first half of league play would be huge and would keep us in the mix for the top six."
The Wildcats shook off a 10-point second-half deficit last Saturday, defeating Simon Fraser 66-54 to pick up there first win in five contests and improve to 8-6 on the season and 3-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
True freshman
Jasmin Edwards is coming off a great two game stretch where she scored a combined 37 points with 16 assists and eight rebounds. In the win over SFU the point guard filled up the stat sheet with 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Edwards currently ranks 6
th in the conference in assists per game and 13
th in points at 13.8.
"Jasmine has been a playmaker and a quiet leader on both ends of the floor all season long," Harada said of his freshman point guard" She is not the rah-rah type of player, but her confidence, effort and competitiveness inspires her teammates to want to step up and make big plays."
The Wildcats got a huge lift from junior center
India Matheson who has started the past two games, her first starts of her career. In her last start she had a career-high in both points and rebounds with 10 and eight respectively.
Coach Harada believes Matheson has embraced her new role but is willing to do whatever is asked of her.
"India has made the most of her opportunities of late and is playing with a ton of confidence. She embraces her role with attitude and willingness to do whatever it takes, whether it's for one minute or 10 minutes to help her team win."
SCOUTING MONTANA STATE BILLINGS Central Washington now takes its show on the road, first against Montana State Billings who enters this week with a 9-6 record with a 1-4 conference mark. The Yellowjackets have lost their last three contests, most recently a 70-60 decision against Seattle Pacific. MSUB features one of the best scoring tandems in Kayleen Goggins and Alisha Breen who are scoring 19.6 and 16.1 points per game respectively.
"MSUB is a tough experienced team with a big time post player and good shooters," Harada said about the Yellowjackets. "They will present tough challenges for us and we'll need strong post play and great all-around defense if we want to be successful."
SCOUTING SEATTLE PACIFIC Seattle Pacific enters this week as the 12
th ranked team in the nation with a 12-1 record. The Falcons have won six-straight games with their lone loss coming against 5
th ranked Alaska Anchorage on Dec. 6. Seattle Pacific have four players who average 10 or more points per game led by Suzaana Ohlsen who is averages 17.6. The Falcons are second in the GNAC in scoring margin, beating their opponents by 15.4 points.
Seattle Pacific is also second in the conference in field goal percentage offense and defense at 45.4 and 38.2 percent respectively.
"SPU is another very talented opponent with only one loss on the season, so its obvious they know how to win games." Harada explained. "I think we match up well with them and its going to come down to who executes and does the little things better and more consistently."
POSSIBLE CWU STARTERS
#1
Jasmin Edwards#30
Melanie Valdez#32 Ericka Loacker
#34
Courtney Johnson#52
Jasmine Parker#54
India Matheson
