NAMPA, Idaho (Jan. 24) -- The Central Washington University women's basketball team ended nine years of losses to Northwest Nazarene with a 68-66 overtime victory over the Crusaders Saturday afternoon in Nampa, Idaho.
 
This was the first CWU's victory over NNU since the 2004-05 season, which spanned 18 games.
  
Central Washington improves to to 10-7 on the season and 5-4 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  Northwest Nazarene drops its sixth straight contest and falls to 4-14, 2-7 in GNAC.
 
The Wildcats, who outshot NNU by more than 25-percent (53.1 to 28.0), had to overcome some sloppy play to gain the victory.  The Wildcats turned the ball over 31 times and the Crusaders scored 29 points off the CWU miscues.  Central Washington was led by Jasmine Parker who stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, 16 rebounds, six blocks and three assists.
 
Shine came off the bench to score 16 for the Wildcats, making 4 of 6 shots from three-point territory, none more important than the one who gave the Wildcats the victory.
 
The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead scoring on four straight possessions with baskets by Courtney Johnson, Chantel Heath, Ericka Locker and Melanie Valdez.
 
By the second media timeout at 11:54 the Wildcats led 15-10 making seven of their first 10 shots of the game.  The Wildcats kept their shooting pace as Shine and Valdez both connected on back-to-back three pointers as the Wildcat built a 23-15 advantage.
 
The Wildcat offense cooled off and the Crusaders managed to tie the game at 23 with 3:57 left in the first half. Central Washington found its touch to end the half with a 33-31 lead.  Alexis Berrysmith led the Wildcats with eight points and four blocks making all four of her shot attempts in the first half.  Parker had nine of the Wildcats 20 first-half rebounds, and added four points and three blocks.
 
The Crusaders gained their first advantage of the game at 40-39 early in the second half, but it was short lived as Shine followed with a three-pointer to give the Wildcats a 42-40 lead.
 
Turnovers plagued the Wildcats and NNU was able to gain a 48-46 lead with 7:44 left in regulation.  At that point in the contest the Wildcats had 26 turnovers, which resulted in 20 points for NNU.
 
With the Wildcats ahead 56-55 Shine drains her third shot from behind the arch giving CWU a four-point lead with under a minute remaining.  The Crusaders answered with a layup with 44 seconds left.  Parker was whistled for travelling on the following possession and with the shot clock off NNU gets two chances to tie the game misses both but the final shot resulted in free throws with 0.4 seconds left.  Ellie Logan sinks both shots and sends the game to overtime.
 
In overtime, the Crusaders led by one with less than 30 seconds left, and Shine drained her fourth three of the game, giving CWU the 68-66 victory.
 
The Wildcat defense was stifling, holding the home team to just 28-percent shooting, due in large part to the 12 blocks collected by CWU and 37 defensive rebounds.  
 
Next, CWU returns home to play Alaska Anchorage and Alaska next Thursday and Saturday.