Women's Basketball | 1/7/2015 1:28:00 PM
ELLENSBURG, Wash (Jan. 7) – Defense will be the name of the game when the Central Washington University women's basketball team battles archrival Western Washington University Thursday night in Nicholson Pavilion at 7 p.m.
The Wildcats, under first year head coach
Jeff Harada, have a 7-5 mark and are 2-2 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Through 12 games last season the team held a 5-7 record. The team boasts the no. 2 scoring defense in the conference allowing just a shade under 59 points-per-game.
The Vikings match the Wildcats with a 7-5 record, and are 1-2 in conference. WWU claims the fourth best scoring defense allowing 63.8 points-per-game. Junior post Kayla Bernsen leads the GNAC in blocked shots with 2.4 per game.
"Western is a very good team whose record is a little deceiving because of the strength of their schedule," Harada explained. "They are a tough and physical team with a lot of offensive weapons so we need to step up to the challenge defensively and not let them outwork us."
Senior
Courtney Johnson offers the counterpunch for the Wildcats scoring 15 ppg which ranks the forward seventh in the GNAC. Along with Johnson, freshman Jamin Edwards will help carry the offensive load as she averages 12.7 ppg coupled with 3.5 assists-per-game.
The Vikings attack is led by four double-digit scorers, guard Katie Colard (14.6 ppg), guard Taylor Peacocke (13.8), post Bernsen (12.8) and point guard Jenni White (10.2). Although the Vikings don't take a lot of three-point shots, they lead the GNAC in three-point percentage, shooting a league-leading 41.5 percent.
Thursday night CWU will look beat WWU for the first time since 2008, when the Wildcats traveled to Bellingham, Wash. The Wildcats haven't protected home court in the past 12 years as their last home win versus Vikings was in 2003.
"With so much pride on the line we're excited to be at home and look forward to a packed house on Thursday," Harada said. "Home court obviously hasn't been an advantage for us in the series, but we have an opportunity to change that if we come in with an energetic and focused effort for 40 min."
