Belmont Cali (Nov. 21) – The Central Washington University women's basketball led by as many as 15 points in Saturday's contest versus the Academy of Art, but it was not enough as the Urban Knights came charging back in the fourth quarter to hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season, beating them a score of 76-68.
 
The Wildcats fall to 3-1 on the season and split this weekend's two-game set versus Notre Dame De Namur and the Academy of Art. The Urban Knights improve to 4-3 on the season, winning their fourth straight game. The Wildcats will be back in action with a home contest versus Whitworth University on Nov. 25 before they begin Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with a home match up versus Northwest Nazarene University on Dec. 1.
 
The Wildcats offense found no problems scoring in the first quarter of play. Rachel Lorenston struck first with one of her two three-point buckets. Melanie Valdez and India Matheson would follow suit with buckets of their own as the Wildcats opened a quick 8-5 advantage over the Urban Knights. Lorenston would strike again at the 4:50 mark of the first quarter with her second three-ball and the Wildcats would go on to finish the quarter on an 8-0 run to lead 25-10.
 
"I thought we started the game well and had good focus on defense," Head coach Jeff Harada said. "We were able to score from the high post against their zone which opened things up for our shooters on perimeter. I thought down the stretch we started to settle for too many three's which is not something we want to do."
 
Jasmin Edwards finished the game with 17 points seven rebounds and six assists, with four of those 17 coming in the second quarter. The Wildcats only managed to score nine points before the break and found themselves leading 34-27 at halftime.
 
The Wildcats blitzed the Urban Knights in the start of the third period scoring the first five points by way of back-to-back layups from Edwards and a jumper from Jasmine Parker. Parker finished the game with six points and 12 rebounds. The Wildcats inflated the lead to as much as 13 points at the 2:24 mark when Edwards nailed her first three-point shot of the game but AAU closed the third chapter on a 12-1 run that forced multiple Wildcat turnovers in the back court leading to easy layups.
 
The game's lone lead change came at the 9:27 mark in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats relinquished the lead and failed to get it back.
 
"Rebounding and turnover were the real story of the game and we just didn't control those things," Harada said. "Give AAU credit for wanting it more than us down the stretch. That's what veteran teams do.
 
Academy of Art forced 18 turnovers including 14 steals and outscored the Wildcats 30 to 18 in the paint.
 
"We'll learn from this game and definitely take away a lot of positives," Harada added. "I think we showed we can compete with anyone but we need to do it for entire game and not just three quarters."