BELLINGHAM, Wash. (Feb. 7) – The Central Washington University women's basketball team lost a close fought battle against archrival Western Washington 62-61 on a last second shot Saturday evening in Sam Carver Gymnasium.
 
The Vikings, who improved to 15-7, 9-4 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and scored with 1.3 seconds left to defeat the Wildcats.
 
Central Washington junior Jasmine Parker had a spectacular second half scoring 16 of her game-high 22 points after halftime, finishing with 14 rebounds to record her fourth of the season. 
 
In a low scoring first half the Wildcats held a 16-15 advantage over the Vikings at the 7:51 mark in the stanza.  At that point in the contest each team was shooting below 35-percent from the field.   After the teams traded leads on multiple occasions in the half, Courtney Johnson capped off a productive half with a three pointer, her third of the half to give the Wildcats a 32-29 halftime advantage.
 
Johnson scored 14 of her 19 points in the first half, and as a team the Wildcats shot 44.4-percent from three and made all eight of their free throws in the stanza.  The Vikings got the majority of their first-half scoring from Katie Colard and Kayla Bernsen who combined to score 20 of WWU's 29 points.
 
Jasmine Parker started the Wildcats off with a 8-5 run to start the second half scoring the Wildcats first eight points off layups on assists from Erika Locker and Jasmin Edwards.  The Wildcats held a healthy 45-35 second-half lead with under 16 minutes left in the game.    
 
The Vikings, in turn, went on a 12-5 run to cut the CWU advantage to just three points with 7:30 left in regulation. The Wildcat remained a step ahead of the Vikings for the next 7:28 seconds until Jasmin Edwards fouled Colard with just 3 seconds left.  Colard made the first free throw to pull to within one point, and missed the second, however Bernsen was able to corral the rebound and lay the ball in to give the Vikings a one-point lead with 1.3 seconds left in regulation.  Central Washington attempted a half-court shot that fell short, losing the contest 62-61.
 
The Wildcats were a steady 85.7-percent from the charity stripe, making 12-of-14, while the Vikings made just  8-of-14.
 
The Wildcats will return home next week when they host Seattle Pacific University and Montana State Billings on Feb. 12 and 14 respectively.