BILLINGS, Mont. (Mar. 4) – The Central Washington University women's basketball team saw their 2014-15 season come to an end Wednesday in a 51 to 40 loss to Western Washington University in the first round of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
This was the first GNAC tournament in school history for the women's basketball team who had not made the postseason since 2003.
 
Turnover was the difference in the contest with the Wildcats committing 14 turnovers which resulted in 12 points for the Vikings.
 
Neither team shot particularly well with both clubs shooting below 30-percent in the contests.
 
GNAC Freshman of the Year Jasmine Edwards led the wildcats with 14 points and senior Courtney Johnson added seven.  Jasmine Parker was her usual self in the paint scoring six points, grabbing eight rebounds and adding to her all-time blocks record with four rejections.
 
 
The Wildcats held a 6-4 advantage on a three pointer by Erika Locker, a layup by Jasmin Edwards and a free throw by Melanie Valdez with15:25 to go in the first half.
 
The Vikings went on a 9-2 run, but Jasmine Edwards cut the Vikings advantage to three points (13-10) on a long jumper from just inside the three-point line.  Senior Courtney Johnson made her first three pointer of the game to tie the score at 13 with just over seven minutes remaining.
 
Edwards found Alexis Berrysmith on a well-executed pick and roll and the Wildcats took a 16-15 lead forcing the Vikings to call their first timeout of the game.  Taylor Peacocke converted an and-one opportunity for WWU and the Vikings traded leads with CWU at 18-16.
 
At the final media time out at 2:37, the game was once again tied and Hannah Shine was set to shoot two free throws.  The senior made both from the charity stripe and the lead changed hands for the ninth time in the contest.
 
The Vikings would go on a mini-run to end the first half with a 24-20 lead.
 
Central Washington shot 30.4-percent in the first half, three point higher than the Vikings.  But the Vikings were able to sink two more baskets due in large part to five offensive rebounds in the half.
 
Both offenses went dry to start the second half with WWU scoring the first basket of the half be either team almost four minutes into the stanza.  Edwards responded with a three pointer and at the 15:31 mark the Wildcats were behind 23-28.  Western Washington went on a 5-0 run to take a double-digit lead at 33-23 their largest of the game to that point.
 
After trailing by as many as 13 points in the period on several different occasions before Katie Colard hit a three-pointer with five and a half minutes left to give the Vikings a 16 point lead.
 
The Wildcats closed to within 11 but that was as close as they would get, losing the contest  51-40.
 
The Wildcats end their 2014-15 season with a 12-15 overall record