HONOLULU, Hawaii (Nov. 16) – The Central Washington University women's basketball team improved to 3-0 on the season after defeating Chaminade 64-40 in the Silverswords' season opener.

"Great win tonight," CWU Head Coach Jeff Harada said afterward.  "Especially with the rough travel day we had, I was proud of how we stayed focused and responded with our effort against a tough and scrappy Chaminade team."
 
Chaminade grabbed the initial lead, on a three-pointer from Lilia Malo, but the Wildcats found their stride following a pair of free throws from Taylor Baird.  Central opened a 22-5 lead in the first quarter, including a 13-0 run spanning seven and a half minutes.

"It was important for us to get off to a good start and I thought we did a good job of that," Harada added.  "Chaminade kind of put it to us in the second quarter, which we talked about at halftime and I liked our defense a lot more after that."
 
The Silverswords nabbed a 9-0 run early in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 26-19.  Beverly Verduin put a stop to Chaminade's run with a trey. 
 
Chaminade cut the Wildcats' lead to six, but a jumper from Sadie Mensing with 58 seconds remaining in the second boosted the Wildcats back to an eight-point advantage.   Free throws from Jasmin Edwards and Alexis Pana in the final 30 seconds of the quarter pushed the Wildcats' advantage back to double digits, 36-26.
 
Early jumpers from Mensing and Edwards gave the Wildcats a 40-26 advantage in the opening moments of the third quarter.  Central outscored the Silverswords 10-9 in the third, closing the quarter with a 46-35 lead.
 
The Wildcats put together another strong run in the fourth quarter.  Baird scored three consecutive buckets, before Edwards drained another from long distance.  Chaminade's first basket of the final stanza came over five minutes in, but JonNae Richardson responded on the Wildcats' next possession for a 59-37 advantage.  Central outscored Chaminade 18-5 in the fourth quarter.
 
Central Washington handily outrebounded Chaminade, 54-20.  The Wildcats pulled in 17 boards offensively, while only allowing the Silverswords to five offensive rebounds. 

"One of our goals was to dominate the glass and it was nice to see us collectively accomplish that," Harada noted.  "It was nice to see different players step up and contribute.  We're going to need more of that with back-to-back games coming up this weekend."
 
Edwards finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. From beyond the arc, Edwards was 3-for-4 Baird tallied 14 points and a 4-for-4 effort at the line.  The Wildcats shot 41.5 percent from the field and held a lead for 95.8 percent of the game.
 
Next up for the Wildcats is BYU-Hawaii.  Central takes on the Seasiders on Friday (Nov. 18) at 9 p.m. Pacific.