ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Feb. 27) – The Central Washington University women's basketball team picked up a 69-55 victory over Montana State Billings in a return to form game. The Wildcats close the regular season with a 17-11 record overall and a 10-10 record in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The Yellowjackets fall to 19-9 on the season and 15-5 in GNAC play.
"Well we had a great week of practice. Once we found out that we clinched a spot in the tournament it was kind of like a breath of fresh air," CWU Head Coach
Jeff Harada said. "We just talked about it as a team and made that decision that were going to forget about the recent games and move forward with a brand new start and come in with a positive attitude, great energy, have great practices and that's what we did."
Jasmine Parker recorded two blocks, becoming the single-season recorder holder for blocks in a season with 69. She also recorded 15 points, two assists, four rebounds, and three steals.
Central jumped out to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter. The Wildcats then led 38-24 at the half.
"We had a great week of practice; Randy prepared a really good scout for us," Harada acknowledged. "We got started early in the week defending how we want to defend, especially with three post players in there for a lot of the game especially since it was senior night. It was just an exciting game from start to finish, I thought that we really came out hungry and on fire. Wanting to prove a point, playing for each other, playing for the seniors and it was just contagious, the energy was contagious everybody came in and did their job and did something positive. It was exciting to watch."
Mandy Steward hit two threes and recorded 10 points in the first twenty minutes, she also pulled in three rebounds. She finished with 12 points, four rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
The Wildcats went up by as much as 24 in the third quarter on a jumper by
Sadie Mensing. Central cruised to a 69-55 win, scoring 20 points or more in two quarters.
Mensing finished with five points and five rebounds, four of which were offensive.
Jasmin Edwards nearly missed a double-double, putting up 10 points and nine assists. She also recorded five rebounds.
India Matheson finished with six points, three blocks, two steals, and seven rebounds.
"We need those contributions from our seniors," Harada stated. "That's what they're capable of and it was missing throughout the season. It was inconsistent. We would have a couple of them with good stats and couple of them not, but when we get all four of them contributing in games likes this we become a pretty tough team to beat when we can get contributions from all of them. And you got Jasmin stepping up you know one assist short from a double-double. Mandy finally got out of her shooting slump she shot the ball a lot better today. She took better shots and that was important, overall a great team effort and I was proud of the way we played."
Melanie Valdez notched eight points, two assists, and one steal.
"I think this gives us a ton [of confidence], MSUB is a good team," Harada noted. "They not tied for second because they weren't, they're a really tough team, scrappy tough so for us this is a big win. I think this gives us a ton of confidence going in and hopefully we can build from this. At least we know who we are playing, Simon Fraser who just knocked off Anchorage so obviously that was big win for them so both teams are coming in with confidence right now. We split in the regular season with them, we know how to beat them and they know how to beat us so I think it will be an exciting game. We are going to hit practice on Monday excited and ready to go."
The Wildcats will play Simon Fraser at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the opening round of the GNAC tournament in Lacey, Washington.
