ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington University women's basketball team held a late 4^th quarter lead, but lost to Seattle Pacific University 51-54 Saturday evening in Nicholson Pavilion to fall to 8-12 on the season and 3-9 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.

"Another tough one to swallow tonight," CWU Head Coach Jeff Harada said afterward.  "Other than a few possessions I thought we played very well defensively and I was really proud of that.  We struggled making shots from the field and the line in the 4^th quarter and that was the difference."   

The Falcons improve to 15-5 on the season and 7-5 in the GNAC.
 
Taylor Baird opened the fourth quarter with a jumper from the elbow to give CWU its largest lead of the contest at 45-38.  The Falcons battled back to tie the score and the two teams exchanged leads on a couple of occasions with under five minutes to play before SPU took a four-point lead with 2:59 to play.
 
Down by two points, Jasmin Edwards got fouled with 11 seconds to go and a chance to tie the game.  Edwards sunk the first, but the seconds rattled around and out of the hoop, allowing the visiting Falcons to escape with the 54-51 win.

"Jasmin was really aggressive getting to the rim and it was nice to see that from her tonight," Harada acknowledged.  "I was most proud of how she took care of the ball and finished with zero turnovers."

Taylor Baird recorded her seventh double-double of the season posting a game-high 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.  Edwards scored 15 points, and had five assists and four rebounds.

"When we got the ball inside to Taylor, good things happened," Harada noted.  "She shot a high percentage and was scoring well, but we just didn't find her enough."
 
The Wildcats outshot the Falcons 41.7 to 40.0 but SPU connected on 11 of 16 shots from the free throw line while the Wildcats made 9 of 14.
 
Seattle Pacific forced 15 CWU turnovers and converted the miscues into 18 points on the other end, while the Wildcats scored nine points off 10 SPU turnovers.
 
The Falcons were led by Courtney Hollander who also had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Erica Pagano added 10 points and five rebounds.

"We fought like heck tonight and put ourselves in a position to win the game so that along with our defense were definitely positives," Harada finished. "We just have to be better at executing and making shots under pressure to win games like these."

 
The Wildcats return to action next week when they travel to Western Washington and Simon Fraser on Feb. 2 and 4, respectively.