ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 14) – After a bounce-back 35-point win over Montana State University Billings, the Central Washington University women's basketball team hits the road for a pair of conference games. On Thursday, the team plays Simon Fraser at 7:30 p.m. followed by a rivalry game against Western Washington on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
Thursday, Jan. 24 | 7:30 p.m. PST
at Simon Fraser
Nicholson Pavilion | Burnaby, BC
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Live Stats
GAME INFORMATION
Saturday, Jan. 26 | 7:00 p.m. PST
at Western Washington
Nicholson Pavilion | Bellingham, Wash.
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Live Stats
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"This is a big week as we head on the road to face two great teams who are right behind us in GNAC standings," CWU head coach
Randi Richardson-Thornley said. " We need to defend and rebound better than we have all year in order to compete in both of these games. Our team has put forth a good first half of conference play, but much can be determined just in this week."
SCOUTING SIMON FRASER
Simon Fraser finished last season in sixth place, going 9-11 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. This season, the Clan were picked to finish third by the GNAC coaches. Head coach Bruce Langford is back for an 18th season in Burnaby and will lean on forwards Sophie Swant and Ozi Nwabuko for a return to the upper reaches of the league standings. Swant was a Second Team All-GNAC selection last March after averaging a team-high 14.2 points per game, while Nwabuko will look to build on a 2016-17 season that earned her the GNAC Freshman of the Year award. She missed last season due to injury. Both of the B.C. natives received preseason All-GNAC honors.
SCOUTING WESTERN WASHINGTON
A season ago, Western Washington landed in seventh place in the GNAC. In the 2018-2019 GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Vikings are picked to tie for third with Simon Fraser. Preseason All-GNAC selection Dani Iwami highlights a quartet of returners after tallying 9.4 points and four assists per game to earn GNAC Newcomer of the Year honors.
Lexie Bland, Gracie Castaneda and Anna Schwecke round out the returning Vikings' starters. Castaneda is the team's returning leading-scorer with 10.6 points per game in the 2017-18 season. The sharp-shooting Bland will be joining Iwami and Castaneda in a loaded backcourt this year. The junior led WWU in three-point field goal percentage as a sophomore (37.8 percent). Rounding out the group is Schwecke, who started all but two games a year ago while averaging 8.3 points and tying for a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game.
LAST TIME OUT
It was a short turnaround for the Wildcats last week, playing No. 4 Northwest Nazarene on Tuesday before taking on Montana State University Billings on Thursday. The GNAC's best Nighthawks downed the Wildcats 89-69 before the Wildcats stomped the Yellowjackets 93-58 on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Wildcats jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead with buckets from
Kassidy Malcolm,
Sadie Mensing and a three from
Taylor Shaw. The Nighthawks answered back with a quick run of their own, tying the game at nine. The two teams went bucket for bucket for the remainder of the quarter. The Wildcats trailed 17-16 at the end of the first period.
With 8:30 left in the first half, the Nighthawks began to extend a lead. After back to back buckets by Danielle Jardine, the Nighthawks took a 36-31 lead over the Wildcats. A bucket from
Kaelie Flores cut the Nighthawk lead to three. Northwest Nazarene answered, taking a 38-33 into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Nighthawks went on a quick 10-2 run to increase their lead to 48-35. The Wildcats 2-for-5 from behind the arc in the third quarter, trying to cut into the Nighthawk lead. They'd go 14-of-24 from the field in the third as well. The Nighthawk offense was just too much for the Wildcats to handle as they shot 48 percent from the field as a team including 17 from Ellie Logan as well as Raquel Jardine.
The Nighthawks found their stride in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 29-17. Northwest Nazarene finished with 58 of their 89 points coming in the paint.
On Thursday, the Wildcats were led by a career night for Flores. She set new career-bests with 24 points and four three-pointers made. Malcolm added 19 points and eight rebounds while
Alexis Pana nearly notched a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Central outscored MSUB 24-11 in the quarter, led by Malcolm with eight points along with six from Flores. The Wildcats shot 75 percent from deep in the quarter and closed the half with a staggering 43-24 lead.
The team traded baskets to open the second half of play with the visitors scoring seven of the first 12 points. From that point, Central put together a 13-5 run to expand their lead to 64-36 with 3:24 remaining in the period. The Crimson and Black closed the quarter hitting three of four shots; all three from deep to bring their lead to 73-40 at the end of the third.
The Wildcats started the final period on yet another run; this time 9-0 in just two minutes to build their lead up to 42 points. The Yellowjackets went on to score eight of the next 12 points before an
Aliyah Pana shot from deep put the Crimson and Black's lead back to 40 with just minutes remaining.
WBB D2SIDA POLL UPDATE
The Wildcats own the number seven spot in the D2SIDA Women's Basketball Regional Poll.
