SEATTLE – Central Washington University women's basketball picked up a blowout win Thursday night as they downed Simon Fraser University (B.C.) 76-60 in the quarterfinals of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament.
Five players finished with double figure points as the Wildcats (19-10) punched their ticket to the semifinals of the conference tournament. The Wildcats shot 48.3% from the floor overall and had 40 of their 76 points come down low in the paint.
Despite a slight struggle from three-point range, CWU still nailed seven triples to pick up the win and the defense held SFU (18-13) to just 31.3% shooting overall. The Wildcats presence in the paint gave them a 40-22 edge in scoring in the post and they won the rebounding battle 40-35.
"This kind of was a grind-it-out type of win. I don't think it came all that easily to us on both sides of the ball but our players stayed with it, stayed the course, didn't get deterred and continued to fight," CWU Head Coach Randi Richardson-Thornley said. "I was proud of the adjustments that we made in the second half. I felt like Simon [Fraser], in the first half, defended our offense actually fairly well and kind of took us out of our rhythm. We made some adjustments in the second half and found a bit of a flow. It was a tough game, hard fought, but I'm definitely happy to come out on the winning side of it."
The opening quarter fell in the Wildcats favor thanks to an early surge that got them up 8-2 in the first four minutes of play. Kaelie Flores and Kassidy Malcolm led the opening charge with four points apiece. The Wildcats pace ultimately gave them a 18-12 lead after the first frame.
SFU did not let CWU get away from them to start the second. A deep triple in the opening minutes of quarter No. 2 cut the deficit for the Clan to three, 18-15. The Wildcats called timeout to stop the bleeding, but it did not help as SFU grabbed its first lead of the game, 21-20, with just under 4:30 to play.
The lead was short lived as the Wildcats responded with a furious 9-0 run that started at the 3:57 mark and did not end until there was 1:59 to play in the first half. Samantha Bowman got the run started with a tough layup and scored four of the team's nine points.
Taylor Shaw extended the lead to 25-21 for CWU with her patented three-point shooting before a pair of Bowman free throws made it 27-21. Brianna Phiakhamngon capped the run with a driving layup to make it 29-21. The Wildcats ultimately took a 34-28 lead into the break.
Shooting fell in CWU favor as they went 14-30 from the floor overall for 46.7%. The deep ball was not the prettiest as the Wildcats went just 3-10 but their defense held the Clan to 31.4% overall in the first half of play. Points in the paint was the X-factor as CWU held a 20-12 edge.
The Clan came out strong to start the second half and cut their deficit to just three, 36-33, with under eight minutes to play in the third. The short momentum build was ended with a deep three ball from Shaw and it was the start of an 11-2 run by the Wildcats.
The offensive flow for the Crimson and Black in that run helped them grab their first double-digit lead of the game. A contested layup by Bowman got it to 10, 45-35, at the 5:00 mark of the third and the Wildcats were in control.
The Clan managed to get within six in the final minute of the third but a pair of Tori Maeda free throws and an end of quarter driving layup by Alexis Pana gave CWU a double figure lead, 53-43, after three quarters of play. The lead never shrunk to single digits in the fourth as CWU was too much to handle for SFU.
The fourth quarter completely belonged to the Wildcats who managed to push their lead to as high as 20 points. They scored 23 in that final 10 minutes while SFU tried to keep pace scoring 17. Despite the high scoring affair, the Wildcats never looked back as they earned the 16-point win to advance.
Flores led all scorers with a game-high 15 points on 6-8 shooting and had five rebounds. Shaw was one point back with 14 and went 4-6 from beyond the arc. Pana and Malcolm each scored 13. Malcolm also had seven rebounds while Pana had six. Phiakhamngon finished with 12 to round out the quintet. JonNae Richardson was the top rebounder with a game-high of nine.
The Wildcats will face regular season champion and top-seeded Alaska Anchorage tomorrow (Friday). Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. against the Seawolves.
