ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington women's basketball team (5-1) will open their Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) and home schedule with a pair of rivals as the Western Oregon Wolves (4-0) come to town on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. followed by the Saint Martin's Saints (3-4) on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. with both games being held at Ellensburg High School.
 
GAME INFORMATION
 
Thursday, December 1^st
6:15 p.m.
Central Washington vs. Western Oregon
Ellensburg High School
Ellensburg, Wash.
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Saturday, December 3^rd
5:15 p.m.
Central Washington vs. Saint Martin's
Ellensburg High School
Ellensburg, Wash.
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LAST TIME OUT
 
The Wildcats are coming off a weekend split at the Regis Thanksgiving Classic in Denver. The 'Cats first fell to the 21^st-ranked Colorado School of Mines Orediggers 53-72 on Friday before coming up with a huge bounce back against the hosting Regis Rangers 90-66 on Saturday.
 
A slow start against Mines doomed the crimson and black as a 25-9 deficit following the first quarter proved to be too much for CWU to overcome, unlike double-digit deficits earlier in the season. However, the 'Cats did outscore Mines in both quarters in the second half. Valerie "Sunshine" Huerta and Asher Cai were the lone double-digit scorers for CWU with 23 and 13, respectively. Samantha Bowman and Claire Heitschmidt each nabbed seven rebounds while Tori Maeda wasn't far behind with six. CWU dished out 11 assists, one block, and five steals.
 
Saturday proved to be a much different story, as the 'Cats showed their resilience and dislike of losing. While the Rangers kept it tight after the first quarter (17-14 in favor of CWU), the 'Cats popped off in the second quarter outscoring Regis 39-14 to set CWU up the rest of the game. Huerta again finished with over 20-points this time with 22, and Cai matched it with 22 points herself. Heitschmidt pounced off the bench nabbing 14 points with Malia Smith also adding a solid nine points off the bench as well. Bowman was the other double-digit scorer with 12 points as well as adding 11 rebounds to continue her double-double count. CWU shot blistering numbers going an even 50 percent from the field, 46.4 percent from three-pointers, and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line. They also gathered 35 rebounds, dished out 16 assists, put up one block, and took away six steals to help guide the victory.
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY
 
"Excited to start conference play. The GNAC brings a whole other set of challenges that will be good for our young group to navigate and learn from. We are excited to start GNAC play and to continue to compete and grow as competitors. WOU and SMU are both teams who will play hard, defend, and have individuals who can step up and hurt you from an offensive perspective. We will have to come ready to compete and rise to the challenge if we want to have success."
 
SCOUTING THE WOLVES
 
The Wildcats will look to ruin WOU's perfect start to their season as they have pushed out a 4-0 start. They lost in a close exhibition match to perennial Division One NCAA Tournament participant the Oregon State Beavers by an 82-66 score. They opened their regular season at the Saint Martin's Classic where they posted a 75-69 win over Cal Poly Humboldt and an 86-51 victory over Canadian team Capilano. They then went south to Chico, Calif. where they showed their resiliency in a gritty 66-64 victory over the fellow Wildcats of Chico State before backing it up with a 56-47 win over Sonoma State.
 
Cali McClave (one of two McClave sisters on the team) has been the go-to leader of the Wolves as she has averaged 14.8 points per game and the leading blocker with two so far this season. Kylee Arzner and Princy Paaluhi-Caulk aren't far behind offensively as they're averaging 11.5 and 11 points per game, respectively as Paaluhi-Caulk is the leading assister with 17 already on the season, as well as leading the Wolves with eight steals. Kiylynn Dawkins is the other double-digit scorer averaging 10.8 points per game. The other McClave sister, Ana is WOU's leading rebounder averaging 8.8 per game.
 
Collectively the Wolves are shooting 41.8 percent from the field while shooting 20.9 percent from three-point attempts and 73 percent from the charity stripe.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINTS
 
The Saints haven't started out their season quite the way they would've probably liked. They dropped two matches in exhibition play, first a 55-58 defeat to NAIA Bushnell, followed by a 50-58 setback to division one Seattle. They have split all three of the tournaments they participated in, as well as dropping an out of conference home matchup to Azusa Pacific 49-65.
 
Anjel Galbraith has proven to be a leader on the offense for SMU as she is leading in points scored with 14.3 per game. Rian Clear and Lauryn Morris are the other double-digit average scorers for SMU with 11.3 and 10.3 apiece, respectively. The duo of Morris and Clear are the leading rebounders for the Saints, averaging 6.1 and 5.8 rebounds per game, respectively. Galbraith has dished out 21 assists to lead the Saints and leads the Saints by a large margin in steals with 18. The Saints have combined for 19 blocks on the season thus far.


SMU is shooting 39.5 percent from the field while also knocking down 24.3 percent of their three-point attempts and shooting 68.7 percent from the free-throw line.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
 
The 'Cats will turn their attention to some more non-conference action over the holiday break. CWU first plays host to the Oaklanders of Lincoln (Calif.) (2-6). The Wildcats and Oaklanders will square off on the campus of Yakima Valley Community College down in Yakima on Friday December 9^th at 5 p.m. CWU will then head back to Ellensburg High School to play host to the Northwest Eagles (2-2) on Saturday December 10^th with tip-off set for 4 p.m.