SEATTLE – The Central Washington women's basketball team (11-2, 3-1 GNAC) fell to the Seattle Pacific Falcons (8-4, 3-1 GNAC) by a narrow 70-63 score on the road Saturday afternoon. 
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY
 
"Today we gave a good effort but lost a tough game to a good and experienced team. They did a good job of crowding our ball handlers and flying at shooters. We didn't do a good job of making consistent adjustments as well as made some critical mistakes down the stretch. Our young group hasn't been in many possession-to-possession games and our understanding of the criticalness to execute needs to improve. This is a great opportunity for us to grow and fail forward in some very important ways."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
The first quarter provided a sampling of what the game would look like as both teams went possession for possession in a back-n-forth affair. SPU led by their largest margin of the first quarter at the 8:31 mark following a jumper in a 5-2 lead. However, Asher Cai and Valerie Huerta "Sunshine" answered for the Wildcats to push CWU up one 6-5 with just over six minutes left. Following a jumper by the Falcons Sunshine nailed a three followed by Claire Heitschmidt making a layup to give the 'Cats the largest lead for either team in the first quarter at 11-7 CWU with 4:10 left in the first quarter. From there both teams traded baskets switching the lead and ending the quarter in an 18-16 advantage for the Wildcats. 
 
SPU came out of the gate in the second quarter nailing a jumper to tie the game up. However, a 7-0 run over the next two minutes saw CWU tying their largest lead of the night 25-18 on a three-pointer by Bowman. Seattle Pacific would end up responding and taking their own lead 28-27 with 4:25 left in the half. A three-pointer with 34 seconds left followed by a jumper at the buzzer saw the Falcons take the 38-33 lead into halftime. 
 
Bowman would start the scoring in the second half with a jumper to make it a one possession game once again 38-25 SPU. After Cai nailed a jumper to make it a 42-40 SPU lead the Falcons responded with an extended 8-0 run to push their lead to double-digits 50-40 with 5:41 left in the third quarter. A jumper by Sunshine followed by a three from Malia Smith with eight seconds left in the quarter saw the Falcon lead cut to single-digits 55-47, but a jumper at the buzzer by SPU put their lead back to double-digits 57-47 at the end of three quarters. 
 
The Wildcats came into the fourth quarter with business on their mind as a three by Cai followed by a jumper from Bowman saw the Falcon lead slashed in half 57-52. The 'Cats were able to claw to within four two more times thanks to threes from Tori Maeda and Bowman, but the 'Cats couldn't tie the game up as time was not on their side. The 'Cats would take their first conference loss of the season in a 70-63 defeat in Seattle. 
 
The Wildcats didn't have themselves a bad day necessarily as CWU combined to shoot 42.9 percent from the field including a 32.1 percent notch from three-point tries, but it just wasn't enough to push CWU into the lead, and a 31-point outing from Ashley Alter of SPU probably didn't help either. Bowman led the 'Cats with another double-double of 20 points and 16 rebounds. Sunshine and Cai each finished with 16 and 14 points to round out the double-digit scorers. The Falcons outrebounded the 'Cats 40-36 while each team notched 15 assists on the afternoon. 
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wildcats will look to rebound with arguably their toughest matchup next weekend. The Western Washington Vikings (9-1, 3-0 GNAC) and Simon Fraser Red Leafs (3-4, 1-2 GNAC) travel southeast to Moses Lake, Wash. where Big Bend Community College will host next weekend's games. The Wildcats will tangle with the 8^th-ranked Vikings on Thursday January 5^th at 5:15 p.m. on the campus of BBCC, while the Red Leafs come to town on Saturday January 7^th with a 4:00 p.m. tip-off at BBCC.