ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Central Washington Wildcats (12-4, 4-3 GNAC) struck gold in their first game of the weekend in the last frontier defeating the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (10-5, 2-4 GNAC) by a 71-47 margin. Samantha Bowman notched the first triple-double for the GNAC since 2016, and the first for CWU since December 31^st, 2011. 
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI-RICHARDSON THORNLEY
 
"Extremely happy with the growth we have showed over these last couple of weeks and for it to come through in tonight's game. We were disciplined and committed to our game plan. Our girls played great team basketball on both ends of the floor. Sam had another incredible performance. I'm extremely proud of her and happy for her to get a win in that arena." 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead forcing the Seawolves to take a timeout early in the game. UAA would use the momentum from the timeout and from their scrappy defensive pressure to cut the Wildcat lead to one at 12-11 with 3:31 left in the quarter. Claire Heitschmidt and Tori Maeda would score the final buckets of the quarter, putting CWU up 16-11. 
 
The Wildcats would never look back from there as Valerie "Sunshine" Huerta knocked down one of her multiple three-pointers to open the scoring in the second quarter. Immaculate three-point shooting by Tori Maeda as well as a free-throw by Bowman and a put back by Ashley Schow gave the Wildcats their first double-digit lead 30-20 with 3:58 left in the half. CWU would finish the half on a 10-3 run highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers by Asher Cai to go into halftime up 40-23. 
 
Bowman got things started for the Wildcats to start the third quarter putting CWU up 42-23. The Wildcats would see their first 20 plus point lead on two made free throws by Bowman at the 8:01 mark of the third quarter, 46-25. Bowman found Schow and Heitschmidt camped out on the baseline wide open multiple times to help boost the Wildcat offense. Maeda capped off the third quarter with a huge three to put CWU up 61-36 heading into the fourth quarter. 
 
The Wildcats started the fourth quarter off on a 7-2 run to firmly cement their victory. Sunshine nailed a three followed by buckets from Bowman and Schow gave the Wildcats their first 30 plus point lead of the game at 68-37 with 6:12 left in the game. The Seawolves would try to battle back, but time was on the Wildcats side as CWU took the victory and their first win up in Anchorage since January 19, 2013, by a 71-47 score.
 
Bowman finished with a triple-double of 15 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists to lead all those respective categories. Sunshine (13), Schow (12), and Maeda (11) rounded out the double-digit scorers, while Cai fell two points short of a double-double herself with 12 rebounds and eight points. Heitschmidt provided eight points off the bench while Riley Johnson (3) and Shaylee Coulter-Fa'amafu (1) rounded out the Wildcat scoring. 
 
The Wildcats outrebounded the Seawolves by a 53-34 margin. CWU also shot 45.3 percent on the night, 33.3 percent from three-point tries, and 70 percent from the free-throw line. 
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wildcats will stay in Alaska as they try to come home with two pieces of gold from the weekend when they travel to Fairbanks to take on the Nanooks of Alaska-Fairbanks (4-9, 1-5 GNAC) on Saturday with a 4:00 p.m. pacific time tip-off.