ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington women's basketball team (13-4, 5-3 GNAC) will stay in Ellensburg for their first official home game back in the newly remodeled Nicholson Pavilion this season as they welcome the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks (8-8, 4-4 GNAC) for a Saturday afternoon showdown set for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off. 
 
There is a limited number of FREE CWU student tickets available (with valid CWU student ID.) Head HERE to claim yours ASAP! 
 
GAME INFORMATION

Saturday, January 21^st
2:00 p.m.
RV Central Washington vs. Northwest Nazarene
Nicholson Pavilion
Ellensburg, Wash.
Live Stats
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Wildcats are coming off a huge and very much needed weekend in what is arguably one of the toughest road trips of the year for any GNAC team up in Alaska. The Wildcats took arguably their biggest win of the season in the first game of the weekend in a 71-47 thumping of the pesky Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves in Anchorage Thursday night. This was the Wildcats first victory in Anchorage since January 19, 2013. 
 
The 'Cats were led by Samantha Bowman who needed the first triple-double in the GNAC since 2016 and the first triple-double for CWU since December 31^st, 2011. Bowman finished with 15 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, and five blocks to lead the Wildcats in all the categories mentioned and tied with Asher Cai to lead CWU with one steal. 
 
Valerie "Sunshine" Huerta finished second in scoring with 13 points as Ashley Schow and Tori Maeda each finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Cai came two points shy of another double-double herself finishing with eight points and 12 rebounds. Claire Heitschmidt provided a nice boost off the bench with a solid eight points. 
 
The Wildcats wrapped up their trip to the last frontier with a victory over the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks on Saturday in a 73-56 victory. Sunshine led all scores with 27 points while Bowman piled on another double-double in 21 points and 12 rebounds. Cai tacked on seven points, while Malia Smith came off the bench and notched six of her own points. 
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY
 
"It will be great to be home and have our first game in Nicholson. It will be nice to play a game on our campus in front of our home crowd. NNU is a very well coached and gritty team who is very good at doing what they do. It will be a great conference "home" opener."
 
SCOUTING THE NIGHTHAWKS
 
The Nighthawks are coming off a weekend split on the same roadtrip as the Wildcats, first narrowly slipping past the Nanooks in overtime 90-88, before falling to the gritty defense of the Seawolves 68-58, making their record over the last ten games 3-7. 
 
The 'Hawks are guided by Jordan Pinson who is averaging 12.6 points per game with Clare Eubanks the only other double-figures scorer at 10.7 points per game. Eubanks and Danika Starr lead the charge on rebounding for NNU as each are averaging 5.1 and 5.2 rebounds per game, respectively. Eubanks isn't just a rebounder, but is the leading blocker on the team, so far garnering 18 blocks on the season. Pinson has dished out 56 assists so far this season and is second on the team (31) to Emma Clark (36) in steals so far this season. 
 
Collectively, the Nighthawks are shooting 38.5 percent from the floor, 25.1 percent from three-point attempts, and 74.1 percent from the free-throw line. 
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wildcats will stay in 'The Burg' and Nicholson Pavilion when they look to get revenge against the Seattle Pacific Falcons (10-5, 5-2 GNAC) on Thursday January 26^th with a 5:15 p.m. tip-off time. The Montana State-Billings Yellow Jackets (14-4, 5-2 GNAC) will then head into 'The Burg' for the second showdown between MSUB and CWU for the season on Saturday January 28^th, with a 4:00 p.m. tip-off.