ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington women's basketball team (15-4, 7-3 GNAC) extended their winning streak to four games with a huge 81-72 victory over the Seattle Pacific Falcons (11-7, 6-4 GNAC) Thursday night in the Nicholson Pavilion.
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY
 
"I'm proud of what we learned from game one to game two from an offensive perspective and to be able to show some growth and protect our home floor against a very good SPU team. Tonight, was a battle all around and I felt both teams played really well in stretches. It came down to our ability to shoot the ball from three and some big shots that were hit late. The home crowd was fantastic, it feels really good to be home again!"
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
The Falcons ran out to a quick 4-0 lead before a huge three-pointer from Sunshine Huerta put the 'Cats on the board. The Wildcats took their first lead of the game at the 6:53 mark thanks to the first of Asher Cais five three-pointers on the night. That was backed up by a three-pointer from Samantha Bowman to extend the Wildcat lead. Claire Heitschmidt came off the bench and contributed five points to the Wildcats 22-19 lead to end the first quarter.
 
Cai and Heitschmidt paced the Wildcat offense to open the second quarter. The Falcons would retake the lead at the 6:41 mark but was erased 20 seconds later thanks to a three-pointer by Sunshine, which was backed up once again by Bowman making a three of her own. The Falcons tightened the gap making it a two-point game before another three from Cai pushed the Wildcat lead again, but it wasn't enough as the Falcons would tie the game at 35 apiece with 1:39 left in the half. Two made free-throws from Bowman followed by a three from Ashley Schow saw the Wildcats lead 40-35 at halftime.
 
Cai once again started out scoring the Wildcats first five points before the Falcons would go to take the lead with 6:16 left in the third quarter. The Wildcats would keep pace with SPU thanks to some beautiful and downright outstanding plays from Sunshine, but CWU just wasn't able to gain the lead back from the Falcons. SPU would go up by two 58-56 going into the final 10 minutes.
 
The Falcons would start the fourth quarter going up by six points before the combo of Cai and Sunshine cut the lead down to one as Tori Maeda would sink the go-ahead jumper with 6:13 left in the game. The Falcons would retake the lead on the next possession only to see it go away for good the Wildcats next possession form a Sunshine layup. A three pointer by Cai and Maeda as well as steady free-throw shooting from Maeda sealed the Wildcats victory 81-72.
 
Cai and Sunshine led all scores with 24 and 23, respectively, while Maeda also finished in double-digits with 14 points. Bowman contributed eight points while Heitschmidt finished with seven and Schow with five. Cai led the rebounding charge with nine, while Sunshine dished out six assists. Bowman handed out the sole block for CWU while Heitschmidt took away three of the Wildcats five steals on the night.
 
Collectively the Wildcats shot 49.1 percent from the floor, 50 percent from three-point attempts, and 83.3 percent from the free-throw line.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wildcats will stay at home for one more game as they face fellow receiver of votes in the national poll Montana State-Billings (17-4, 8-2 GNAC) who puts their own respective six-game winning streak on the line for a Saturday afternoon match up with a 4:00 p.m. tip-off inside the Nicholson Pavilion.