NAMPA, Idaho – The Central Washington women's basketball team went on the road and found a stride from three-point range for a huge 85-60 victory over the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks. The night was led by
Asher Cai who nailed 20 points to lead all scores.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
- Final: Central Washington 85, Northwest Nazarene 60
- Records: CWU (19-6, 11-5 GNAC), NNU (11-13, 7-9 GNAC)
- Location: Johnson Sports Center, Nampa, Idaho
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY:
"I'm proud of the resilience and resolve our team showed tonight. NNU came out and took it to us to start the game. I'm happy with our ability to fight out of that hole against a great team who's hard to make extended runs against. We caught some fire from three and that gave us the lift we needed to make our run."
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Both teams battled back and forth to open the game with neither team gaining enough traction to pull away, until hard press from the Nighthawks and stout defense forced turnovers and saw NNU go up 19-12 to end the first quarter.
- The comeback 'Cats came alive in the second quarter as the Wildcats battled from a 13-point deficit thanks to clutch three-point shooting from Cai and Sunshine Huerta, who helped pull the Wildcats to the 38-35 lead at halftime.
- Both teams battled coming out of halftime, but the Wildcats never gave up the lead as Claire Heitschmidt nailed a huge three to give the Wildcats a huge momentum boost which sparked three more threes from CWU to help put the Wildcats up 69-47 going into the final 10 minutes.
- The final 10 minutes proved to be the Samantha Bowman show as she would score 11 of the Wildcats 16 points in the fourth quarter, giving the Wildcats the 85-60 lead.
STATS FROM THE GAME:
- Cai led all scores with 20 points on the night while Bowman and Huerta each added on 19 points.
- Bowman led all rebounds with 16 on the night.
- Tori Maeda tacked on 10 assists to lead all assists.
- The Wildcats had 11 steals on the night with Bowman and Huerta each heisting three.
- Bowman led the block party with three out of the Wildcats five.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- This was the 43rd ever meeting between the two squads with the Nighthawks holding the 29-14 advantage in the series.
- The Wildcats are on a four-game winning streak over NNU.
- This is the first time the Wildcats have swept the season series against the Nighthawks since the 2004-2005 season.
UP NEXT
- The Wildcats will head back on the road to conclude the regular season with showdowns against Saint Martin's (9-15, 5-11 GNAC) and Western Oregon (11-13, 5-11 GNAC) next Thursday and Saturday. The first matchup will be with the Saints of SMU on Thursday with a 5:15 p.m. tip-off from Lacey, Wash., followed by the regular season concluding matchup against Western Oregon on Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. tip-off in Monmouth, Ore.
