ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington women's basketball team (19-6, 11-5 GNAC) will embark on their final regular season weekend when they travel to clash with the Saint Martin's Saints (9-15, 5-11 GNAC) on Thursday, concluding with the Western Oregon Wolves (11-13, 5-11 GNAC) on Saturday.
 
GAME INFORMATION
 
Thursday, February 23^rd
5:15 p.m.
Central Washington @ Saint Martin's
Marcus Pavilion
Lacey, Wash.
WATCH LIVE STATS
 
Saturday, February 25^th
2:00 p.m.
Central Washington @ Western Oregon
New PE Building
Monmouth, Ore.
WATCH LIVE STATS
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Wildcats just wrapped up their first regular season sweep over the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks for the first time since the 2004-2005 season with a huge 85-60 victory in Nampa, Idaho. Asher Cai led all scores with 20 points, while Sunshine Huerta and Samantha Bowman each recorded 19 points with Bowman tallying 16 rebounds on the evening.
 
The Wildcats saw some big minutes and contributions from off the bench, led by Claire Heitschmidt with eight points. Riley Johnson tacked on six points with Malia Smith and Kiera Bush adding thee and two points, respectively. Tori Maeda finished with six points and led the Wildcats with 10 assists during the game while Bowman added on three blocks and three steals. Huerta added her own three steals en route to the Wildcats 11 steals on the evening.
 
The Wildcats finished the evening shooting 52.4 percent from the floor and 60.7 percent from three-point attempts while outrebounding NNU 41-29. The Wildcats knocked down 17 three-pointers during the game, which narrowly beat out the team total of 16 earlier this season against Metro State for highest number made in a game so far this season.
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY
 
"This is a big week for us as we want to finish off the regular season strong heading into the conference tournament. SMU and WOU are both teams who are currently playing at an extremely high level. They can defend at a high level and have players who can put a ton of pressure on you. We have to come out ready to play our best basketball in order to have success on the road."
 
SCOUTING THE SAINTS
 
The Saints are coming off a weekend split on the road in Alaska. They first fell to Alaska Anchorage by a 63-76 score on Thursday night before bouncing back with a 82-65 victory at Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday afternoon. Earlier this season the Wildcats took care of business against the Saints in the opening weekend of conference play by a 74-54 score at Ellensburg High School.
 
The Saints are led by Anjel Galbraith who is currently averaging 15.3 points per game. Kiana Rios and Rian Clear are both also averaging double-figures with Rios averaging 11.9 points per game and Clear averaging 10.6 points per game. Lauryn Morris the current board monitor for SMU as she's averaging 6.4 rebounds per game. Galbraith currently leads the Saints in assists (129) and steals (62) on the season thus far, while Sarah Lamet and Iternite Reed both have accumulated 13 blocks to lead the Saints.
 
Collectively the Saints are shooting 39.4 percent from the floor, 29.6 percent from three-point tries, and shooting a solid 74.8 percent from the charity stripe. The Saints are also narrowly outrebounding their opponents 36.4 to 36.3 per game.
 
SCOUTING THE WOLVES
 
Western Oregon is also coming off a weekend split up in Alaska. They first defeated Alaska Fairbanks by an 87-68 score on Thursday before being turned away by Alaska Anchorage on Saturday by a 58-80 score. The Wolves were the Wildcats first conference opponent of the season with the Wildcats coming back from a three-point halftime deficit for the 69-56 victory at EHS.
 
The Wolves are led by Cali McClave and Princy Paaluhi-Caulk who are the only double-figure scorers on the team with McClave averaging an impressive 16.5 points per game and Paaluhi-Caulk averaging a solid 12.5 points per game. Cali's sister Ana McClave is the leading rebounder for WOU averaging 7.5 rebounds per game. Paaluhi-Caulk has dished out the most assists with 76 on the season with Cali McClave being the best robber on the team totaling 51 steals so far this season, while Kiylynn Dawkins and Amber Winkler have each tallied 11 blocks for the Wolves over the course of the season.
 
Collectively, the Wolves are shooting 38.6 percent from the floor, 26.7 percent from three-point attempts, and 70.6 percent from the free-throw line. The Wolves are just narrowly getting outrebounded by their opponents averaging 37.8 compared to 38.7 rebounds per game from their opponents.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wildcats will wait and see who their opening opponent will be in the GNAC Tournament, as the Wildcats are currently solidly locked into at least the third seed for the GNAC Tournament, with the potential to move into the second seed if Montana State Billings were to be swept over the weekend at home against the Alaska schools. The GNAC Tournament is set to be held on Thursday, March 2^nd through Saturday March 4^th on the campus of Western Washington in Bellingham, Wash.