ELLENBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington women's basketball team (21-8) will head to southern California to participate in the NCAA West Region tournament where they received the six-seed. As the six-seed the Wildcats will play the third-seeded Cal State-San Marcos Cougars (23-5) in a battle of cats in the first round.
 
GAME INFORMATION:
 
Friday, March 10th
12:00 p.m.
(6) Central Washington vs. (3) Cal State-San Marcos
Torodome
Carson, Calif.
Live Stats Watch
 
LAST TIME OUT:
 
The Wildcats participated in the GNAC tournament as the three seed. They opened the tournament with six-seeded Simon Fraser, where the Wildcats had themselves a night. Samantha Bowman finished with 40 points and 14 rebounds. Claire Heitschmidt added 12 points, Asher Cai added 11, and Sunshine Huerta tacked on 10 points in the Wildcats 88-62 victory. En route to the win Bowman set a new GNAC Tournament single game points record, broke the GNAC all-time rebounding in a career record, and broke the CWU single season scoring record. Tori Maeda would break a record herself as her 12 assists in the game broke the GNAC Tournament record for assists in a single game.
 
The Wildcats advanced to square off against the second-seeded Montana State Billings Yellow Jackets as the first 30 minutes of the game proved to be extremely competitive as the lead would change multiple times and neither team would be able to lead by more than six points. However, the final 10 minutes were the deciding factor as the Yellow Jackets outscored CWU 17-26 to go on to win 62-75 pushing the Wildcats out of the GNAC Tournament.
 
Huerta led the scoring charge for the Wildcats adding 19 points, while Bowman and Cai each added 18 points. Bowman led all rebounding with 16 on the afternoon.
 
QUOTING HEAD COACH RANDI RICHARDSON-THORNLEY:
 
"We're really excited to continue our season. I'm super happy for our seniors as they have worked so hard and deserve this opportunity and I'm excited for our underclassmen and returners as this is such a special opportunity and an opportunity for continued growth. With all that said, we are eager to go down there and compete. We are grateful our season isn't over and we want to continue to play as long as we can. San Marcos is a fantastic team with some tremendous talent. We will be challenged out of the gate and we are excited for that."
 
SCOUTING THE COUGARS:
 
The 23^rd nationally ranked Cal State-San Marcos is coming off their first ever California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament championship. They first defeated NCAA West Region fifth seed Cal State-Los Angeles in the second round by a 75-69 score, before upsetting the NCAA West Region one seed Cal State-Dominguez Hills in the championship game 74-62 earning the automatic qualifier slot to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Wildcats will have their hands full as the Cougars have four players averaging double-figures led by Dynnah Buckner with 12.2 points per game. Kelsey Forrester (11.4), Jordan Vasquez (11), and Charity Gallegos (10.7) are the other three players averaging double-figures. The Cougars are shooting 42.4 percent from the field, 34.7 percent from the three-point line, and 76.4 percent from the free-throw line.
 
Defensively, the Cougars spread the wealth as Vasquez is the leading rebounder with 6.5 per game, while Mina Tameilau is the leading blocker with 12, and Gallegos is the leading stealer with 32, however three different Cougars have over 20 steals on the season and five more have over 10. Gallegos dishes out the most assists for CSUSM.
 
UP NEXT:
 
The winner of the game will move on to the second round of the tournament to face the winner of second-seed Western Washington and seven-seed Azusa Pacific on Saturday.