Friday, March 14, 2014

POMONA, Calif. – Forward Erin Chambers scored 26 points to lead Simon Fraser to a 77-70 victory over Western Washington Friday in a NCAA Division II West Regional women’s quarterfinal basketball game at Kellogg Gym.

The Clan now advances to Saturday’s 5 p.m. semifinal game against second-seed Montana State Billings which ousted No. 7 seed Academy of Art 60-59 in Friday's second quarterfinal.

Simon Fraser used an 11-3 run to close out the first half and open up a 43-31 lead at the break.

As they did last Saturday in overcoming a 16-point deficit to beat SFU 78-74 in the GNAC title game, Western Washington rallied in the second half climbing to within one point on four different occasions and actually tying the game once on a free throw by Sydney Donaldson with 6:47 left.

But, this time, SFU didn’t give up the lead as Chambers scored five consecutive points on a three-pointer with 4:01 left and two foul shots with 2:48 remaining to put her team ahead by six at 71-65.

A steal by WWU’s Sarah Hill then set up a three-point play by Taylor Peacocke cutting the Clan lead in half, but SFU then got a layup by Rebecca Langmead with 1:50 remaining before adding four foul shots – two by Chambers with 26 seconds left – to offset a basket by Katie Colard at the 1:36 mark.

"We got too far down and it took a lot of energy to try and pull ourselves out,” WWU coach Carmen Dolfo said.

Chambers, who had 14 points at halftime, was just 6-of-21 from the floor, but made 13-of-16 foul shots.

Meg Wilson joined her in double figures in posting a 15-point, 11-rebound double double for SFU. Thirteen of Wilson's points came in the opening half.

Colard paced the Vikings with 20 points, while Peacocke had 12 and Tia Briggs added 11. Hill finished with a team-high 12 rebounds matching Langmead in that category. 

WWU, however, was just 1-of-5 from the three-point line.  SFU came into the contest ranked 10th nationally in three-point percentage holding its opponents to a 25.4 percentage.

Simon Fraser improved to 20-9 with the victory.  Western Washington completed its season with a record of 19-10.