Monday, January 14, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore. – Entering the second week of January with three straight conference victories under its belt, the Central Washington women's basketball team looked to continue its winning ways while welcoming Saint Martin's and Seattle Pacific to Ellensburg.

The Wildcats did just that, tipping off the weekend with a tight three-point victory over the Saints on Thursday night. The team then rounded out its week with a 77-70 defeat of the Falcons, earning the selection as GNAC Team of the Week. 

Head coach Randi Richardson-Thornley's team was led by guard Alexis Pana, who averaged 17.5 points and 7.5 assists per game over the pair of victories. Pana is the team's leader in both of those categories this year, scoring at a clip of 14.9 points per game while dishing out an average of 5.8 assists.

"The crazy thing about Lex is that she does it kind of quietly," Richardson-Thornley said. "You look at the stat sheet at the end of the game and you realize the impact she had."

Behind a 21-point, 11-assist and eight-rebound evening from Pana, CWU was able to erase a nine-point fourth quarter deficit and knock off in-state foe Saint Martin's, 85-82. In all, four Wildcats finished the contest scoring in double figures, including a big 17-point outburst from forward Kaelie Flores.

The club stayed hot two days later, building on the momentum from its come-from-behind victory to jump out to an early lead against visiting Seattle Pacific. Pana led Central Washington with 14 points, while forward Jonnae Richardson added 13 off the bench to help their team to a 17-point advantage through three quarters.

The final score was 77-70, capping a 2-0 week while running the Wildcats' winning streak up to four.

"Our team just found ways to grind out two wins last week while not shooting the ball particularly well from three-point range as we have been doing fairly consistently this season," said Richardson-Thornley. "They showed resilience on the defensive end and multiple players stepped up in big moments, so I am extremely proud of this group for their effort. Now we're on to two big games this week and there is still a lot of season left." 

Central Washington will remain at home this week, beginning with a showdown against No. 3 Northwest Nazarene on Tuesday night. They will then return to the floor two nights later to close the week out against Montana State Billings.