Friday, March 8, 2024
by Thomas Lal

Ellensburg, Wash. –  The third time, was in fact, the charm. After dropping both regular season games to Alaska Anchorage this year, Western Washington made no mistake in the semifinals of the GNAC Women’s Basketball Championships, claiming a 75-60 victory over UAA to punch its ticket to the championship game with a historic performance.

The No. 2 seed Vikings met the No. 3 seed Seawolves in the semifinals of the tournament for the first time after UAA defeated No. 6 seed Seattle Pacific yesterday. It was Western Washington’s Riley Dykstra who led the Vikings to victory with the best three-point shooting performance in tournament history.

It took just 20 minutes for Dykstra to write her name into the GNAC history books. With seven three-pointers drained before halftime, Dykstra eclipsed her previous career-high in three-pointers and matched the GNAC Championships record for most three-pointers in a game set by WWU’s Corinn Waltrip against Montana State Billings in 2011. Those three-pointers, sparked by back-to-back-to-back treys in the first quarter propelled the Vikings to a 21-10 run from the middle of the first into the start of the second.

 She etched her name alone at the top of the list by hitting her eighth of the day for WWU’s first points of the third quarter, also breaking the program record in the process. Dykstra finished the day with a game-leading 24 points while shooting a tournament-record 88.9% from beyond the three-point arc. She also notched four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. Her eight three-pointers are also the most for a GNAC player this season.

As a team, the Vikings combined for 11 three-pointers in the first half with Stephanie Peterson and Olivia Wikstrom also connecting for multiple. Western Washington finished the game with 14 three-pointers made with four different players hitting at least one trey. Peterson notched 17 points to go with five rebounds, two assists and a block during a game-leading 36 minutes on the floor.  

First team all-conference forward  Brooke Walling took a few minutes to find her first points, but couldn’t be kept off the scoreboard for long, racking up 12 points and 10 rebounds for her conference-leading 13th double double of the season while shooting 75% from the field. Walling was also a pivotal playmaker for the Vikings, narrowly missing out on a triple double with nine assists to go along with two steals The potent play of Dykstra, Walling and Peterson, propelled the Vikings to a 15-point advantage at the half.

The offensive outpouring wasn’t the only deciding factor for Western Washington as the Vikings’ stifling perimeter defense held the Seawolves to just 36.8% from three-point range and 38.5% from the field. As a team, WWU tallied three blocks and forced 13 turnovers.

Despite the impressive effort by the Vikings’ top players, Alaska Anchorage always looked dangerous. The Seawolves were led by 16 points by second team all- conference guard Senya Rabouin to go along with two assists and two steals while shooting 44.4% from the field and 50% from long range. Defensively, all-conference honorable mention Vishe’ Rabb was potent, racking up five steals, one short of the tournament record, to go along with six points, a rebound and an assist. The Seawolves come away with a piece of tournament history of their own after going a perfect 13-for-13 from the free-throw line to break the previous GNAC Championships of 92.9% set by WWU in 2012.

With the semifinal win under its belt, Western Washington (22-6, 14-4 GNAC) will go on to face the winner of No. 4 Central Washington (19-11, 10-8) and No. 1 Montana State Billings (25-5, 16-2) in the GNAC Championships final tomorrow.