Sunday, March 5, 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. – Less than 24 hours after winning the GNAC Championships, Western Washington leads a trio of GNAC teams to be selected to the 2023 Division II Women’s Basketball Championships as the No. 2 seed in the West Region.

The Vikings enter the NCAA West Regional Tournament with a 24-3 overall record and are joined by No. 4 seed Montana State Billings (24-7)  and No. 6 seed Central Washington (21-8). All three teams will travel to Carson, California, home of the No. 1 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills with the tournament being held from March 10-13.

Western Washington enters the tournament on the heels of its first GNAC Championship since 2014 after defeating Montana State Billings on Saturday. The Vikings have been a fixture of the West Region polls since the start of the season, featuring in the top two since the preseason. They rank in the top five of Division II in assists per game (second), blocks per game (fourth), field goal percentage (third), rebound margin (fourth) and three-point percentage (third).

The Vikings are led by junior guard and GNAC Championships MVP Brooke Walling, who averages 13.6 points per game. Walling has started all 27 games of WWU’s season, and amassed a team-leading 149 field goals, 249 rebounds, 49 blocked shots and 40 steals.

Western Washington will face No. 7 seed Azusa Pacific (25-4) in the first round.  The winner of that game will advance to face the winner of No. 3 Cal State San Marcos and No. 6 Central Washington. The two teams last met each other on the court for Western Washington’s season opener on Nov. 11 in Bellingham with Azusa Pacific narrowly defeating the Vikings 59-58. That loss was the last the Vikings would suffer for two months while going on a season-high 14-game win streak that began the next day.

Montana State Billings comes into the tournament as the runner-up in the GNAC Championships and as the only team to defeat Western Washington since that Nov. 11 loss to Azusa Pacific. Like WWU, the Yellowjackets have polled highly in the west region for most of the season.

Montana State Billings has been one of the most responsible teams with the ball in Division II, leading the conference and ranking sixth in Division II with a 1.30 assist/turnover ratio. They also lead the GNAC with the fewest fouls committed per game with 13.5 to rank 15th in the division. The Yellowjackets have been a strong team defensively as well, ranking third in the conference with a .304 three-point percentage defense.

The Yellowjackets are led by senior forward Taryn Shelley, who averages 11.2 points per game while shooting 48.3% from the field and 40.9% from three-point range. Shelley has appeared in 18 of MSUB’s games this season off the bench and also averages 4.2 rebounds and 0.6 blocked shots per game in 18.1 minutes per contest.

Montana State Billings will face No. 5 seed Cal State LA (20-9) in the first round. The winner of that game will face the winner of No. 1 Cal State Dominguez Hills and No. 8 Cal Poly Pomona. The two programs have not faced each other since 2001 with the only other meeting coming in 1992.

Central Washington rounds out the GNAC selections to the tournament after falling to Montana State Billings in the semifinals of the GNAC Championships on Friday. The Wildcats finished third in the GNAC standings and led the conference with 78 points per game, a .264 three-point percentage defense, 31.4 defensive rebounds per game and 9.5 three-pointers made per contest.

The Wildcats are led by senior center and reigning GNAC Player of the Year Samantha Bowman. A tour de force on the boards and from the field, Bowman has notched 25 double-doubles this season. She leads the GNAC with 22.1 points and 14.8 rebounds per game. Bowman also leads the conference in offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds having started all 29 of CWU’s games.

Central Washington will face No. 3 seed Cal State San Marcos (23-5) in the first round. The winner of that game will go on to face the winner of No. 2 Western Washington and No. 7 Azusa Pacific. The showdown in the regional tournament will mark the first time in program history that the Wildcats and Cougars meet on the court.