Thursday, March 2, 2023

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – It’s official. Nobody has played better on the GNAC Championships stage than Samantha Bowman.

As she led Central Washington to an 88-62 win over Simon Fraser to advance to the semifinals, Bowman set the GNAC Championships records in scoring, field goals made, field goal attempts, and cemented her place in history by breaking the all-time conference career rebounding record. As a team, the Wildcats set the GNAC Championships field goal record with 37 made.

Bowman finished the game leading all scorers with 40 points to go with 14 rebounds and five assists. Her points total surpasses the previous record of 34 set in 2015 by Western Washington’s Katie Collard. Bowman was followed in scoring by sophomore forward Claire Heitschmidt with 12 points while shooting a perfect 4 of 4 from the field and 3 of 3 from three-point range. Heitschmidt also finished with four rebounds.

It was a dominant first half for the Wildcats to start the game, leading 57-24 going into halftime. On the offensive side, Bowman led the way with 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists on 11 of 16 from the field. The GNAC Freshman of the Year  Asher Cai followed Bowman in the first half, notching 11 points on 3 of 4 from three-point range. Cai finished the night with 11 points and seven rebounds while shooting 36.4% from the field and 50% from deep.

Central Washington came out hot in the first quarter with Bowman and Valerie “Sunshine” Huerta combining for 10 points less than three minutes into the game.  Huerta finished the game with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. At the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats led 31-12 behind 17 points from Bowman while holding the Red Leafs to 0 of 5 from three-point range.  

The Red Leafs’ attack looked to punch through into the key in the first half but struggled to finish the chances that they did create. Sophomore forward Gemma Cutler led the scoring efforts for SFU in the first frame with 11 points on 5 of 8 from the field while picking up six rebounds. Cutler finished the night as Simon Fraser’s leading scorer with 17 points to go with nine rebounds on 8 of 11 from the field.

Simon Fraser came into the tournament with the No. 4 three-point percentage in the conference but the GNAC-leading three-point defense of CWU showed its strength as the Red Leafs finished the first half 0 for 8 from long range. Through the first frame, Central Washington shot 59.5% from the field and 50% from beyond the three-point arc while Simon Fraser shot 29.4% from the field and 66.7% from the free-throw line. Simon Fraser came out of halftime increasing the press and pushing the attack down low and outscored the Wildcats 38-31 in the second frame.

The third quarter proved to be a historic one for Bowman as she broke one conference record and tied another. With a rebound in the fifth minute of the third frame, she officially surpassed the all-time GNAC career rebound record of 1,182 set by Rebecca Kilepinski of Alaska Anchorage in 2009. Bowman also flexed her scoring prowess, hitting the 15-field goal mark to tie the record for field goals made in the GNAC Championships set by Western Washington’s Taylor Peacocke in 2017.

The records weren’t finished falling there as Central Washington senior Tori Maeda set the GNAC Championships assist record, dishing out 12 to surpass the previous record of 10 set by CWU’s Jasmin Edwards in 2017. Bowman also added the Central Washington single-season scoring record to her list of accolades for the night.

Central Washington moves on to face No. 2 seed Montana State Billings in the semifinals on Friday at 5:15 p.m. in Bellingham.