Women's Basketball | 3/5/2009 9:46:13 PM

Box Score [Box score]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon University women's basketball team could not overcome a late run by Western Washington, the No. 5 team in the NCAA West Region, as it fell 68-58 in its final home game of the season Thursday (Mar. 5).

The loss drops the Wolves to 8-18 on the season and to 3-12 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference as the Vikings improved to 18-8 and 10-5 in conference.

WOU was down 28-26 at the half but tied the game at 32-32 early in the second period on two Katie Torland free throws. The game would remain close until WWU went on a 9-2 run to take the lead at 49-42. The Wolves would answer back with a 9-4 run to close to within two points at 53-51 with 5:02 remaining but this is as close as they would get as the Vikings would close the game on a 15-7 run to seal the victory.

Katie Torland scored a career-high 29 points for the Wolves to go along with 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. She was 9-of-19 from the field and 11-of-13 at the free throw line. She scored 23 of Western Oregon's first 35 points. Jessica Summers led Western Washington with 21 points and five rebounds.

"Physically we can't compete better than we did tonight," said Western Oregon head coach Greg Bruce. "We were prepared and our kids played hard when they could have folded,  that is all we ask for."

The Wolves won the rebounding battle 41 to 31 but were hurt by a 34 percent shooting percentage (18-of-53) as the Vikings connected on 45.3 percent of their shots (24-of-53).

"We missed some shots and had a couple of bad turnovers but I am very proud of the way we competed and sometimes you just have to live the results," explained Bruce.

The Western Oregon women's basketball team will play Central Washington in its final game of the 2008-09 season Saturday (Mar. 7) at 2:00 p.m.

"We will go up to Ellensburg and try to win that game and finish the season on a strong note," continued Bruce.