Women's Basketball | 2/7/2013 8:16:00 PM

Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ore – Lorrie Clifford led the Western Oregon women's basketball team as the Wolves nearly led from start to finish en route to a 78-72 victory over Central Washington in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest on Thursday evening. With the victory, WOU improves to 8-14 overall, 3-9 in league play, while the Wildcats fall to 8-11 overall, 3-8 in conference play.

WOU grabbed control early in the first half thanks to a defensive effort that saw the Wildcats shoot just 9-of-31 (29.0 percent) from the field over the first 20 minutes. The Wolves combined the defensive effort with a strong showing on the offensive end as WOU shot 15-of-29 from the floor (51.7 percent) to grab a 41-26 halftime lead.

Central Washington responded to the big halftime deficit; however, as the Wildcats opened the second half on a 16-4 run to cut the Wolves lead to 45-42 with just 11 minutes remaining. WOU quickly answered with a 9-0 run to push the lead back out to double digits as the Wolves would not be threatened the rest of the way.

Clifford led the way for WOU on 8-of-13 from the field as the Wolves had four players finish in double figures. Mariah Durian added 13 for WOU while Melissa Fowler (12) and Amber Reade (10) also finished in double figures for the Wolves.

Freshman Whitney Rodriguez had a solid performance for WOU off the bench as the freshman post player finished the night with seven points and nine rebounds in just 14 minutes.

Jessica VanDyke led CWU with 26 points on 9-of-22 from the field while Leslie Stillar added 16 in a losing effort.

WOU had the statistical edge in nearly every category as the Wolves held a 37-34 edge on the boards and went 20-of-25 from the line while the Wildcats managed to just hit 8-of-12 shots from the charity stripe.

The Wildcats managed to stay in the game due to a big advantage on the offensive glass, converting 18 offensive rebounds into 22 second chance points.

WOU will look to continue its winning ways when the Wolves play host to Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 2:00 p.m.