BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Despite outscoring its opponent by 16 points over the game's final eight minutes, Western Oregon University's women's basketball team could not overcome Western Washington University's combined 30-for-50 (60.0%) shooting from the field that included a 14-for-22 (63.6%) showing in the first half en route to suffering an 80-64 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) loss Thursday inside Carver Gymnasium.

"Western Washington is a very physical team and they play hard," said Head Coach Holli Howard-Carpenter. "We battled and at times executed well, but just couldn't get it done. We defended for the final eight minutes and held them to nine points. We did what we wanted to at the free throw line, going 83%, but we just didn't find a way to get on the glass."

Western Oregon (4-10, 1-5 GNAC) had three players score in double figures led by junior Angie Titus with 14 points off the Wolves' bench, including 12 points in the second half, while the freshman duo of Sami Osborne and Jasmine Miller added 13 and 12 points, respectively. Titus was a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line, while Miller was 4-for-5 from the field en route to registering a career-high in points. Osborne also led WOU with four rebounds, while junior Elise Miller handed out a team-high four assists for Western Oregon.

"Jasmine was a spark of the bench for us and really played with no fear," added Howard-Carpenter. "We weren't sure how many minutes Angie was going to be able to give us because of a slight injury, but she was very productive and played with a sense of urgency, especially down the stretch."

Western Washington (10-5, 4-2 GNAC) was led by Sydney Donaldson with game-high totals of 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Taylor Peacocke added 18 points for the Vikings. Along with Donaldson and Peacocke, Jenni White added eight points, four rebounds, and a game-high five assists for WWU.

The game would begin with Western Oregon hold an early lead (5-2) after a fast break lay-in and three-pointer from sophomore Jordan Mottershaw in the opening two-plus minutes before Western Washington used an 11-5 run over a span of five minutes to pull ahead 13-10 on a jumper by Peacocke with 12:20 on the clock. The Wolves would battle back to tie the game at 17-17 on a lay-in by Miller with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Unfortunately, the host Vikings used an 8-2 run over the next three minutes to pull ahead by six points (25-19) after back-to-back free throws by Katie Colard with 6:48 left. Two more Colard free throws four minutes later would hand Western Washington its largest lead of the first half (33-22), as the Vikings concluded the opening twenty minutes of play with a 36-25 lead heading into the locker room for halftime.

Western Washington would begin the second half by scoring the opening eight points en route to building a 19-point lead (44-25) on a lay-in by Peacocke just over three minutes into the final period of play. Almost three minutes later, WWU pushed its lead to 51-30 on a three-pointer by Peacocke before Western Oregon pulled within 19 points (53-34) on a free throw by Titus with 12:37 left. After seeing Western Washington push its lead to a game-high 32 points (70-38) with 8:52 on the clock, Western Oregon closed the game on a 26-10 run but could not beat the clock en route to falling by the final score of 80-64.

As a team, Western Oregon combined to shoot 20-for-49 (40.8%) from the field that included a 4-for-11 (36.4%) performance from beyond the three-point line and a 20-for-24 (83.3%) showing at the free throw line. On the other hand, Western Washington shot over 57% from the field in each half en route to registering its aforemention shooting percentage. The Vikings were also a combined 3-for-12 (25.0%) from long distance and 17-of-23 (73.9%) at the charity stripe.

Western Oregon returns to action on Saturday, January 17, against the Clan of Simon Fraser University beginning at 7 p.m. in Burnaby, British Columbia.