Written by Matthew Rawlins, Sports Information Intern

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Freshman Sami Osborne led the way with 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line, as the Western Oregon University's women's basketball team pulled off an upset victory against No. 8-ranked Seattle Pacific University, 67-62, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play Thursday night inside the New PE Building.

"This is a great win for our program," said Head Coach Holli Howard-Carpenter. "From start to finish, we played like we were going to win the game. We played with poise and toughness from start to finish.  It was nice to finally have a full team and they really fought hard for each other. Our defense was on point tonight, we communicated well and made them take contested shots. To hold a team that averages 40% from the 3-point line to just 19% is a credit to our focus and sense of urgency to get to shooters."

Western Oregon (5-11, 2-6 GNAC) would get 11 points from junior Katie Goddard, who had three big buckets down the stretch, including a three-point field goal that put the Wolves up by five with just over two minutes left in the game. Senior Dana Goularte, who made a return from injury after missing WOU's last four games, had 10 points, a game-high six rebounds, and a game-high six assists to go along with 10 points and four assists by junior Elise Miller.

"Sami had another solid night and Katie and Dana were great off the bench for us," added Howard-Carpenter. "Dana saw the floor very well and had a team high six assists, while Katie hit some BIG shots down the stretch."

Seattle Pacific (14-2, 6-2 GNAC) was led by Suzanna Ohlsen, who had a game-high 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field. Aubree Callen also scored in double figures with 14 points to go along with three assists, while Betsy Kingma added eight points for SPU on 2-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.

After falling behind 4-0 in the early moments of the first half, Western Oregon bounced back to go on a 7-0 run to take an early three-point lead (7-4) with 15:24 on the clock following a lay-in by Miller. Seattle Pacific would then go on a run of their own to take a 16-10 lead midway through the first half. Back-to-back buckets by Goularte and a mid-range jumper by junior Angie Titus cut SPU's lead to one (20-19) with 4:51 left in the first half. However, Seattle Pacific went into the locker room with all of the momentum as they went on a 13-5 run to close the half  that resulted in a 33-25 lead for the visiting Falcons.

Western Oregon got all the momentum back to start the second half, as they came out of the break on an 11-0 run to retake the lead (36-33) highlighted by scoop-and-score by Goularte, and a fast-break lay-in from sophomore Jordan Mottershaw with 16:40 remaining in the game. Seattle Pacific, however, would combat with a run of their own, going on a 14-4 spark  that resulted in a 50-42 advantage with just over eight minutes on the clock. Western Oregon battled back to cut the lead to three (53-50) and then a big-time three-point field goal by Goddard tied the game at 53 with just over four minutes left. Western Oregon retook the lead minutes later thanks to a pair of free throws by Osborne that gave the Wolves a 55-53 advantage with 3:23 on the clock and then they took the lead for good on another big three-point field goal from Goddard just over one minute later to pull ahead by five points (58-53) with less than two minutes to play. Seattle Pacific battled back to cut the lead to three (65-62) on a three-pointer by Kingma with seconds to go. Fortunately for Western Oregon, the Wolves quickly got the ball into Goularte who found a wide-open Osborne behind the Seattle Pacific full-court-press for an easy lay-in to seal the win for Western Oregon (67-62).

Western Oregon combined to shoot 24-for-48 (50.0%) from the field, including 6-of-10 from behind the arc (60.0%) and 13-for-19 at the free throw line (68.4%). Seattle Pacific, on the other hand, was a combined 24-for-61 from the field (39.3%), 4-for-21 from behind the arc (19.0%), and 10-for-12 from the free throw line (83.3%).

The Wolves return to action on Saturday, January 24, when they host Montana State University Billings at 3 p.m. in the ROOT Sports GNAC Game of the Week played inside the New PE Building.

NOTE: Beginning at 2 PM, the first 100 Western Oregon University students that enter through the north doors of the New PE Building with a valid 2014-15 ID will receive a voucher that can be redeemed for a #PackTheDen t-shirt. Students will need to be seated in the center section of the bleachers behind the scorer's table by 2:45 PM in order to turn in their voucher for the free t-shirt.