MONMOUTH, Ore. – Western Oregon University's women's basketball team shot a season-high 59.6% (28-for-47) from the field en route to earning a wire-to-wire win over Simon Fraser University, 68-45, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play Thursday inside the New PE Building.

"Tonight's victory happened because on an absolute team effort on both ends of the floor," said Head Coach Holli Howard-Carpenter. "Defensively, we were talking, we were shifting well in the zone, and we had good ball pressure so they couldn't see when we did make a mistake. Offensively, we executed really well. We took advantage of mismatches. [Simon Fraser] was missing one of their post players, so they had four littles on the floor. We did a good job of taking advantage of the mismatches. We shared the ball. We had 18 assists. Almost everybody who played had an assist, which is amazing. That's probably one of our highest assists. We just shot lights out. I told them in the locker room that in the first half we shot 53.6 [percent], which is really good for us, but then we said, 'hey we can do better than that,' and we shot 68 percent in the second half, so they just kept that energy going."

Four Wolves scored in double figures led by senior Dana Goularte with 15 points, while sophomore Jordan Mottershaw, junior Elise Miller, and freshman Jasmine Miller added 13, 12, and 10 points, respectively. Freshman Sami Osborne led the Wolves with a game-high 11 rebounds and a game-high tying five assists with the younger Miller grabbing eight boards off WOU's bench.

When asked about the number of players that scored in double figures, Goularte said, "It meant the world just because we've been trying to really focus on being a well-rounded team defense and offense. We're trying to play stronger together. It just feels great to have everybody get there and to have everybody succeed. It just feels amazing. We want to encourage them to keep doing it and pump up their confidence."

Simon Fraser was led offensively by Erin Chambers with a game-high 19 points, while Katie Lowen and Rachel Fradgley added nine and seven points, respectively. Chambers and Fradgley led the Clan with six rebounds each, while Alisha Roberts handed out a game-high tying five assists for SFU.

In the opening three minutes of the game, Western Oregon scored the first eight points and extended its lead to 11-2 on a free throw by Goularte with 12:15 left on the first half clock. Simon Fraser would pull within five points (11-6) before the Wolves used a 7-2 run over a span of five minutes to pull ahead by 11 points (19-8) on a lay-in by Osborne with 5:52 left. Over the final five-plus minutes, Western Oregon used a 14-7 run en route to securing an 18-point lead (33-15) at halftime.

The second half would begin with Western Oregon scoring the opening four points to extended its lead to 22 points (37-15) on a Mottershaw lay-in with 18:43 remaining in the game. The closest that Simon Fraser would get would be 11 points (45-34) on a lay-in by Chambers at the 10:35 mark before the Wolves slowly pushed their lead to a game-high 23 points with a game-ending 23-11 run that resulted in the final score of 68-45.

When asked about the team's key to winning the game, Coach Howard-Carpenter said, "Our focus the whole game and during every timeout. All eyes were on me. They were very focused on sustaining the lead and pushing. To have four people in double figures scoring, when we really only have two to average and then we had another one with eight and 11 boards, it was a real team effort. Jasmine was amazing off the bench. She gave us quality minutes. She played 26 minutes and only had one turnover and she had 10 [points] and six [rebounds], so that's pretty amazing. We're missing two of our players with injuries, and everybody stepped up in their absence."

As a team, Western Oregon shot over 50.0% in each half that included 13-for-19 (68.4%) in the second half. The Wolves were also a combined 3-of-8 (37.5%) from beyond the three-point line and 9-of-14 (64.3%) at the free throw line. Simon Fraser, on the other hand, was a combined 17-for-61 (27.9%) from the field, 6-of-29 (20.7%) from long distance, and 5-of-6 (83.3%) at the charity stripe.

Western Oregon returns to action on Saturday, February 14, against the visiting Vikings of Western Washington University beginning at 7 p.m. inside the New PE Building in Monmouth. Saturday's game will be the Wolves' annual Play4Kay game to help raise Breast Cancer Awareness.

When asked what the team's goals for the rest of the season are Goularte stated, "To play with the same intensity, focus, and fire because we don't want it in spurts anymore. We want it now. We want it for the rest of the season, so our main goal is to go one game, next game, get the win. Keep it going."