ELLENSBURG, Washington --- A tough third quarter was something Western Oregon women's basketball team couldn't overcome as the Wolves suffered their first loss of the season at Central Washington 69-56 Thursday night at Ellensburg High School in their GNAC opener.

WOU (4-1 overall, 0-1 GNAC) led the Wildcats (6-1, 1-0) 35-32 at the half after outscoring CWU 25-14 in the second quarter.

However, the Wildcats went on a 15-2 run to start the third quarter to build a 10-point lead and never looked back as the Wolves wouldn't get closer than eight points the rest of the contest.

"Our defense was pretty solid and I thought we executed our game plan well for about 3 quarters," WOU coach Holli Howard-Carpenter said. "Unforced turnovers hurt us a bit in the first half then we just went absolutely cold in the third. When shots aren't falling like that we have to lock in even more on defense. Even if we're in foul trouble, we have to be able to still take things away or get our opponents out of their rhythm.

"Offensively we have to find a way to score more than 56 points in order to compete in the GNAC. We can get all the open looks we want but we have to be able to knock them down."

WOU in the third quarter went 3-for-18 from teh field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range while CWU went 11-for-19 from the field (57.9 percent) - including draining a pair of 3-pointers.

Cali McClave led the Wolves with 18 points to go along with three steals. Pi'ohia Tuivai had eight points. Princy Paaluhi-Caulk had a team-high 12 rebounds to go along with two points and two steals while Ana McClave had 10 rebounds and seven points.

WOU returns to action Saturday at Northwest Nazarene.