ANCHORAGE, Alaska --- The Western Oregon women's basketball team fell to Alaska Anchorage 79-58 on Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Center - creating a Saturday where three games will determine the final team to clinch a spot in the GNAC Championships.

The WOU loss combined with a Montana State Billings win at Simon Fraser - making the Yellowjackets the fifth team to clinch a spot into the postseason - left MSUB at 9-8 and WOU and UAA tied for the sixth-and-final spot at 9-9.

The three Saturday games that will have an impact on the final spot are WOU at Alaska Fairbanks (0-15 in GNAC play, 0-25 overall), UAA hosting Saint Martin's (which is 13-4 and sitting in third place in the conference) and MSUB at Western Washington (which is 14-3 and tied for first in the GNAC).

A breakdown of the tiebreakers are at the bottom, but here is how the final spot will be determined:

WOU gets in with:

• A win and a UAA loss
• A win, a UAA win and a WWU win over MSUB
• A loss and a UAA loss

 
UAA gets in with: 

• A win and a WOU loss
• A win, a WOU win and a MSUB win at WWU

As for Thursday's game, WOU (13-12 overall) trailed 23-18 after one before being outscored by the Seawolves (16-10 overall) 17-5 in the second quarter to trail by 17 at the half. Enid Vaifanua led the Wolves with 16 points while Kylani Rookstool added 12 points.

Tiebreaker Breakdown

WOU gets in:
If WOU wins and:

• A UAA loss (no tiebreaker needed, WOU 9-9, UAA 8-10)
• A UAA win and a MSUB loss (teams tied at 9-9 for 5-7^th, goes to record against each other and MSUB is 3-1, WOU is 2-2 and UAA is 1-3)

If WOU loses and:

• A UAA loss (tied at 8-10)
  • 1^st tiebreaker: Head-to-head tied 1-1
  • 2^nd tiebreaker record vs. teams over .750 in conference (CWU, WWU & SMU – WOU is 1-5, UAA is 1-5)
  • 3^rd tiebreaker is record vs. .500 teams (CWU, WWU, SMU, NNU, MSUB – WOU is 3-7, UAA is 2-8)

 
WOU is out if
If WOU wins and:

• MSUB wins and UAA wins – WOU and UAA tie for 6^th at 9-9.
  • 1^st tiebreaker Head-to-head 1-1
  • 2^nd tiebreaker vs. teams over .750 (CWU and WWU – each went 1-3)
  • 3^rd tiebreaker vs. teams over .500 (each team went 4-8)
  • 4^th tiebreaker Record vs. each team starting at the top of standings and moving down: Each went 1-1 vs CWU, 0-2 vs WWU, but vs. 3^rd place SMU UAA would be 1-1 while WOU went 0-2

If WOU loses and:

• UAA wins (no tiebreaker needed, UAA would be 9-9, WOU 8-10)