ELLENSBURG, Wash. – For the second consecutive season, the Western Washington University women's basketball team clinched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament title.

 

Playing in their fourth consecutive GNAC Championships final, the No. 2 seed Vikings overcame a seven-point second-half deficit to defeat No. 1 seed Montana State Billings 54-52 on Saturday inside Nicholson Pavilion on the Central Washington University campus.

 

The No. 24 nationally-ranked Vikings (23-6) held a 27-25 halftime lead, but the No. 15 Yellowjackets (26-6) out-scored Western 17-10 in the third quarter to lead by as many as seven points. WWU scored five consecutive points – all by Aspen Garrison – spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter to cut into the deficit and pulled even at 46-46 on a three-pointer by Stephanie Peterson with just under six minutes remaining. 

 

MSUB scored four consecutive points to go up 50-46, but the tightly-contested game continued down the stretch with Mason Oberg hitting a pair of three-pointers to put the Vikings ahead 52-50. After a pair of game-tying free throws by the Yellowjackets, the Vikings took the lead for good on a driving layup by tournament MVP Brooke Walling with 42-seconds remaining. Western staved off a late turnover and had a strong defensive stand in the waning seconds to record the two-point victory.

 

Walling earned the GNAC Championships MVP award for the second consecutive season scoring a team-high-tying 17 points on 8-for-17 shooting. Oberg also scored 17 points, with 10 coming in the second half, and finished 7-for-11 from the field and 3-for-4 from three-point range. Peterson filled the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals. All but two of the Vikings 54 points came from the starting five. Garrison also had a strong performance with eight points, seven rebounds and one blocked shot.

 

The game featured six lead changes, seven tie scores and each team held a lead for over 16 minutes in the contest.

 

Western shot 40.4-percent from the field (23-for-57) and was 5-for-11 from three-point range (.455). The Vikings strong defensive effort limited MSUB to 52 points on 17-for-54 shooting (.315) and 4-for-25 (.160) from beyond the arc. WWU also held a 39-32 advantage in rebounding with a 14-11 edge in offensive rebounds.

 

MSUB senior forward Kola Bad Bear led all players with 18 points on 5-for-12 shooting while also going 8-for-10 from the free throw line. Kortney Nelson added a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double along with four assists.
 

 

"I am so proud of this team. We had a tough loss last week to end the regular season and came back and worked really hard in practice and came into this tournament with a change of attitude and a fresh mentality. I thought we executed our gameplan to open the tournament yesterday and followed that with another similar performance tonight playing with our hearts. We didn't hit as many shots tonight, but we played such hard defense, and they helped each other out and played with a lot of passion."

 

WWU claimed its fourth GNAC Championships title raising the postseason tournament trophy for the second consecutive season. The Vikings are now 19-9 all-time in the GNAC Championships while playing in 10 of 13 possible tournament championship games, including the last four. WWU entered the season as back-to-back regular-season champions, but finished second in the standings this year with a 14-4 league record. 

 

"We have had so many great players in this program and players who buy into the program and really care for each other like a family," said Dolfo about the team winning its fourth GNAC tournament title. "We had some of our alumni at the game tonight and they were just as passionate as everybody on the bench. That's one of the great things about Western is we always way 'Once a Viking, always a Viking' and I think there is just a lot of pride in each other and the school"

 

The Vikings were out-scored 17-10 in the third quarter to face a five-point deficit at 42-47 entering the final 10 minutes of action, but turned the tables with a 17-10 advantage in the final quarter to overcome a seven-point deficit for the two-point victory. Stephanie Peterson hit a key three-pointer at the 5:40 mark to tie the game 46-46 and Mason Oberg hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Vikings a 52-50 lead with just over one minute remaining. After MSUB tied the game on a pair of free throws, Brooke Walling put the Vikings ahead for good with a driving layup with 42-seconds on the clock. MSUB forced a turnover on an inbounds play and got an offensive rebound off a missed shot with four seconds remaining, but WWU's defense held off any chance of a game-winning shot to take home the tournament title.

 

The Vikings built a 27-25 lead through the first two quarters, led by 13 points from Brooke Walling on 6-for-8 shooting. The Vikings led 22-15 with 4:20 remaining in the half, but MSUB scored eight consecutive points to grab a one-point lead at 23-22. Stephanie Peterson hit a big three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to retake the lead for the Vikings at 25-23. After a pair of free throws by the Yellowjackets tied the game, Walling closed out her solid first half with a layup off an assist from Peterson to give the Vikings the two-point lead at the half. In addition to Walling's 13 points, Mason Oberg had seven points on 3-for-6 shooting and Peterson grabbed a team-high six rebounds. WWU shot 44.4-percent from the field (12-for-27) compared to MSUB's 31.0-percent (9-for-29).
 

 

Brooke Walling was selected as the GNAC Championships Most Outstanding Player, combining for 29 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and a pair of blocked shots in the two tournament games. Walling nearly recorded a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in the semifinal win over Alaska Anchorage and added 17 points and five rebounds vs. Montana State Billings in the championship game. Walling also won the award last season, becoming the second player in conference history to win the award twice joining Kiki Robertson of UAA in 2015 & 2016.

 

The No. 24 nationally-ranked Vikings improved to 23-6 on the season and have earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Championships West Regional that will be played next week at a to-be-determined campus site. This marks the 20th trip for the program to advance to the NCAA Postseason in 25 possible seasons, and fourth consecutive. WWU has advanced to the postseason (conference, regional, NCAA) in 49 of 52 possible seasons of program history. The NCAA Selection Show will air Sunday night at 7:30 pm PT on NCAA.com. WWU entered the week ranked No. 4 in the West Region behind Azusa Pacific, Montana State Billings and Cal State San Marcos.

 

Here is a look at the GNAC Championships schedule and results with the three-day tournament held March 7-9 inside Nicholson Pavilion in Ellensburg. WWU claimed back-to-back tournament titles for the second time in program history, joining the 2013 and 2014 trophies in the collection:

 

Thursday, March 7:

Quarterfinal 1: No. 3 Alaska Anchorage 79, No. 6 Seed Seattle Pacific 57

Quarterfinal 2:  No. 4 Central Washington 65,  No. 5 Seed Simon Fraser 51

Friday, March 8:

Semifinal 1: No. 2 Western Washington 75, No. 3 Alaska Anchorage 60

Semifinal 2: No. 1 Montana State Billings 62, No. 4 Central Washington 60

Saturday, March 9:

5 pm – No. 2 Western Washington 54, No. 1 Montana State Billings 52

 

Senior guard Stephanie Peterson did a little bit of everything to help lift the Vikings to their second consecutive GNAC Tournament title, filling the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and one blocked shot while playing 32 minutes. Peterson hit a pair of three-pointers, and none bigger than her second trey at the 5:40 mark in the fourth quarter to pull WWU even with MSUB at 46-46 to erase a seven-point deficit.

 

Here is a look at the Vikings record breakdown for the 2023-24 season:

 

 

The Vikings took a 2-1 lead in the season series over MSU Billings, with the top two teams in the regular-season standings splitting games by each winning on their home court. WWU won 76-68 in Bellingham, MSUB narrowly defeated the Vikings 48-46 in Billings and the Vikings took the rubber-match (for now) Saturday with the two-point win in the GNAC Championships Final. Western leads the all-time series over MSUB 31-19, winning 9 of the last 12 in the series. This marks the second consecutive season WWU has defeated MSUB in the GNAC final.

 

Here is a look at the statistical comparison between WWU and MSUB:

 

 

Here is a game-by-game look at the 2023-24 season following the two-point win over MSUB to win the 2024 GNAC Championships Tournament Title:

 

 

One of the premier basketball programs in NCAA Division II, recording a 20-win season in 10 of the last 14 full seasons, and 37 times in the 52-year history of the program. WWU has 23 seasons of 20 or more wins under head coach Carmen Dolfo, who is the winningest coach of any sport at WWU and ranks among Division II active and all-time coaching leaders in wins with 690, winning percentage and 20-win seasons. The Vikings have reached the NCAA II Tournament in 20 of 25 possible seasons at the Division II level with three trips to the Elite Eight (last in 2022) and played in the 2022 national championship game. The program has 1,122 all-time wins in the 53-year history of the program, and according to available records, is one of less than 20 women's college basketball team across all divisions and levels to reach the 1,000-victory milestone.