ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's basketball team had its three-game winning streak snapped in a 74-63 road loss against Central Washington University Thursday in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.

The loss drops the Vikings to 13-8 overall and 8-4 in GNAC play to tie for 4th place in the standings.

The Vikings carried a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter, but Central would use an extended 20-10 run spanning the second and third quarters to take a 61-45 lead into the fourth. While the Vikings would outscore the Wildcats in the final stanza, unlike the last time these two teams met which saw the Vikings overcome a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to give Carmen Dolfo her 700th career win, the Vikings wouldn't be able to overtake the deficit.

Junior forward Alyson Deaver led the Western scoring attack with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Junior guard Mason Oberg added 13 points and four assists and senior guard Olivia Wikstrom contributed 11 points, connecting on 3-of-4 three-point field goals. Jadyn Watts added a team-high 5 rebounds off the bench. Sophomore forward Jadyn Watts was 4-for-6 from the field for eight points and grabbed five rebounds in 13 minutes.

Central was led by senior guard Sunny Huerta who put up 24 points, six rebounds and three assists. Junior Asher Cai added 14 points, four assists and six steals in the win which moved the Wildcats to 16-5 overall (9-3 in the GNAC).

The Wildcats shot 53.8-percent for the game (28-for-52) and were 6-for-13 (.462) from three-point range. CWU snapped the Vikings string of 116 consecutive games holding opponents to below 50-percent shooting, a streak that dates to the final game of the 2019-20 season in the GNAC Championships Final.

WWU led 19-18 through the first quarter of play, but CWU answered with a 26-point second quarter to take an 8-point 44-36 lead into the half. The Wildcats used a 14-6 run through the first four minutes of the second quarter to build a lead that would extend to as many as 11 points. Olivia Wikstrom hit a three-pointer with just under a minute to play to cut the deficit to eight points at 44-36. Wikstrom and Alyson Deaver each scored eight points in the quarter, but it was not enough to offset the hot shooting by the Wildcats who connected on 18-of-28 shots (64.3%) and was 4-for-6 from three-point range. Sunny Huerta and Asher Cai each contributed 10 points for CWU.

The Vikings (13-8, 8-4 GNAC) remains on the road Saturday traveling to Idaho to face Northwest Nazarene in Nampa with tip-off scheduled for 5:15 pm MT/4:15 pm PT. The complete season schedule, with links on how to watch the games, can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/WBB.

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

Here is a look at the Vikings record breakdown for the 2024-25 season:

WWU had its six-game winning streak vs. CWU snapped with Thursday's 11-point defeat. The Vikings recorded a come-from-behind 67-65 win over CWU in the first game of the regular-season series January 11 in Bellingham. WWU leads the all-time series 104-18 with a 15-8 advantage in the last 23 meetings. Thursday's loss also snapped a seven-game winning streak in Nicholson Pavilion, including play in last year's GNAC Championships and earlier this season in a non-conference tournament with wins over Biola and Westminster.

Here is a look at the 2024-25 GNAC Women's Basketball standings and overall records following Thursday's games. Updated standings and conference statistics can be viewed online at GNACSports.com. The top six teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season will qualify for the GNAC Championships held March 6-8 in Lacey:

Here is a game-by-game look at the 2024-25 season following the 11-point road loss at CWU:

One of the premier basketball programs in NCAA Division II, recording a 20-win season in 11 of the last 14 full seasons, and 38 times in the 53-year history of the program. WWU has 24 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 704, 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 1,136 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.