Home sweet home is a nice concept, but the Western Washington University women’s basketball team’s greatest success this year has come when they’ve packed their toothbrushes.
That’s been more by necessity than design: the team (18-4 overall, 10-4 conference) has played just six games at home due to COVID-19 cancellations or postponements. Minty-fresh breath aside, that’s a lot of traveling.
They’re on the road again this week. Both Western Washington’s women’s and men’s teams open play in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) tournament starting today in Lacey, with the No. 8 seed men (14-13 overall, 7-10 conference) playing No. 9 Western Oregon at 4:30 p.m. today for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The top-seeded women received a bye to Thursday’s 2:15 p.m. quarterfinal game, facing the winner of No. 8 Western Oregon and No. 9 St. Martin’s.
The tournament continues with semifinals Friday and championship games Saturday. Games will be shown via live webcast via YouTube on GNAC.tv.
NCAA Division II Tournament berth at stake
The grand prize: GNAC champions get an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament. The NCAA Western Regional tournaments run March 11-14, with top teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament final eight March 22-25 in Birmingham, Alabama, for the women and March 23-26 in Evansville, Indiana, for the men.
For Western’s women, a topsy-turvy year has produced one of the finest seasons in coach Carmen Dolfo’s 31-year tenure, winning the regular-season conference title for the fifth time, the first since 2013. Dolfo has been named the conference Coach of the Year.
COVID-19 rendered its now-familiar upheaval to team schedules and routines, with frequent testing, quarantines and positive cases. Strict protocols at the border reduced Western to only eight players at Canadian foe Simon Fraser, where the Vikings lost the regular season’s final game in overtime, dealing a major blow to hopes of hosting an NCAA Western Regional game.
The general consensus among the team? “What. Evs.”
“Honestly, there’s been just so many things,” said 5-foot-10 guard Avery Dykstra, the fourth-year redshirt junior from Everson and Lynden Christian School who has been key to Western’s conference-best defense, which has allowed an average of 56.4 points this season. “We’ve had each other’s back through it all.”
Major injuries to key players
Besides COVID-19, there were major injuries to key players and one player involved in a sexual assault trial during the regular season.
“I’ve been just so impressed with how this team has stayed together and supported each other,” Dolfo said. “I am impressed with their resilience and be able to stay focused with what we wanted to be able to accomplish.”
Senior starting point guard Dani Iwami tore her anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments midway through the season, ending her year. “Definitely a down moment,” said Dykstra. “She’s someone who loves basketball so much. She deserves more than anyone to be on the court.”
Backup Mollie Olson tore a tendon and has started only 14 games. Overall standout Emma Duff is the only player to start 22 but been slowed a chunk of the season by a badly sprained ankle. She “amazingly pushed through,” said Dolfo, having to grit her way through the season because of Western’s low reserves.
At point guard, in stepped Dykstra, who played the position at Lynden Christian and emerged this season as the leading candidate for conference Defensive Player of the Year – to be announced today. Others like Gracie Castaneda and the multi-tool Duff pitched in.
“We kind of had a little bit by committee,” said Dolfo. “Everybody stepping in to help.”
Dykstra, Duff lead scorers
The team is led by Dykstra and Duff, a 6-0 senior from Tumwater. Duff is Western’s top scorer (15.7 points per game), helper (44 assists), free-throw shooter (83%), shot blocker (20 this season) and thief (29 steals). Dykstra, whose sister Riley averages 8.2 points off the bench in 21 games, leads the team in playing time and is third in assists. She usually guards the opposing team’s best offensive player and is charged with getting the ball down the court.
“She is the hardest worker,” Dolfo said, “She doesn’t complain.”
You can practically hear Dykstra blush on the phone when she hears this. She’d rather talk about her teammates.
“It sounds cheesy, but we don’t just have to hang out with each other. We choose to hang out with each other outside of basketball…We’re excited after a five-day road trip to see each other the next day. That’s kind of rare.”
Other than one exhibition, the team didn’t lose a game from Nov. 12 to Jan. 13, going 10-0, before losing, 76-68, to Central Washington University. Besides Simon Fraser and CWU, its only other losses were to Northwest Nazarine, 77-70 Feb. 10 and 87-76 Feb. 21, both in overtime.
Northwest Nazarene is the conference tournament’s No. 4 seed. Alaska Anchorage is the No. 2 seed and No. 3 is Central Washington. Western has a 10-2 mark on the road. Sometimes, due to the pandemic, even being home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
“Of six home games, two of them we didn’t even have fans for,” Dykstra said.
Besides the GNAC season that involves travel to Canada, Alaska and Montana, the Vikings found themselves traveling to California twice and Colorado for out-of-conference games.
“Our preseason wasn’t the easiest preseason,” Dykstra said. But it was a test for things to come.
Men
On the 10th anniversary of Western’s men’s NCAA Division II national basketball title, the Vikings are looking at a tough road this postseason. The defending conference champions — from the 2019-20 season, when the GNAC was last contested — it’ll take a magical run for No. 8-seed Western to win the conference tournament and get an automatic NCAA tournament slot, as they are not likely to get an at-large bid.
But Western has potential for a run.
“They love the big game, love the big challenge, so I’m optimistic about the weekend,” said coach Tony Dominguez, in his 10th season. “They’ve been talking about this for three months.”
Dominguez is optimistic because they outplayed national No. 1-ranked Lubbock Christian until the final three minutes, losing by 10 in December. They swept conference rival Central Washington.
Adding to the team’s penchant for big moments, Western even showed up as No. 1 on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 Play of the Day on Feb. 17, courtesy of D’Angelo Minnis’s half-court buzzer-beater that gave the team an 83-80 overtime win at Montana State Billings. Minnis was just named GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, the first Viking to win the honor.
“There have been glimpses of greatness,” Dominguez said.
COVID, injuries were challenges
Their momentum stalled when six of nine games were postponed due to COVID-19 from Dec. 30-Jan. 27, and injuries crept in.
Junior guard Daniel Hornbuckle, a 3-point shooter who had scored in double-digits in 22 of Western’s 26 games, broke his jaw on an awful foul against Seattle Pacific Feb. 19 and 6-8 senior forward Luke Lovelady has been plagued by back problems, which limited him in last week’s Western Oregon game. If he can’t play in today’s game, Dominguez said Dakota Ayala, a 6-8 senior, would start at center. Junior guard Lucas Holden is expected to start for Hornbuckle.
Western is led by junior guard/forward Jalen Green, who averaged 15.9 points per game, seventh-best in the conference. His 1.2 blocked shots per game rank fourth in the GNAC. Top seed is Saint Martin’s. The championships for both men and women were expanded from six to all 10 teams, with seeds determined by a new points system.
“I just think this team has been battle-tested with a lot of different irregularities, a lot of inconsistencies with the schedule, injuries and Covid,” said the coach. Still, Western has shown it can play big in big moments.
Said Dominguez: “We’re hoping that it all comes together for this week.”
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All-GNAC Honors (see the entire list at GNACSports.com)
WOMEN
Carmen Dolfo, GNAC Coach of the Year
Emma Duff, senior guard, Tumwater, GNAC first team
Avery Dykstra, junior guard, Everson, GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, GNAC second team
Riley Dykstra, freshman guard, Everson, GNAC Freshmen of the Year, GNAC team honorable mention
Molly Olson, junior guard, Napavine, GNAC honorable mention
Brooke Walling, sophomore forward, Vancouver, Wash., GNAC honorable mention
MEN
D’Angelo Minnis, Kent, sophomore guard, GNAC Defensive Player of the Year; GNAC team honorable mention
Jalen Green, Renton, junior guard/forward, GNAC second team
Daniel Hornbuckle, Fairbanks, Alaska, GNAC team honorable mention
