Western Washington University women’s basketball secured its second-straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season title after defeating Simon Fraser University 87-63 at home Feb. 23.
The dominating win gave the Vikings their sixth regular-season title in program history — and first back-to-back conference titles ever.
The GNAC tournament is set to tipoff March 2 at Carver Gym and the bracket will be released Feb. 25 after all regular-season conference games conclude. Western will receive a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed, resulting in an automatic semifinal placement, which will take place March 3.
Western celebrated its five seniors before the Simon Fraser game. Senior guards Avery Dykstra, Monique Fierke, Mollie Olson and forwards Katrina Gimmaka and Carley Zaragoza all contributed points in the lopsided win.
Zaragoza came off the bench and scored a career-high 20 points — the Vikings had 49 total points off the bench. The 6-foot-1 post also brought down seven rebounds, tying her career-high mark.
Western shot 33 of 66 on the floor and 10 for 23 from deep while the defense held Simon Fraser in check.
Western began the game with an 8-0 run over a three-minute span and continued to build its lead from there. Simon Fraser shrank the lead to only six points shortly after, but that’s as close as it got as the Vikings began to run away, leading by as many as 26 points.
Gimmaka contributed 12 additional points in the win and junior forward Brooke Walling secured a game-leading 12 rebounds.
Last week, the Red Leafs did the Vikings a favor by upsetting GNAC No. 2 Montana State University Billings, putting a two-win gap between Western and the Yellowjackets.
Western, Simon Fraser, Montana State University Billings, Central Washington University, University of Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific have all clinched GNAC playoff spots as of Feb. 24, but the lower seeding is up in the air until the last game is played.
