Western Washington women’s basketball had back-to-back shots blocked in the final 10 seconds and the Vikings took a 68-67 loss to Simon Fraser on Saturday, March 2 in Burnaby, British Columbia.
It was the regular-season finale for the Vikings (21-6, 14-4 Great Northwest Athletic Conference), who will enter the GNAC tournament next week as the No. 2 seed.
The Vikings open the postseason at noon Friday, March 8 in the semifinal round in Ellensburg, against the quarterfinal winner of Seattle Pacific and Alaska Anchorage.
In Saturday’s back-and-forth battle, the Vikings trailed by eight points with 3:25 left in the game before layups from Riley Dykstra and Maddy Grandbois, and a 3-pointer from Olivia Wikstrom, pulled the Vikings within one.
Down one with eight seconds to go, Western senior Brooke Walling caught the ball in the high post and drove baseline into a double team. She quickly dished the ball to Wikstrom, who took one dribble into the key and had her jump shot blocked by Simon Fraser junior Sophia Wisotzki.
Still Vikings’ ball with 1.1 seconds on the clock, Walling caught it at the low block and had her shot rejected by Simon Fraser’s Arman Dulai, who came over to add a secondary contest. As Simon Fraser players cheered and rushed the court, the Vikings’ bench threw their hands in the air over what they saw as a missed call.
Three Vikings scored in double digits, led by Walling’s 16 points and nine rebounds. Junior Riley Dykstra pitched in 14 points and sophomore Mason Oberg had 12.
In what was a cold night for Western as the team shot 38.1% from inside the arc and 29.4% from 3-point range. Simon Fraser shot 41.4% on 2-pointers and 35.3% on 3-pointers. Western made 14 of 17 of its free throws and Simon Fraser connected on 14 of 21.
For Simon Fraser (17-13, 10-8 GNAC), Wisotzki had 17 points on 6 of 24 shooting. Senior Grace Killins trailed right behind her with 15 points and Dulai finished with 12.
