The Western women’s basketball team was defeated 67-56 by rival Central Washington Saturday, Jan. 9 at Whatcom Community College, marking its first conference loss of the season and second loss in the last 10 games. Senior Kayla Bernsen led scoring for Western, putting up 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting, with 11 points coming in the fourth quarter. Bernsen also pulled down eight rebounds. In total four Vikings players scored in double digits. Guard Taylor Peacocke added 14 points, three assists and three steals. Aleisha Hathaway and Kiana Gandy scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Jasmin Edwards led Central Washington with 20 points and six assists. Central also got a big boost from its bench, which scored 24 points –17 of which came in the fourth quarter. Western’s bench did not contribute any points. After the first quarter of the game, the Vikings struggled to contain Central Washington’s offense and would not regain the lead for the rest of the night. “I don’t think we played together,” head coach Carmen Dolfo said after the game. “I feel like we try to do a lot of it ourselves, and I think the strength of our team is playing together.” Dolfo also attributed the loss to a lack of intensity, saying that the team did not match Central’s energy. “We have got to be a lot more intense, we have to play together better,” said Dolfo. “Every game in this league is a battle. We’ve kind of been edging this way, we haven’t been playing that well, so were definitely going to have to play harder and play better together.” Western's game on Thursday, Jan. 7 ended in a three-point victory for the Vikings after Northwest Nazarene missed a 3-point buzzer beater. The week before, the Vikings beat Western Oregon by two points after a late comeback. Western plays its next game against Saint Martin’s University (5-8) on Wednesday Jan. 13.
