SFU women lose to WWU in regular season ender

Simon Fraser University lost its regular season finale to rival Western Washington University 72-65 in a mean-nothing game for the Clan Saturday at Carver Gym, but the Great Northwest tournament playoff picture became clear following the game.

Simon Fraser (10-8) is the fourth seed in the conference tournament and will face No. 5 Saint Martin’s University (8-10) in Round 1 on Wednesday in Billings, Montana.

Seattle Pacific and Western Washington both ended up with identical 13-5 records. The Falcons earn the No. 2 seed based on their season series sweep of the Vikings. No. 3 Western Washington (13-5) will meet No. 6 Central Washington (7-11) in the first round, also on Wednesday. The top two seeds, runner-up Seattle Pacific (13-5) and regular season champion Alaska Anchorage (17-1) earned first-round byes.

Simon Fraser won both games against the Saints this year, winning 82-75 on Feb. 14 and 83-70 on Jan. 15. The winner of the game between SFU and SMU will face Alaska on Friday.

The championship game is set for Saturday, March 7. WWU has won the last two Great Northwest tournaments.

Sophomore forward Kiana Gandy came off the bench to score a career-high 19 points to help Western Washington defeat Simon Fraser.

Western Washington led from start to finish against the Clan, leading by as many as 11 points. But the Clan pulled to within two twice in the second half. SFU used a run of eight straight points, six of them by senior Erin Chambers, to pull within two, 45-43, with 12:15 to play. The Clan got to within two points a second time in the game, 47-45, with 10 minutes left, but WWU responded shortly after with a 7-0 burst, going up 56-47, with 8:51 left.

That was as close as the Clan would get as the Vikings pushed the lead back out to double figures and then held on for the victory.

Erin Chambers had 25 of her-game high 28 points in the second half for Simon Fraser, which fell to 14-12 overall. Chambers finished the regular season, surpassing the 1,900-point mark in all-time career scoring, upping her Great Northwest conference record to 1,910 points.

It was the sixth loss in the last 10 games for the Clan. No other player reached double figures for SFU.

Taylor Peacocke added 12 points for the Vikings, who completed their regular season 19-8 overall and third in the GNAC at 13-5. WWU was 11-3 at Carver Gym this season

WWU shot 47.5 percent (28-of-59) from the field, including 53.8 percent (14-of-26) in the second half, and had a 37-23 advantage in rebounds. SFU was 24-of-54 from the field (44.4%).

The Vikings held a 35-27 lead at halftime.