Box Score Bellingham, WA - The Simon Fraser University women's basketball teams run in their first NCAA post-season ended on
Tuesday with a 75-58 loss to their Great Northwest Athletic Conference rivals, the Western Washington Vikings.
The loss ends a historic season for the Clan women's basketball program, their first as full members in the NCAA, that saw the team ranked as high as sixth nationally and second in the NCAA West Region.
The Clan also finished second in the GNAC and had three all conference players,
Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe (Toronto, ON),
Kristina Collins (Port Coquitlam, BC) and
Erin Chambers (Mission, BC).
Raincock-Ekunwe was also named to the first all-region team and the player of the year in the GNAC, while Chambers was named the defensive player of the year in the GNAC.
Against Western, Raincock-Ekunwe, a senior, led the Clan with 19 points and eight rebounds. She dominated in the first half with 17.
After the game, she was one of five players named to the all-tournament team.
Fellow senior
Carla Wyman (North Vancouver, BC) followed with 10 points off the bench for SFU and Chambers scored eight points for the Clan, was second on the team in rebounds with six and led the Clan in assists with four.
"Getting to this point is extraordinary for our team," said Chambers. "Our three seniors are amazing, they've shown leadership on and off the court. I want to strive to be more like them moving forward into next year."
SFU shot 40 percent in the game and 24 percent from beyond the arc compared to 54 percent and 50 for Western Washington.
Despite the Clan's shooting struggles, they led for most of the first half.
The game was tightly contested from the beginning but after a pair of free throws from Raincock-Ekunwe made it 9-7 for the Clan with 15:58 to play, SFU did not trail again until the closing seconds of the half.
With 4:54 to play in the opening 20 minutes, Raincock-Ekunwe scored again, this time on a layup to give SFU their biggest lead of the half at six points, 28-22.
After the two sides traded free throws to make it 29-23, the Vikings began to charge, closing the half on a 9-1 run to head into the locker rooms with a 32-30 lead.
The Clan scored the first four points of the second half to re-take the lead but that was the last time in the game SFU would be ahead.
With 13:30 to go, Sydney Donaldson hit a jumper for WWU that made it 43-40 for the Vikings, and triggered a 15-2 run that left the Clan trailing by 14, a deficit the Clan could not recover from.
The loss ends the Clan's 2012-13 season with a 25-6 record.
"The transformation has been huge from the CIS to the NCAA," said Head Coach
Bruce Langford. "We've become much more competitive and defensive we're pretty good. I think our defence needs to become a benchmark for us. We're losing three pretty good players and we need to find some quality people to come in in their place.
Seniors Raincock-Ekunwe, Collins and Wyman played their last game in the Clan uniform, capping a career that began in 2010 with a Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championship and ended on
Tuesday with a run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA post season.
