BURNABY, B.C. – The Simon Fraser Red Leafs lost 87-63 at Western Washington Thursday night, but they'll be back in Bellingham next week for the 2023 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championships, which will run March 2-4 at Carver Gym.
 
SFU (10-12, 8-10 GNAC) clinched a berth to the league's playoff tournament after Northwest Nazarene of Idaho (11-14, 7-10 GNAC) lost to Western Oregon. It meant the Nighthawks could not overtake the Red Leafs in the standings. SFU also held the advantage over NNU in a two- or three-way tiebreaker scenario since the Red Leafs won both games between the teams during the season.

Sixth-seeded SFU's first playoff game will be a quarter-final matchup against third seed Central Washington on Thursday, March 2. The programs split the season series this year, with each winning on the other's home court. At last year's GNAC Championships, the Wildcats beat the Red Leafs 91-85 in the quarter-finals.

On Thursday at Western Washington, junior guard / forward Jessica Wisotzki (Langley, B.C.) led Canada's NCAA team with 16 points and four assists. In her final regular season university game, forward Sophie Klassen (Chilliwack, B.C.) scored 11 points, as did sophomore guard Makenna Gardner (Langley, B.C.), who was 5 of 7 on field goals. Sophomore forward Gemma Cutler (North Vancouver, B.C.) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
 

Carley Zaragoza came off the Viking bench to score 20 points, while Brooke Walling had a dozen rebounds, eight of which were on the offensive end. WWU is ranked 12th in the D2SIDA and 13th in the WCBA Div. II polls.

The hosts jumped out to an 8-0 lead to commence the game, before Klassen made a layup to get SFU on the scoreboard. However, WWU stretched its advantage to 24-11 by the end of the first quarter.

The Red Leafs trailed 30-14 with 7:51 left before halftime. Wisotzki scored SFU's next five points on a pair of foul shots and then a layup-plus-one. A three from senior guard Georgia Swant (North Vancouver, B.C.) cut the Red Leafs' deficit to 32-22, with just under six minutes remaining in the quarter.

However, runs of 7-0 and 8-0 after this helped give the Vikings a 49-26 lead. Gardner (a layup) and junior Grace Killins (Coquitlam, B.C.) (a three-point shot) recorded the last five points of the half, which concluded with SFU down 49-31.

The Red Leafs could not close the gap in the second half. They got within 13 points at 59-46 when Wisotzki poured in a layup with 4:07 to go in the third and trailed 69-54 going into the final quarter. WWU won the fourth 18-9.

SFU shot 33.8 per cent (22 of 65) from the field, 28.6 per cent from three (4-14) and 83.3 per cent (15-18) at the foul line.

The Vikings found success of half of their 66 field goal attempts. They converted at a 43.5 per cent rate (10-23) from long distance. WWU was 11 of 15 (73.3 per cent) on free throws. The hosts had more rebounds (46-35), points in the paint (40-28) and bench points (49-23).
 
For the latest information on SFU Athletics, visit athletics.sfu.ca. You can also find us on social media at @SFU_Athletics. 
 
#RepTheLeaf