By GUY PERRIN
 Freelancer

The women’s basketball team traveled north this past week to face a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference contenders at Western Washington and Simon Fraser University. Unfortunately, the Wolves returned home without a victory as their losing skid extended to five games.

The Wolves faced a tough task Thursday, Jan. 15, taking on a Western Washington team that has only lost twice at home this season.

The Wolves were able to battle early on to keep it close, but the Vikings (10-5, 4-2 GNAC) simply had too much of an inside presence and out-rebounded the Wolves 32-18 while outscoring them 42-30 in points in the paint en route to a 80-64 victory.

The lead ballooned to 32 points midway through the second half but the Wolves (4-11, 1-6 GNAC) were able to close strong, holding Western Washington to a mere 10 points during a 26-10 scoring run.

Forwards Angie Titus and Sami Osborne led the Wolves in scoring with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

On Saturday, Jan.17, Western Oregon traveled across the border to Canada to face the Simon Fraser Clan.

The Wolves faced a tough test having to play against the GNAC’s leading scorer Erin Chambers (22.9 ppg) without their own leading scorer, forward Dana Goularte, who missed her fourth straight contest due to injury.

The Clan (9-6, 5-2 GNAC) jumped out to an early lead, opening the game on a 16-3 scoring run, before the Wolves settled in and closed the gap to nine points by halftime.

They carried that momentum over into the second half and managed to close the gap to four points before Simon Fraser answered with a back-breaking 11-0 run that pushed the lead to 15 points.

The lead grew to as many as 23 and the Clan eventually took home the 76-56 victory.

Forward Sami Osborne once again stepped up in Goularte’s absence, leading the team with 15 points and grabbing four rebounds while guard Jordan Mottershaw chipped in 12 points.

The Wolves will return home this week as they played host to Seattle Pacific on Thursday and Montana State-Billings on Saturday in Monmouth.