[Box score] [Cal State San Marcos presser] [Central Washington presser]

Cal State San Marcos women's basketball collected the program's first NCAA postseason win with an 86-74 victory over Central Washington in the West Regional.
 
Charity Gallegos continued her excellent postseason, scoring a game-high 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting. The sophomore point guard also grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds and posted three steals. She was joined in double figures by Dynnah Buckner with 16 points and Mina Tameilau with 15. West Region Player of the Year Samantha Bowman paced Central Washington with 25 points and 16 rebounds.
 
The game was back-and-forth for the first 28 minutes but a timely 8-0 run by Cal State San Marcos at the end of the third quarter proved to be the difference in this tightly contested game. A 3-pointer by CWU's Valerie Huerta with 2:19 left tied the game for the seventh time at 59-59. CSUSM answered by scoring eight consecutive points to take a six-point lead into the fourth quarter. Tameilau posted the first four points of the run and Kelsey Forrester and Gallegos added two points apiece to allow CSUSM to take its largest lead of the second half.
 
Cal State San Marcos extended its advantage into double-digits early in the fourth quarter (74-64) and the Wildcats would never get closer than seven points the rest of the way. CSUSM shot .531 percent in the second half and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line in the game. The Cougars committed just eight turnovers in the game, one off their season-best.
 
CSUSM will play the No. 7 seed Azusa Pacific in the semifinals on Saturday, Mar. 10 at 5 p.m. These two teams played in the 2022 NCAA West Regional with APU winning in overtime 89-86.