BOX SCORE

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — If victory or defeat were determined by tenacity, effort and resiliency, the Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team would have celebrated a well–deserved win Monday night. Instead, for the second consecutive season, the Otters saw Western Washington parry several gallant comeback efforts to hang on for a 71–63 win in the NCAA Division II West Regional semifinals in Carver Gym.

CSUMB's third consecutive 20–win season (20–9 overall) comes to an end. Western also knocked the Otters from the 2012 NCAA Tournament with a 65–58 win.

No. 5 ranked WWU (27-3) advances to the regional title game Tuesday against Simon Fraser University.

Credit Western for hitting big shots when it needed them the most. The Vikings went 3–for–5 from beyond the arc in the second half to pull away late and, in the process, became the first team to score 70 points in regulation on the stingy Otter defense this season.

“I thought we gave ourselves a chance until the very end,” said CSUMB Head Coach Renee Jimenez, who has guided the Otters to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. “Unfortunately, we haven't given up 71 points in regulation all season long. We don't have the horses in terms of having five kids in double figures – that's not the way we play. They hit big shots. They're well coached. Obviously, Coach (Carmen) Dolfo has been here longer than CSUMB has been in existence. We want to aspire to get to their level. That's our goal. We're still laying that foundation.”

CSUMB did get big games from several of its seniors. Brittani Jefferson (Palmdale/Antelope Valley JC) led all scorers with 17 points in her final collegiate game. Jessica Fontenette (Chino Hills/Bishop Amat) chipped in 11 points while taking one final opportunity to pad her Otter career records with two assists and three steals.

Stefanie Corgel (Manhattan Beach/UCSB) scored eight points while passing for a game–high four assists. Gabby Munsch (Lodi/CSU San Marcos) made the most of her first and last NCAA Tournament appearance, following Saturday's 18–point, 10–rebound double–double with a team–leading nine boards and a career–high five steals Monday.

All that was not enough to stop the top–heavy scoring of WWU, which saw only seven players score but five reach double figures. Leading the way was senior forward Britt Harris with 14 points and a game–high 10 rebounds.

Western threatened to run and hide several times, but the Otters simply wouldn't go away. The Vikings led by as many as seven points in the first half before CSUMB pulled to within one at the buzzer on Fontenette's driving floater from the left wing.

Western made another attempt to take the game by the scruff of the neck midway through the second half, using its first two three–pointers of the night to break a 40–40 tie as part of a 12–0 run that gave the Vikings their biggest lead at 52–40.

CSUMB, however, had one big run left. The Otters needed just four minutes to put together a 10–0 run of their own, with Nikki Beckman's (Dublin/Ohlone College) three–ball pulling CSUMB to within 52–50 with just under six minutes remaining. The game stayed tight, for the duration, but Western went a perfect 10–of–10 from the line in the final 1:45 of regulation to hold off the final Otter comeback attempt.

“We never give up,” said Fontenette at the postgame press conference. “It showed in the Chico game on Saturday. We look at the score and sometimes, it kind of bugs us. But we come together and say we're still fighting and we can still do this. It's a game of runs, and (Western) had more runs than us tonight. But we stayed together.”