Women, men among the country's Elite Eight

Both the men's and women's basketball teams are heading to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. The men, defending national champions, are returning in back-to-back years, while the women are moving past regionals for the first time since 2000.

On the women's side, guard Corinn Waltrip (Sr., Tigard, OR), the women's tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored a game-high 29 points to lift tourney host Western Washington University to a 75-58 triumph over Simon Fraser University in Tuesday's championship game of the West Regional of the 2013 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament before a crowd of 1,129 at Sam Carver Gymnasium on the campus of host Western Washington University.

The Vikings, the No.1 seed in the West Region and ranked fifth in the USA Today NCAA Division II Top 25 National Poll, improved to 28-3 in claiming their first West Regional championship since 2000. They will face South Region champion Nova Southeastern in a national quarterfinal at San Antonio, Tex., on Tues., March. 26.

Simon Fraser, the No.2 seed and ranked No.11 nationally, concluded its season 25-6. Center NayoRaincock-Ekunwe, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year, had 19 points and eight rebounds for the Clan, scoring 17 of her points in the first half.

WWU held a narrow 41-40 lead early in the second half, but ran off 10 straight points in a two-minute span to establish a 51-40 lead with 11:28 to play, the biggest of the game to that point. SFU never got closer than eight points after that.

Waltrip was 10-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-9 on 3-pointers. Center Britt Harris (Sr., Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck) and forward Trishi Williams (Sr., Mabton) each had 11 points for the Vikings, who shot 54.2 percent (26-of-48) from the floor, including 8-of-16 (50.0 percent) on treys.

Carla Wyman came off the bench to score 10 points for the Clan.

SFU used a run of six straight points to take the biggest lead of the first half, 28-22, with 4:55 remaining, and still was up six, 29-23, with under three minutes to go in the period. But the Vikings closed with a 9-1 run, Waltrip scoring seven of the points, giving WWU a 32-30 halftime lead.

"The turning point was the last few minutes of the first half," said WWU coach Carmen Dolfo. "We finally picked up our defense. In the second half, we came out and did the same thing. That's our bread and butter, when we play well defensively, our offense gets going."

WWU is now 16-0 at home and has 20 consecutive victories at Carver Gym over the last two seasons.

Joining Waltrip on the region all-tournament team were Raincock-Ekunwe, Harris, Judy Jones of Grand Canyon, and Brittani Jefferson of Cal State Monterrey Bay.

For the men, tourney Most Outstanding Player Richard Woodworth (Jr., Bellevue/Newport) had a team-high 15 points, including two game-clinching free throws with 7.7 seconds left, lifting defending national champion Western Washington University to a 62-58 victory over Seattle Pacific University on Tuesday in the championship game of the West Regional of the 2013 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament before a crowd of 2,521 at Carver Gym.

The Vikings, ranked No.4 in this week's NABC NCAA Division II National Top 25 Poll and the No.1 seed in the West Regional, improved to 30-2 overall and face South Region champion Florida Southern, a 90-88 winner today over Alabama Huntsville, in a national quarterfinal at Louisville, Ky., on Thurs., March 28.

SPU, the No.3 seed but ranked No.2 nationally, completed its season 27-4. Forward Patrick Simon had 14 points and five assists for the Falcons, and forward Jobi Wall added 11 points.

Simon had given SPU a 57-56 lead on a 3-pointer with 2:57 left. But Anye Turner (Jr., Tumwater/Black Hills) gave WWU the lead with a dunk off a feed from Cameron Severson (Sr., Petersburg, AK). Severson then hit a jumper with 1:44 left to push the margin to three, 60-57.

Wall made one of two free throws with 51.9 seconds left, and the Falcons got the ball back with 15 seconds left down only two, but WWU guard Rico Wilkins (Sr., Dallas, TX/DeSoto) forced a steal near midcourt with nine seconds left, and Woodworth then made two free throws for the final margin.

Severson came off the bench to contribute 14 points, five rebounds and four assists on 7-of-10 shooting; and Turner had 10 points, nine of them in the last seven minutes, for just his second double-figure scoring effort of the season.

SPU led by as much as eight in the first half, and buoyed by hitting five of their first eight 3-point shots, held a 27-21 lead with just over four minutes left in the half . But the Vikings closed the period with a 7-2 run to narrow the Falcon lead to 29-28 at halftime.

Neither team had a lead of more than four points in the second half.

It was the second straight year the two schools met in the West Region championship. WWU claimed a 56-50 triumph in Bellingham in 2012. The Vikings' only other regional title was in 2001.

The triumph was the 27th straight at home for WWU, extending its Great Northwest Athletic Conference record. The Vikings finished a perfect 17-0 at Carver Gym this season.

Joining Woodworth on the all-tournament team were Wall and Simon of SPU, WWU guard John Allen (Sr., Brier/Mountlake Terrace) and Kwame Alexander of Cal State San Bernardino.

WWU and SPU had already met three times this season prior to Tuesday. The Vikings claimed two regular-season triumphs, winning at Seattle, 66-56, on Jan. 3; and at Bellingham, 83-76, in overtime, on Feb. 2; but the Falcons claimed a 72-70 triumph in the GNAC championship game at Lacey on Mar. 9.

It is the second straight season that WWU has won 30 or more games, the only two in school history.