LACEY, Wash. – The Chico State women's basketball team played perhaps the longest 12 seconds of regulation thus far into the very young season as Western Oregon was slowly reeling from a seven-point lead.
 
But the Chico State's defense, a key component to the success so far after three games played, came to the rescue and a pair of free throws from Zhane Duckett in the end allowed Wildcats to walk away from Saint Martin's Marcus Pavilion with a 61-56 win over the Wolves on Friday evening.
 
Much like last weekend's win over Fresno Pacific, Chico State (2-1) got off to a slow start in the first half. Western Oregon got on an 11-point run to take a double-digit lead. The Wildcats reversed the tide and went into the locker room trailing 28-26.
 
And much like last Saturday, the Wildcats came up big midway through the second half, outscoring the Wolves, 10-2, to take a 54-44 lead with 6:13 left in the game. The 10-point lead was the largest for the Wildcats.
 
Western Oregon started climbing back and get to within five, but Jordan Allred delivered what was at the time a clutch 3-pointer to take a 57-49 lead with 1:22 left.
 
The final minute of the game was close. The Wildcats faced pressure on the offensive end that caused two costly turnovers. Leading by three, Western Oregon had an opportunity to tie the game by inbounding the ball from their bench after a Chico State turnover. The Wildcats caught a huge break when the inbound resulted a travel. The Wolves were forced to put Duckett on the free throw line, who made both attempts to put the game out of reach.
 
Duckett had a big night, driving in 18 points including 7-of-9 from the charity stripe. Fellow senior Jordan Allred had 16 points while both of them had six rebounds.
 
Ashleigh Barr had seven of the Wildcats' 35 total rebounds.
 
Both teams shot 38 percent from the field.
 
The Wildcats return to Marcus Pavilion to take on host Saint Martin's Saturday at 3 p.m.