EPHRATA -  Heidi Buchert pumped in 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead the Tigers to a home win over the visiting Bulldogs. The victory runs Ephrata's record to 10-4 in the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) and 11-5 overall.

"It was a big win for us," coach Aaron Ross said. "I thought the girls played an outstanding game."

The first half of action saw the teams play fairly even ball as Ellensburg took a 21-15 lead into the locker room at the half.

But an 18-2 run by the Tigers put Ephrata up by double digits, 33-23 at the end of the third quarter of action.

The Bulldog's Nathalie Gruber knocked down the first bucket of the fourth quarter to get Ellensburg within eight, but Buchert responded with back to back baskets to give the home team its biggest lead of the game, 37-25.

Ephrata extended its lead to 41-29 with a minute and 50 second left on the clock. The bulldogs were forced to foul the Tigers to try and conserve time and take their chances by putting Ephrata on the foul line. But clutch free throw shooting by Kelsey Yenney from the charity stripe sealed the victory and nailed down the win, 45-36.

"Heidi  came up big for us tonight," Ross said. "She really took over in the second half scoring-wise and controlled the boards for us as well."

The Tigers, who made it to state last year but lost in the first round, look primed to repeat the trip.

 "We're pretty much locked into the third seed heading to district," Ross said. "And if we play like we did tonight, I like our chances."

The CWAC district tournament gets underway Feb. 10, but the first order of business Ross said, is taking care of business and closing out the last four games of the regular season before they can think about the post-season.

"We have East Valley, the No. 2 ranked team in the state at home Friday, and Selah on Saturday," he said. "Then we go to Quincy Tuesday and finish at home against  Othello the following Friday."

Ross said his team is up for the challenge.

"If we play our game, we feel we can beat anyone," he said.

The game against East Valley Friday is scheduled for 5:45 p.m.