Box Score

ELLENSBURG (Jan. 14) -- The backcourt duo of juniors Toussaint Tyler (Kent/Kentwood HS) and Humberto Perez (Yakima/A.C. Davis HS) established career-highs and combined for 48 points, and center Chris Sprinker (Tacoma/Curtis HS) finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds as the Central Washington men's basketball team outscored the visiting Alaska Nanooks, 120-103, on Thursday night at Nicholson Pavilion.

Central earned its fifth consecutive victory and improved to 9-4 overall and 3-0 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. The Wildcats have also won seven of their last eight contests overall. Alaska fell to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in the GNAC.

The Wildcats' 120 points were the second-most scored by the team in a conference game in the nine-year history of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Central defeated Saint Martin's, 125-109, in the 2004-05 GNAC finale.

Central led from start-to-finish, with Perez starting the game off in style with the first of his six three-pointers in the contest on the Wildcats' opening possession. CWU started the game on an 8-0 run and led 21-8 with just under eight minutes gone in the opening half. The Wildcats had their final double-digit lead of the first period with 4:34 to go before halftime, but saw the visiting Nanooks cut the margin to four on two separate occasions in the closing minutes of the stanza before Jon Clift (Spokane/Joel E. Ferris HS) scored with six seconds left to make it a 52-46 halftime margin.

The Wildcats' high-powered offense, which came into the game leading the GNAC and the Division II West Region (and ranking 15th nationally) with 87.7 points per game, turned it up even further in the second half. Central made 53.3 percent of its shots in the final period including 8 of 17 from three-point range, led by Tyler, who had 19 of his career- and game-high 26 points in the final 20 minutes. Perez, who finished 6 of 11 from three-point range and added seven assists to his career-high 22 points, scored 11 in the final period.

Both teams were quite efficient from long distance, as Alaska finished 8 of 14 from behind the arc while Central made a season-high 13 treys and shot 41.9 percent. But while the Wildcats cashed in for 39 points from three-point range, the their work on the offensive glass -- notably seven offensive boards from Sprinker and six from sophomore Roby Clyde (Connell/Pasco HS) -- was key to their victory as well. Central had 24 offensive rebounds among its total of 49 caroms, and the Wildcats had a strong defensive effort with more blocked shots (nine) than turnovers (eight).

Sprinker's 18 points came on 8 of 13 shooting while adding 15 total rebounds -- the highest single-game rebounding total by a Wildcat since Matt Penoncello's 16 rebounds in Fairbanks last January. He also had two of Central's season-high nine blocked shots, with Clyde accounting for a career-high six rejections. Clyde finished with 12 points and eight rebounds to go with his six blocks, joining Tyler, Perez, Sprinker, and Clift (14 points) in double figures for the Wildcats.

Alaska matched CWU with five players with 10 or more points. Two of those Nanooks -- Nashorn Maynard (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Joe Powell (11 points, 13 rebounds) -- finished with double-doubles, while Parrish West led UAF with 25 points. Granite Falls native Jon Moe scored 21, while another Washingtonian, Tacoma native Emmanuel Jenkins, added 15 for the Nanooks.

Central Washington will continue its three-game home stand on Saturday night (Jan. 16) against Alaska Anchorage at Nicholson Pavilion.