Box Score LAIE, Hawaii (Nov. 22) — Down by 23 points with 1:08 left in the first half to Hawaii Pacific University, the Central Washington University men's basketball team went on a furious 25-10 run to cut the deficit to just eight, at 53-45, with 12:06 left in the game.
But the Wildcats were able to draw no closer in a 74-62 loss to the Sharks at the GNAC/PacWest Challenge in Hawaii.
"I thought that the lineup would put out there in the second half created a bunch of energy," said CWU head coach
Greg Sparling. "But we can't dig ourselves a hole like that. We played better in the second half. If there's a silver lining to this whole trip, we played better but not good enough to win."
The Wildcats dropped both games in the tournament, including an 87-61 loss to tournament host BYU-Hawaii on Friday, to fall to 2-2 on the season.
Against HPU,
Jordan Russell led the Wildcats with 14 points, while
Terry Dawn and
Gary Jacobs added 10 points apiece.
Julian Vaughn scored seven points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, while
Joseph Stroud added nine points and blocked three HPU shots.
"We still need to take better care of the basketball and have a little better shot selection," Sparling went on to say.
The Wildcats turned the ball over 15 times, compared to 21 by HPU. But CWU connected on just 21 of 61 fields goals and only seven of 25 shots from three-point range. Central was also outrebounded by the Sharks 47-33.
"Rebounding was a huge issue today," Sparling acknowledged. "It's something that we're got to cure [during practice] next week, and we will."
The Wildcats will next host Walla Walla University Saturday, Nov. 29, in a non-conference contest, with tipoff at 7 p.m. in Nicholson Pavilion.
