ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Dec. 12) — Junior guard
A.J. Maxwell played in his first Central Washington University game and scored his first points as a Wildcat, which proved to be the last Central points of the game, as CWU defeated visiting Quest University Canada 82-49 Friday night in Nicholson Pavilion.
Maxwell, who played the final four minutes, drained a three-pointer with 16 seconds left on the clock.
"We ran two plays for him," said CWU head coach
Greg Sparling. "He missed the first one. Then, on the second one, he did the step-back and hit it. That was nice to see. He practices as hard as he can and he's there every day helping this team gets better. He deserves it."
CWU was led by the 18 points of senior guard
Dom Williams, this week's Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Week, and freshman center
Caleb Dressler, who scored a season high 12 points, was the game's top rebounder, with nine.
"Coach Spar said, before the game, that the bigs need to come out and establish the dominant post from the get go," said Dressler. "So I did my best to establish it."
Dressler's first bucket capped a 9-0 opening run by the Wildcats. The lead grew to 20, at 29-9, with 3:52 left in the first half. With just four second left in the period, junior guard
Jordan Russell made a full court dash for a layup to give CWU a 33-14 advantage at intermission. Dressler's layup, with 7:31 left in the game, gave the Wildcats their first 30-point cushion, at 62-32. The advantage grew to as many as 38 points late in the game.
CWU built the lead in the second half by hitting on 19 of 33 shots from the field (57.6 percent). For the game, the Wildcats recorded 18 assists, on 31 field goals, while only committing four turnovers, to go along with 10 steals.
With the triumph, CWU improved to 6-2 on the season. It was also CWU's fourth straight win against Quest in a series that began in 2010. All of the contests have been played in Ellensburg.
"This was a tough game, coming off a huge win [73-67 over Seattle Pacific] and then heading into and coming off finals week," Sparling acknowledged.
CWU also played without
Gary Jacobs, the team's second leading scorer, who sat out the game as a precaution because of an injury.
Next up for the Wildcats will be the team's final non-conference contest against Multnomah, on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. It will be Dollar Night, as admission, hot dogs and soft drinks will be available for $1 each.
CWU, which is 2-0 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action, will resume GNAC play on Saturday, Jan. 3, when the Wildcats host Northwest Nazarene University.
