Game notes
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Dec. 18) — The Central Washington University men's basketball team concludes the 2014 portion on its schedule Thursday with a game in Nicholson Pavilion against Multnomah University of Portland, Ore. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Wildcats are off to a 6-2 start, including an 82-49 home win Friday over Quest University Canada. The Lions of Multnomah are 4-12 on the season. They lost their last game Tuesday, an exhibition contest at Western Oregon, 110-61.
In its last counting game, last Saturday, Multnomah fell at Eastern Oregon 101-83. But the game was closer than that, as the Lions were down by just three points early in the second half. Multnomah is a team that shoots an extremely high volume of three-point shots, as 52 percent of their attempts overall come from long range.
"There not just shooting it from the [three-point] line, they're shooting it from five-, six-feet behind it—and they're letting it fly," said CWU men's head coach
Greg Sparling said. "The scary thing about it is, if one of two of them start hitting, it gets contagious."
On the season, Multnomah's top scorer is senior guard Steven Sansone, who is averaging 21.1 points per game. The team's top three-point threat is junior guard Blake Updike, who has already connected on 55 of 146 three-point attempts this season. A total of 69 percent of his shots come from long range.
Defensively, the Wildcats have been working hard in practice this week to appropriately close out on Multnomah's shooters with, "a hand up. Make sure you know who the shooters are and who are going to shoot the deep threes," Sparling explained.
CWU has set a team goal to hold Multnomah to 50 points or less. The Wildcats had a similar 55-point goal against Quest University Canada last Friday, and attained the mark by holding the Kermodes to just 49 points. Sparling does acknowledge the Multnomah expectation "may be a little more challenging."
"They have so many guys that have the green light to shoot threes," he continued. "You don't want to let one of them get going."
CWU will also use full-court pressure defense in the game. On the season, the Wildcats are forcing 18 turnovers per contest. But the Lions are committing less than 14 miscues per outing.
"I think we have to really crank it up in the full court [and] they will turn the ball over," Sparling predicted.
Defensively, Multnomah is a team that began the season primarily playing man-to-man. In recent games, they've made a philosophical change and now are using a zone for the most part. It's a switch of which Sparling has made note.
"We can't settle for threes on our end," Sparling said about CWU's offense against the Lions. "If they're going to sit in a zone for the majority of the game we've got to find the seams and get in there and attack."
Thursday's against Multnomah is Dollar Night, as admission, hot dogs and soft drinks will be available for $1 each.
"Hopefully the snack bar has plenty of hot dogs and sodas," Sparling added, with a laugh.
It's also the final non-Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) game of the season for CWU. The Wildcats' (2-0 GNAC) next game will mark the resumption of conference play on Saturday, Jan. 3, when they host Northwest Nazarene University.
