ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 17) — The Central Washington University men's basketball team (10-4, 5-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) held Simon Fraser University (6-9, 1-6 GNAC), the nation's highest scoring NCAA Division II team, more than 20 points below its season average of more than 118 points per game in a 104-95 Wildcats' win Saturday in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
"We haven't faced that type of basketball this year," CWU head coach Greg Sparling said. "They try to speed you up and they try to trap you. I thought our guys did a nice job handling it."
 
CWU point guard Marc Rodgers concurred with his coach about the SFU style. He added, "They definitely pressure you from baseline to baseline and they play at a frantic pace. They want to play fast but we also have the personnel to play fast so it, sometimes, works on our behalf."
 
Defensively, the Clan had been forcing 27 turnovers per game. But Rodgers, and his teammates, only committed 17 miscues.
 
"You just have to be smart with your decisions," he pointed out. "Our coaches let me know early in the week to be ready for the pressure. So I was ready for it."     
 
As a team, CWU looked ready early, racing out to a 7-0 lead. But SFU bounced back and took the lead four minutes into the contest and would go up by as many as six points at 28-22. CWU responded and, again, took leads as big as seven, finishing the half up by three at 43-40.
 
"In the first half, we were not very good on the boards," Sparling acknowledged. "But I knew our defense would kick in and our guys cleaned up a lot of the [Simon Fraser] second chance opportunity points in the second half."
 
His team's defense and rebounding helped fuel a run that saw the Wildcats break out of a 59-all tie, with 13:47 left in the game, to lead by 20, 92-72, with 4:57 remaining.
 
"In the second half, when we settled in, we put our guys in the corners and they either made the shot or we basket-cut from the corners," Sparling explained. "We got some good layins from Joe [Joseph Stroud] and Terry Dawn. Joey Roppo was very aggressive attacking their press. And I thought Dom Williams stepped up and made some big baskets. It was a great team effort and everybody contributed in their own ways." 
 
Williams led the Wildcats with 28 points and six assists. Stroud scored 18, including on several thunderous dunks, blocked three shots and came up with four steals, Dawn added 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Roppo tallied 14, to go along with five assists.
"Coming off a Western [Washington University] Central game on TV you're always worried about a hangover," Sparling admitted. "But I thought we really executed the game plan and I couldn't be more happy for the guys."
 
Rodgers added, "I think we came out with the understanding that we're so close to making it to where we want to be, which is that first place [GNAC] spot that we came to play today. The benefit of having the [Western] game on Wednesday was that we had three full days to get it off our chests and let sink in what happened."
 
What happened was CWU won 74-71 on Williams' three-point shot in the waning seconds.
 
Saturday, the Clan was led by guard Sango Niang, who scored 46 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out six assists.
 
Rodgers, who admitted he was not surprised by Niang's play, noted, "Sango's a guy I grew up with. I've been watching him play since I was little. He's a scoring machine. I've seen him against professional players score 50-points in a pro-amateur game. There are certain guys who just know how to play one-on-one basketball and he's a beast at that. He made tough shots [tonight] and he's the GNAC's leading scorer for a reason." 
 
Saturday's game tipped off an hour behind schedule. The reason was two of the assigned officials were involved in a non-injury vehicle accident that prevented them from making it to the contest and a pair of replacements had to be found.
 
Next up for CWU are games Thursday, at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and Saturday, at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks.