ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 3) — The Central Washington University men's basketball team (7-3, 2-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) had won five straight home games to begin the 2014-15 season. Up by 13 points, at 25-12, over visiting Northwest Nazarene University (4-9, 2-1 GNAC) Saturday, it appeared that the Wildcats may be on the way to another Nicholson Pavilion victory. But the tables turned quickly on the Cats.
 
"All of sudden, we started taking awful shots and we had too many turnovers," said CWU head coach Greg Sparling. "We got too content and got away from what got us there [to the lead]. And we had too many guys trying to do too much tonight."
 
Over the final 6:58 of the first half, the Crusaders went on a crusade. They outscored Central 16-5 to pull to within one, at 30-29, at halftime. The onslaught continued in the early stages of the second half, as NNU ran out to a six-point lead, at 38-32, with 16:28 to go in the game. Overall, during the 10-and-a-half minute stretch, NNU outscored the Wildcats 26-7. 
 
NNU guard Erik Kinney scored eight of his game high 25 points during that stretch. He also grabbed nine rebounds, including five off the offense glass. Overall, he hit on eight of 15 shots from the field and all nine of his free throw attempts.
 
"The Kinney kid had a phenomenal night," Sparling acknowledged. "And they beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls—loose balls and stuff like that—and that's something we've got to clean up."
 
The Crusaders also crushed the Wildcats on the glass, outrebounding CWU 50-29.
 
"We weren't very good," Sparling added, succinctly, about his team's rebounding performance. "It comes down to rebounding and poor shot selection tonight."
 
Foul trouble could also be added to that mix as CWU starting center Joseph Stroud fouled out after playing for just 12 minutes. With fellow big man Caleb Dressler on the bench because of injury, CWU had to turn to true freshman Jerome Bryant, who led the team with six rebounds. 
 
"I thought Jerome went in there and did as good a job as he could," Sparling said. "That's as many minutes [24] as he's played all year long."
 
Offensively, guard Dom Williams led the Wildcats with 20 points while his backcourt make Jordan Russell added 15.
 
CWU next embarks on its first conference road swing of the season, playing at Saint Martin's University Thursday and Western Oregon University Saturday.
 
"We've got to get back to running our offense, sharing the basketball and getting in there and rebounding," Sparling said. "The guys need to learn that, in the GNAC, they've got to bring it every night."