BURNABY, B.C. (Nov. 14) – The Central Washington University men's basketball team won its season opener on the road at Simon Fraser by a score of 94-82 Saturday afternoon.
 
Preseason all-GNAC player Joseph Stroud led all players with 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting.  Stroud also hauled down seven rebounds and rejected four shots.
 
Senior point guard Devin Matthews filled up the stat sheet for the Wildcats, scoring 19 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists.  Central Washington had four players score in double figures with Gary Jacobs and Joey Roppo adding 17 and 11 points, respectively.
 
Central Washington held a 47-38 halftime lead after shooting 58.3 percent from the field (21 of 36).  A 7-0 run early in the first half aided by a pair of layups by Matthews and a bucket by Jacobs gave the Wildcats an early 9-2 lead.  The Wildcats led by as many as 12 in the stanza before SFU stormed back to take a 22-21 lead.
 
The Wildcats quickly regained the lead and a three pointer by Chris-Michael Garret gave the Wildcats a 10-point cushion with 5:09 left in the half.
 
Simon Fraser got to within two points of CWU twice in the second half but a pair of free throws by Stroud and a jump shot by Matthews bumped the CWU lead up to eight with 3:36 left.  Free throws by Jacobs and Stroud put a stamp on the game as the Wildcats ended with the final 94-82 advantage.
 
The Wildcats were able to take home the win despite shooting just 44.8-percent from the charity stripe, missing 16 of their 29 attempts in the contest.
 
The Central Washington defense led Simon Fraser to turn the ball over 18 times and the Wildcats turned the miscues into 22 points.  Central Washington had nine steal in the game.
 
Up next, the Wildcat will play a pair of games at Seattle Pacific University on Nov. 20 and 21 when they faceoff with Hawaii Hilo, and BYU-Hawaii.