ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Feb. 7) — Gary Jacobs and Dom Williams combined for 46 points in the Central Washington University men's basketball team's 88-79 win over Saint Martin University Saturday in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
After trailing by four early in the game, CWU opened up a 14-point lead, at 25-11, with 9:59 left in the first half. It was a short-lived advantage, as Saint Martin's roared back to knot the game at 25 apiece four minutes later. But CWU built the lead back out to 11 at halftime 42-31.
 
After scoring only five points in the first half, Jacobs scored 18 points in the second half—23 total in 22 minutes in the game.
 
"He was huge; we've been waiting for that," said CWU head coach Greg Sparling on Jacobs performance. "He's a good ball player and he's finally starting to get healthy."
 
Williams also connected on six of 10 three-point shots, and tallied 23 for the Wildcats. In discussing the win, both Jacobs and Williams agreed that trust played a key role in the Wildcats win.
 
Jacobs said, "Coach was just telling us to trust each other a lot more. I think yesterday we bounced back real hard at practice and I think tonight, we showed it."
 
Williams added, "Everybody just had trust tonight. Bench players just came in and scored. "
 
Those players came off the bench to score 36 points for the Wildcats.
 
"It was definitely big. If you have that every night, you're going to win a lot of games." Sparling commented.  "I thought our guys were a lot more focused tonight and I thought our guys really shared the basketball more than they did on Thursday night [a 78-71 home loss to Western Oregon]."
 
The Wildcats also outscored the Saints 30-26 in the paint and had a 19 to 11 advantage in second chance points.  Forward Joseph Stroud, who scored 11 points, led the CWU inside game, along with blocking six Saint Martin's shots.
 
"The main thing was the team staying together, encouraging your teammates with the right shots, believing in each other and rebounding," said Stroud.
 
CWU also connected on 19 of 21 shots from the free-throw line. Combined with an earlier 70-68 triumph over the Saints in Lacey, the Wildcats won both regular-season meeting with the Saints this year.
 
With the victory, CWU improved to 13-6 overall and 8-4 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The Wildcats next head to Bellingham to take on archrival Western Washington Thursday.  
 
Before that game, Sparling says his team will need to continue its improvement on both offense and defense.
 
"We've just got to keep moving the basketball [offensively]," said Sparling, "and get out and deny a little bit more and have a little bit more ball pressure [on defense]."