ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Jan. 21) – Central Washington University freshman Naim Ladd scored a career-high 19 points, leading the men's basketball team to an 82-69 victory over Simon Fraser University Thursday night in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
The Wildcats improve to 11-3 on the season and 6-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  Simon Fraser is now riding a 13-game losing streak, falling to 1-14, 0-9 in the GNAC.
 
Ladd scored 14 of his points in the first half, making 5 of 6 shots, including 4 of 5 shots from downtown.  Ladd also set a career high in rebounds, hauling down eight boards, five of which came on the offensive end.
 
"We got in a good shoot around and I was in a good rhythm," Ladd said about his hot shooting.  "Once the first one went in and I could hear the crowd behind me, I felt like all of my shots were going to fall.  But a lot of the credit goes to my teammates who were able to penetrate and get me open shots."
 
Devin Matthews added 18 points for the Wildcats, shooting 6 of 9 from the field for the second game in a row.  Joey Roppo and Desmond Ross rounded out the scoring efforts adding a season-high of 10 points.
 
The CWU bench poured in 37 points, 29 off the combined efforts of Ladd and Ross.  Drake Rademacher and Chris-Michael Garret each added four.
 
"Ladd can score in bunches and Ross has been deadly from three point this season," CWU Assistant Coach Drew Harris said.  "We have a very deep bench and when they produce like they did today it gives us a great chance to beat anyone."
 
Central Washington made nearly half of its shots on the night (28 of 57), connecting on 9 of 19 from long range.  Defensively the Wildcats held SFU to 40.9 percent shooting, and just a 26.7 percent clip from three. 
 
"Offensively we played really well," Harris said.  "We feel like we have the offensive tools to come in every night and be successful.  We shared the ball extremely well and that is where the majority of our success comes from.
 
Joseph Stroud led the defensive effort for the Wildcats collecting five blocks and two of the team's seven steals.  Stroud is the conference's leader in blocks, upping his season total to 48.
 
The Wildcats never trailed in the contest, and led by as many as 17 points.
 
Simon Fraser got a strong effort from Michael Harper who scored 26 points and shot 50 percent from the field.  JJ Pankratz and Oshea Gairey added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
 
Up next the Wildcats host rival Western Washington University this Saturday, Jan. 23 at 6 p.m.  The game will be televised live on ROOT SPORTS Northwest.  The game is nearly sold out and tickets can be purchased at Wildcatsports.com/tickets.  Students can pick up their free tickets at the Wildcat Shop.