NAMPA, Idaho (Jan. 5) -- The Central Washington University men's basketball team won its fourth consecutive game as they ran past Northwest Nazarene 98-72 to improve to 8-2 on the season and 3-2 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference Play.
The win also snapped a three-game losing streak to Northwest Nazarene (4-7, 0-5 GNAC), with all three losses coming last season.
"It is hard to win on the road and we have struggled from time to time here in Nampa, so it is great to come back with a victory, especially after losing to NNU three times last year." CWU Assistant Coach
Drew Harris said. Harris is serving as the teams head coach as
Greg Sparling recovers from injury back in Ellensburg.
Central Washington was hot from the field making 38 of its 64 shot attempts and were 10 of 19 from three-point territory. The 59.4-percent shooting percentage the Wildcats boasted on the night was due in large part to the phenomenal second half by CWU where they shot 74.2-percent from the field missing just eight of its 31 shot attempts in the stanza, outscoring the Crusaders 56-32.
"In the first half we ran a lot of sets and we noticed they double teamed our bigs," Harris said." "We wanted to keep feeding our big guys to spread out their defense and get great shots, which happened in the second half. Our guys did an amazing job of attacking the basket and finding the open players, it was fun to watch."
Gary Jacobs led all scorers with 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting, followed by
Joseph Stroud who poured in 16 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Freshman guard
Naim Ladd dropped in 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half where he went on a scoring binge to help the Wildcats separate themselves from the Crusaders who trailed by just two points at halftime.
"Gary is a great athlete, is great in transition and we wanted him to take advantage of his athleticism, and he did exactly that in the second half," Harris added. "We were close to breaking the game open and they went to a zone on defense. We put Naim in to counter the zone and he knocked down shot after shot and really helped us gain separation."
Devin Matthews also scored in double-figures for the Wildcats with 13 points and a team high five assists.
In addition to the prolific scoring efforts by CWU, the defense forced NNU into 14 turnovers and turned those miscues into 20 points on the other end of the court. The Wildcats added seven steals on the night with
Joey Roppo accounting for two of the thefts.
"We felt like we were close to playing great defense in the first half and in the second half we stepped up and made the necessary adjustments," Harris added about the team's defensive efforts. "We could see we were close in the first half and I am proud of the way the guys stuck to the game plan in the second half."
The Wildcats took advantage of the majority of their 34 first-half possessions, scoring on 20 trips with just one turnover in the frame. The Wildcats shots 45.5-percent from the field, but were just 3 of 10 from long range.
The Central Washington defense forced seven first-half turnovers, however, NNU shots 52-percent including 44.4-percent from three making 4 of 9 attempts.
The Wildcats led by as many as nine points in the half but the Crusaders finished the half on a 7-2 as CWU went into intermission with a 42-40 lead.
Stroud had 10 first-half points, followed by Rademacher and Jacobs who added eight and six, respectively.
A trio of layups by Jacobs and a monstrous dunk by Stroud helped CWU jump out to a 50-42 lead to start the second half.
Ladd picked up where Jacobs left off scoring 13 points in a five minute span, helping CWU to a 77-56 lead with less than eight minutes left to play.
The Wildcat offense continued to score at a high rate making 7 of 9 three pointers in the second half and made over half their shots in the period as they cruised to a 98-72 victory.
Central Washington returns to action this Saturday when they host Montana State Billings at 7:00 p.m. in Nicholson Pavilion.
