ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Feb. 13) – The Central Washington University men's basketball team grinded out a 71-68 victory over Seattle Pacific University Saturday night in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
The Wildcats (15-6, 10-6 GNAC) never led by more than five points in the second half and battled through seven ties and four lead changes en route to the much needed victory over SPU (18-6, 11-5 GNAC).
 
"We met with the guys and asked them what their goals were this year, and explained that we had to make some changes to make that a reality," CWU Assistant Coach Drew Harris said,  "We got out worked on Thursday against Saint Martins, and we challenged the guys to bring more intensity into tonight's game and they delivered."
 
A big three pointer by Terry Dawn with 2:33 left in regulation gave the Wildcats a three point advantage.  The Wildcats sank 7 of 8 free throws the rest of the way to insure victory.
 
Dawn finished the night with nine points on 3 of 5 shooting, including two of the Wildcats five treys on the night.  Joseph Stroud led CWU with 20 points, making 9 of 15 shots and grabbing five rebounds.  Devin Matthews stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, nine assists and five rebounds.
 
The biggest boost for the Wildcats came form Chris-Michael Garret who scored 10 points off the bench and missed just one of his six shot attempts in the contest.
 
"He is a high-energy player," Harris said of Chris-Michael Garret.  "He just loves being out there flying around.  He brings the energy every night and we know that he will be active on the defensive end."
 
After trailing by five points in the first half CWU battled back to tie the game on a two handed dunk by Stroud with 10 seconds left in the half.
 
Central Washington started the second half the same way they ended the first with back-to-back dunks on an alley-oop dunk from Stroud from Matthews, followed by a two handed flush by Matthews.
 
"We changed our game plan between last game and tonight," Harris said.  "We shot way too many threes on Thursday and we did that again the first half tonight.  Seattle Pacific does a great job of packing the paint on defense, and we reminded the guys in the locker room to be patient and work the ball around and get in the paint."
 
The Wildcats shot 57.7 percent from the field in the final stanza with the majority of their points coming inside the paint.
 
Despite SPU outshooting the Wildcats 52.8 to 50.9 percent the Wildcats were able to edge out the win, as they turned the ball over just five times in the contest while forcing 10.
 
"When we played SPU in Seattle we turned the ball over too many times, and most of them were unforced," Harris said.  "Tonight, we played a cleaner brand of basketball on the offensive end and it was probably the key to our victory tonight."
 
Mitch Penner led all scorers with 21 points for the Falcons, while Bryce Leavitt and Gille Dierickx each added 14.
 
Central Washington's bench outscored its counterpart 22-10, led my Garret and Drake Rademacher who poured in nine on 4 of 6 shooting.
 
Up next CWU will head up north to take on Western Washington on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. followed by a 3 p.m. matchup with Simon Fraser on Feb. 20.