ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Feb. 27) – The Central Washington University men's basketball team defeated Alaska Anchorage 88-81 in overtime Saturday evening to finish off their 2015-16 regular season.
 
The Wildcats are now 18-7 on the season with a 13-7 mark in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and secure the fifth seed and will play Seattle Pacific in the first round of the GNAC Tournament at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday Mar. 3.
 
The Wildcats got a big night from senior Joseph Stroud who scored 26 points on 12 of 16 shooting, and added six rebounds and five blocked shots. 
 
Central Washington shot a scorching 54.8 percent from the field and connected on 10 of 24 shots from long range, but Alaska Anchorage was able to make up the difference at the free throw line where the made 30 of 33 shots, outscoring CWU by 20 at the line.
 
"This was a big win for us heading into the conference tournament," CWU Head Coach Greg Sparling said.  "We shared the ball very well tonight, finding the open guy, and when we threw it into Joseph he got us some good baskets."
 
The majority of the Seawolves free throw attempts were taken by Sekou Wiggs who scored a game-high 37 points, 17 of which came from the charity stripe.
 
"Wiggs is a very good player and he woke up in the second half," Sparling said.  "He started hitting some threes in the second half, to the point we almost had to start doubling him.  Luckily, we were able to contain him in overtime, much credit to Ross and Matthews who guarded him the majority of the time."
 
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 21-7 less than eight minutes into the game, which was the largest lead in the game for CWU.  Alaska Anchorage outscored the Wildcats 19-10 in the final 12:42, but the Wildcats still clung to a 31-26 halftime lead.
 
 In the second half The Wildcats held a comfortable 44-37 lead with 15:42 remaining, but the CWU offense went cold over the next five minutes of play and found itself down 49-47 with 10 minutes left to play.
 
The Central Washington offense then put on a show as Stroud caught an alley-oop from Matthews, followed by two thunderous dunks by Desmond Ross, and three treys by Naim Ladd as the Wildcats regained an eight points lead with 6:30 to go.
 
"I thought Desmond came in and played his best game in a Wildcat uniform and had a beautiful tip dunk that got our big crowd going," Sparling said.  "Then Naim Ladd hit some big shots for us when we really needed some points, our bench really stepped up today."
 
The Seawolves lived at the free throw line down the stretch making 10 shots from the charity stripe in the final four and a half minutes, the final two giving them a 74-72 lead. 
 
With 56 seconds left Ross grabbed an offensive rebound of a Terry Dawn miss and scored a layup to tie the game and force overtime.
 
Ross kick started the CWU offense in the extra frame with a jumper, and Dawn followed with one of his three triples of the game to put the Wildcats up five early.
 
Alaska Anchorage got to within two points on a Wiggs three pointer, but Devin Matthews answered with a triple of his own with one second left on the shot clock.  From there, the Wildcats raced to a nine point lead and eventually ending with the final 88-81 advantage.
 
"We are not done yet," Sparling added.  "Although we got a big win tonight, our goal is to win the conference tournament and our focus immediately shifts to SPU.  There is little time for celebration and we are going to get in the gym and work hard to go down to Lacey and pick up some wins."
 
The conference tournament begins Thursday, Mar. 3, with the Wildcats playing at 2:15 in Lacey, Wash. at Saint Martin's University.  For ticket information go to GNACsports.com.