BILLINGS, Mont. (Feb. 4) – The Central Washington University men's basketball team outscored Montana State Billings 14-5 in overtime to claim an 88-79 victory over the Yellowjackets Thursday evening.
 
The Wildcats (14-5, 9-5 GNAC) saw a 21-point second-half lead evaporate as MSUB (7-14, 4-9 GNAC) outscored CWU 42-25 in the half, and ended on a 9-3 run to force overtime.
 
"Things got very stagnant for us in the second half," CWU Assistant Coach Drew Harris said.  "The energy was low which led to a lot of easy baskets for Billings.  Much credit to MSUB though, they executed well and took advantage of our mistakes."
 
Central Washington scored the first nine points in overtime on a pair of baskets by Devin Matthews and Chris-Michael Garret followed by five consecutive made free throws.  The Wildcats made 8 of 10 shots from the charity stripe in the extra frame and forced five turnovers by the Yellowjackets.
 
"I told the guys we will see what we are made of and that we needed to grind it out," Harris added.  "A lot of credit goes to Chris-Michael Garret who was very active and brought a lot of energy to our team in overtime."
 
Gary Jacobs led the Wildcats with his fourth double-double of the season with 20 points and a career high 14 rebounds.  Also scoring in double figures for CWU were Joey Roppo (15), Matthews (12) and Joseph Stroud (10).
 
Sixteen of Jacobs' points came in the first half where he did not miss a single shot going 4 for 4 from the field and 7 for 7 from the line.  As a team CWU shots 48.5 percent in the opening period and were hot from the three-point line making 8 of 12 shots.
 
"Gary got to the rim and took good shots," Harris said of his senior guard.  "What was more impressive was his ability to rebound tonight, he really got after it on the glass."
 
The hot start allowed the Wildcats to obtain a 49-32 halftime lead as the Yellowjackets made just a third of their shots during the first 20 minutes of action.
 
The script was flipped in the second half as the Wildcats shot just 28.1 percent (9 of 32) while MSUB shot 59.3 percent and turned the ball over just two times.
 
"We hit a wall and got tired," Harris said.  "I think the week caught up to us, playing four games in the matter of a week was hard on these guys.  We were missing good looks, and it wasn't a matter of effort, our guys played hard all game."
 
Yellowjacket guard Preston Beverly led all scorers with 21 points but was turned over eight times in the contest.
 
The Wildcats will get a much needed rest as they get the next seven days off before coming home to take on Saint Martin's University on Feb. 11 followed by a Feb. 13 meeting with Seattle Pacific.