BURNABY, British Columbia – Naim Ladd scored a career high 33 points as the Central Washington University men's basketball team defeated Simon Fraser University 97-85 Thursday night in Canada.
 
The Wildcats improve to 12-3 on the season and currently sit in second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 7-2 record.  Simon Fraser falls to 2-15, 0-9 in the GNAC.
 
Ladd made 11 of 17 shots from the field and connected on 8 of 11 from long range.  20 of his points came in the first half where he missed just one shot attempt.
 
"Naim had a huge impact on the game tonight, he was phenomenal," CWU Head Coach Greg Sparling said.  "He hit outside, hit floaters, and hit a lot of shots with hands in his face.  He played extremely well."
 
Fuquan Niles logged his second double-double of the season with 15 points and 14 rebounds.  Dom Hunter poured in 23 points and led the Wildcats with seven assists, while Jawan Stepney added 14 points and five rebounds.  Terry Dawn rounded out the scoring with eight points, as the starting five CWU players accounted for 93 of the Wildcats 97 points on the night.
 
"Our starting five is pretty good," Sparling said.   "We can score from just about anywhere, and when you have a big man like Fuquan who can clean up the basket it makes us tough to guard. When they get rolling they are a pretty special group."
 
Central put up nearly identical shooting percentages overall and from long range, hitting at a 54.1 percent clip from the field and 54.2 percent from beyond the arc.  The Clan shot a respectable 48.3 percent from the field, but the Wildcats corralled 10 offensive rebounds that were converted into 13 second chance points, which was the biggest difference in the game.
 
"They had to help on all of our penetration and we were able to clean up under the basket on the offensive end," Sparling said about CWU's rebounding effort.  "We did a good job of finding holes under the basket and when we shoot as well as we did tonight, getting extra looks usually turns into points."
 
Dawn opened the game up with a three pointer on the Wildcats first possession of the game, and the Wildcats took the three-point advantage and never looked back, keeping the lead for the entirety of the contest.  Central led by as many as 11 in the first half, extending its lead to 26 midways through the second.
 
Simon Fraser was led by Kedar Wright who scored 25 points on 8 of 17 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
 
Up next the Wildcats face off with Western Washington who currently sits atop the GNAC standings with an 8-1 conference mark.  If the Wildcats are victorious Saturday at 7 p.m. at Whatcom Community College, they will jump into a tie with the Vikings for the top spot in the conference.