SEATTLE, Wash. – The Central Washington University men's basketball team erased a massive second-half deficit to pull to within one point of Concordia University-Irvine with 45 seconds to play, but the Eagles shut the door on the Wildcats' comeback attempts to take home a 65-60 victory at the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic at Seattle Pacific University.
 
With the loss the Wildcats fall to 2-2 on the season, while the Eagles improve to 4-2.
 
A poor shooting first-half where Central shot just 34-percent from the field, found the Wildcats down 12 to begin the second half.  The lead was cut to seven early in the second stanza, but a 17-6 run by the Eagles elevated the advantage to 18 points with nine and-a-half minutes to play, CUI's largest of the contest.
 
Down by ten with just under three-minutes to ten, the Wildcats rattled off three-three pointers, two by Jawan Stepney and one by Marc Rodgers, to cut the lead to one points with 45 seconds to play.  The Eagles sank four free-throws down the stretch to walk away with the five-point victory.
 
Stepney led the Central Washington Offense with 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting, with 15 of his points coming in the second half.  Khalil Shabazz pitched in 11 points and right boards, and Fuquan Niles scored eight points, with 14 rebounds and six blocks.
 
Statistically, the Wildcats beat the Eagles in virtually every category, with the exception of turnovers.  23 turnovers by the Wildcats resulted in 28 points off turnovers for the Eagles who made just 33.8-percent (22 of 65) of their shots.
 
Central Washington shot 41.4-percent (24 of 58) from the field and benefited from strong play in the paint, scoring 26 points down low with 14 second chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.
 
The Wildcats will next play Walla Walla University on Saturday, Nov. 25 in Nicholson Pavilion.
 
Quotes from Head Coach Greg Sparling:
 
"There are a lot of good things to take away from this game.  Our guys showed a lot of grit and continued to compete even when things started to get away from us in the second half.  Obviously, we need to take care of the ball.  It doesn't matter who you are playing or what level you are playing at, turnovers are detrimental to success.  We shot the ball well, but careless mistakes killed any momentum we could get.  We will get back, break down the film and learn from this game."
 
"Concordia is a fast and athletic team that creates extra possessions.  Hats off to them, they came to play and got the better of us tonight.  They didn't shoot all that well tonight, but they made us pay by scoring off our turnovers.  A talented team that gets extra opportunities to put points on the board will capitalize more often than not, and that is what happened tonight."