Central Washington University Athletics

The Central Washington University men's basketball team opens the 2018 portion of its season on the road to face Simon Fraser and Western Washington on Jan. 4 and 6, respectively, in hopes of extending its four-game winning streak.
 
LIVE STATS/VIDEO: Wildcatssports.com/live
RADIO:  Locally on 88.1 FM – Online: IHeart | Online 
 
CWU (7-4, 2-2 GNAC) at SFU (7-5, 1-3 GNAC) | Jan. 4 | 7 p.m. | West Gym – Burnaby, B.C. Canada
 
CWU at WWU (9-3, 4-0 GNAC) | Jan. 6 | 7 p.m. | Carver Gymnasium – Bellingham, Wash.
 
ABOUT THE WILDCATS
 
The Wildcats are riding a four-game win streak heading into 2018.  After dropping its first two Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchups, Central Washington upended Montana State Billings and Northwest Nazarene to even its GNAC record at 2-2 and currently sits in a four-way tie for fifth-place in the conference.
 
With a pair of wins this week the Wildcats could propel themselves to the top of the GNAC depending on the results from the rest of the conference.
 
Diaper Dandies
Central Washington has six seniors on its roster, but it has been the play of its young freshman that has sparked the Wildcats four-game win streak. 
 
Freshman point guard has been steady all season and lead the wildcats in scoring at 15.7 points per game, in addition to his team leading 3.5 assist and conference leading 2.8 steals per game which also ranks fifth best nationally.
 
Redshirt frosh Coleman Sparling has also made his presence felt this season averaging 8.3 points and 4.5 rebounds off the bench for CWU.
 
In the Wildcats last outing, Shabazz and Sparling scored 12 of the Wildcats final 14 points to help the Wildcats overcome a 10-minutes scoring drought to defeat Linfield 63-56.
 
Niles Career Block Update
With six blocks against Linfield, Fuquan Niles now ranks 8^th in the nation with 2.82 blocks per game.  At his current rate, he will break the CWU school record as he is just 40 blocks away from becoming the school's all-time leader with 16 more games to play.  At his 2.82 average, Niles wold break the school record on Feb. 17 at home against Western Oregon.
 

1. 144 – Kevin Davis (2011-14)
2. 136 -- Chris Sprinker (2008-11), Joseph Stroud (2014-16)
4. 128 -- Otto Pijpker (1989-93)
5. 126 -- Ron vanderSchaff (1983-87), Leon Johnson (1994-98)
7. 113 – Van Beard (1988-89)
8. 112 – Roby Clyde (2009-12)
9. 105 – Fuquan Niles (2016-18)

 
ABOUT SIMON FRASER
Simon Fraser (7-5, 1-3 GNAC) has already won more games in 2017-18 then they have in its previous two seasons combined (6).
 
The Clan started the season 4-0 with wins over Hawaii Hilo and Notre Dame De Namur.  After picking up its first conference win over Concordia on Dec. 2, the Clan has lost its last two GNAC outings to Saint Martin's – 66-82 – followed by an overtime loss to Seattle Pacific where they led the Falcons by nine in the second half.
 
Three SFU players average double-figures led by JJ Pankratz at 15.6, followed closely by Kedar Salam at 15.5.
 
As a team, The Clan are shooting 47.0 percent from the field while holding its opponents to a 43.7 shooting clip.
 
Simon Fraser struggles to keep its opponent off the free throw line where teams are shooting 18 foul shots a game, and the Clan have been outscored 195-128 at the charity stripe.
 
ABOUT WESTERN WASHINGTON
The Vikings are 9-3 on the season, winning their last four GNAC games, and have won 7 of the last 10 overall.  Western Washington's most impressive win came on Dec. 2 when they defeated projected GNAC Champions in #14 Western Oregon by 27 at home.
 
Western owns the GNAC's top scoring offense at 88.2 points per contest led by Daulton Hommes who is averaging 18.9.  Hommes poured in 37 in the Vikings win at Harding and 29 in the team's last outing against Saint Martin's.
 
Hommes gets a lot of help from Deandre Dickson and Trey Drechsel who are each scoring over 14 a game.
 
The Vikings are one of the nation's best rebounding teams at this point in the season, out rebounding their opponents by 12 a game which ranks 4^th best in the country.
 
However, the one knock against Western Washington is frequent turnovers.  The Vikings are
-1.7 in turnover margin per game, ranking 8^th in the GNAC and 228^th nationally.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Simon Fraser – Central owns a 57-18 record all-time against Simon Fraser.  The Wildcats have won the last seven games, and 14 of the last 15 dating back to the 1994-95 season.  14 of the 15 CWU career losses to SFU has come in Burnaby, the other coming in Tacoma, Wash on Dec. 11, 1970.
 
Western Washington – Dating back to 1908, Central Washington holds a 155-100 record over the Vikings.  However, WWU is 15-4 in the last 19 matchups and just one of CWU's win over that span has come in Bellingham.