BURNABY, B.C. – Central Washington men's basketball survived Simon Fraser's late push on Thursday night to secure the 71-67 victory. Cavin Holden scored a career-high 25 points to lead the 'Cats to the road win. Holden shot 11-14 from the floor and made three from deep. Simon Fraser made the game interesting late. In the final 1:45, the Red Leafs made four threes to give themselves a chance. Bradley Swillie hit a tough reverse layup and made all his free throws down the stretch to preserve the 'Cats win.

Holden talked about his dominant performance. "I had it going a little bit but couldn't do it without my teammates and coaches."
QUOTING HEAD COACH BRANDON RINTA
"That is a different Simon Fraser team than we saw at home. They are playing really well right now. Our guys did a great job of finding a way to come up with a big late season road win."
 
Rinta added, "If you take out the first three minutes and the last three minutes, that was a great effort on the defensive end. We put together a string of stops in the second half that enabled us to create some distance. Cavin had an incredible night. He came up with big play after big play whenever we needed it. He, Brad, and Jello carried us offensively tonight."
 
NOTABLE STATS

• Bradley Swillie finished with 15 points and Anjaylo Lloyd put up 13.
• After going 2-4 from the charity stripe in the opening 20 minutes, the 'Cats made a halftime adjustment and converted 12 of 15 free throws in the second half.
• Elliot Dimaculangan led Simon Fraser, scoring 22 points.
• Simon Fraser made nine threes compared to Central Washington's five.

FIRST HALF

• Elliot Dimaculandgan's dunk put an exclamation point on the Red Leafs start as they took the early 12-5 lead. The 'Cats closed the gap, and Mitch Brizee's back-to-back layups gave Central Washington the 14-12 lead, its first of the game.
• The crimson and black found success inside hitting layups, but on the other end the Red Leafs were nailing jumpers. Immanuel Oludele's three put Simon Fraser ahead 23-21, with 6:37 left in the half.
• The rest of the first half was all about Cavin Holden. Holden hit back-to-back triples and added a layup to help Central Washington take the 37-30 lead into the locker room. After 20 minutes of play, Holden led all scorers with 16 points.  

SECOND HALF

• The Red Leafs opened the frame on an 8-2 run, but the Wildcats responded with a 14-2 stretch of their own which ballooned the Cats lead to 13, 53-40.
• Holden drove the lane and threw down a dunk for his final points of the night. Holden's slam put CWU ahead by 15 with just over nine minutes to go.
• Simon Fraser didn't go away and put up a fight. The Red Leafs 13-2 run and Eric Beckett's jumper shrunk the deficit to six in the final three minutes. Dimaculangan got hot and made three out of the Red Leaf's four late threes. Beckett's triple with 36 seconds left got Simon Fraser within four. In the Red Leaf's final possession, Dimaculangan hit one from beyond the arc that cut it to three.
• Swillie came up with a big five points late in the game. He drove the baseline and made a nifty reverse layup that put Central Washington up by seven. Then, with the pressure mounting, he calmly made all three of his late game free throws.  

UP NEXT

• The Wildcats head to Bellingham to face arch rivals Western Washington on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.