• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – JC Cook scored 24 points to lead Central Washington, which turned back a second-half rally by the ninth-ranked Seattle Pacific men to claim an 85-72 Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball decision on Thursday at Nicholson Pavilion.

The short-handed Falcons (16-3) lost for the first time in eight conference games. They still own a one-game lead over 7-2 Western Washington in the loss column of the GNAC standings.

CWU (12-6) improved to 6-2 in league play with its eight straight regular-season victory over SPU.

Cook hit 9 of 13 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Riley Sivak contributed 14 points for CWU, which also got 10 from both Chris Sprinker and Humberto Perez.

Senior Brandon Larrieu paced the Falcons with 28 points and made 5 of 7 treys. Junior Chris Banchero added 19 points.

The Falcons were already without 6-foot-9 center Rafael Moreira, who missed the last four games with a knee injury. At Central they also missed junior guard Jeff Downs due to an illness. Downs was the hero in Saturday's 88-68 home win over Alaska Fairbanks with six 3-pointers and 20 points.

The SPU roster was further depleted Thursday when senior Adam Wardell was ejected with 12:36 left along with the Wildcats' Toussaint Tyler. Those two got into a scuffle under the SPU basket in response to a hard-foul on Banchero by Central's Coby Gibler.

The Wildcats held their largest lead of 22 points, at 63-41 with 13:04 remaining. That was the biggest deficit faced this season by the Falcons.

The ejections occurred on the next trip down the floor after which SPU went on an 18-2 run to narrow the margin to 65-59 with 8:40 to play.

Perez stopped the surge with a 3-pointer, sending Central on a 9-2 run to turn back the rally. The Wildcats scored seven of their final nine points from the free throw line during the final 5:06 to secure the win.

Early on, Larrieu made a jump shot at 18:40 to bring SPU into a 2-2 tie. The Wildcats followed with seven straight points to take the lead for good. Cook capped the run with a 3-pointer and a put-back shot to give Central a 9-2 lead with 17:05 left in the first half.

The Falcons drew within 19-18 on a 3-pointer by Larrieu with 9:50 left until halftime. CWU responded with an 11-3 run and closed the half with seven unanswered points to forge a 47-30 halftime advantage.

Larrieu scored half (15) of SPU's first-half points, including 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.

The Falcons return home Saturday, Feb. 6 to host Northwest Nazarene at 4 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. That is the second game of an SPU doubleheader, following a 2 p.m. women's game.


NCAA Men's Basketball
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Nicholson Pavilion/Ellensburg, Wash.

Central Washington 85, (#9) Seattle Pacific 72

SEATTLE PACIFIC (16-3, 7-1 GNAC)
Larrieu 9-17 5-6 28; Banchero 7-18 5-9 19; Sweet 2-7 2-5 7; Anderson 3-5 0-0 7; Wardell 2-4 0-1 4; Campanaro 1-3 1-3 3; Vranes 1-2 0-0 2; Morse 1-2 0-0 2; Diederichs 0-2 0-0 0; McHugh 0-0 0-0 0; Hope 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-60 13-24 72.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON (12-6, 6-2 GNAC)
Cook 9-13 2-3 24; Sivak 5-7 4-6 14; Sprinker 4-9 2-2 10; Perez 4-8 0-1 10; Clift 2-6 3-4 8; Gibler 3-8 2-2 8; Clyde 2-7 2-4 6; Tyler 1-2 3-4 5; Nelson 0-0 0-0 0; Snowden 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-60 18-26 85.

Seattle Pacific.................... 30  42 - 72
Central Washington............ 47  38 - 85

3-point goals--SPU 7-15 (Larrieu 5-7; Sweet 1-1; Anderson 1-1; Campanaro 0-1; Morse 0-1; Diederichs 0-1; Wardell 0-1; Banchero 0-2), CWU 7-16 (Cook 4-5; Perez 2-6; Clift 1-3; Tyler 0-1; Sivak 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-Campanaro, CWU-Clift. Rebounds--SPU 38 (Sweet 10), CWU 41 (Clyde 9). Assists--SPU 13 (Banchero 3), CWU 20 (Clift 8). Total fouls--SPU 20, CWU 20. Technical fouls--SPU-Wardell,Adam (ejected), CWU-Tyler,Toussaint (ejected). Att.-1,287.