• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – In a game of numerous scoring runs and responses, Central Washington got the last word.

Jamar Berry scored six of his 14 points during the decisive second-half stretch Wednesday as the 10th-ranked Wildcats solidified their place atop the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball standings with a 63-53 win over second-place Seattle Pacific at Nicholson Pavilion.

Central (19-2) won its 10th consecutive game, improving to 12-1 in conference play.

The Falcons (16-6) dropped to 10-4 in GNAC games and had an eight-game winning streak snapped. They were swept by CWU in the regular-season series that included a 72-68 loss on Jan. 13 in Seattle.



Wednesday's game featured repeated runs by both teams and Central put together the final, decisive 11-point surge that provided a 50-38 advantage with 6:59 left to play.

Ryan Sweet scored nine of his team-high 15 points in the first half for the Falcons, who also got 11 from Andy Poling and 10 from Jeff Downs. The GNAC leader with 69 treys entering the game, Downs made just one 3-pointer on his final try after missing his first five attempts.

Humberto Perez contributed 13 points for the Wildcats, who also got 12 from Jody Johnson and 10 from Drew Harris.

“Central Washington has a very good team. At the end of the night tonight, they out-toughed us,” said SPU coach Ryan Looney. “I think the turnover differential in the game was probably the difference.”

The Wildcats parlayed 18 SPU miscues into 23 points while surrendering just three points off their own seven turnovers.

Trailing 33-24 at halftime, the Falcons scored the first seven points of the second half. Poling's layup with 15:45 left in the game, brought them within 33-31.

CWU responded with six straight points, but SPU immediately went on a seven-point spree to draw within 39-38 with 11:14 remaining.

The Wildcats again responded, this time with the Berry-powered knockout blow.

“In the second half coming out we did an unbelievable job making some adjustments,” Looney said. “We were much more efficient on offense the first 10 minutes or so of the second half. That stopped late in the game.”

The Falcons shot 40 percent for the game (18 of 45), but hit just 3 of 12 shots from 3-point range.

Central was limited to 37-percent shooting (20 of 54) and 2 of 16 from long range. But the Wildcats had a seven-point edge from the free throw line (21 to 14).

The Falcons will be hard-pressed to defend their GNAC championship, now trailing CWU by 2 ½ games. They returned three starters from that 2010 title team, but two of them (Chris Banchero & Jake Anderson) were lost for the season due to knee injuries.

SPU jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead just over four minutes into the game. Sweet opened the scoring with a layup and capped the run with a 3-pointer at 15:40.

The Wildcats rallied to tied the score 13-13 on a Berry layup with 10:44 left in the first half.

Sweet answered with a layup at 10:23 to give SPU its final lead at 15-13. Those were the Falcons final points for nearly six minutes as they didn't score again until Poling converted two free throws at 4:27.

Central capitalized on the SPU scoring drought, reeling off 13 unanswered points. Johnson had six points during the run that resulted in a 26-15 advantage.

The Wildcats led 33-24 at halftime as they shot 42 percent (11 of 26) while holding SPU to 35-percent accuracy (8 of 23).

Wednesday started a stretch of five consecutive road games that conclude the Falcons' regular-season schedule. On Saturday they visit Northwest Nazarene for a 6 p.m. Pacific Time game.

“We understand that we play in a tough conference against a lot of good teams. I don't think we ever expected things to necessarily go perfect,” Looney concluded. “So we'll just regroup and get ready for the next one.”


NCAA Men's Basketball
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Nicholson Pavilion/Ellensburg, Wash.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON 63, SEATTLE PACIFIC 53

SEATTLE PACIFIC (16-6, 10-4 GNAC)
Sweet 5-8 4-6 15, Poling 3-10 5-6 11, J. Downs 3-8 3-4 10, Niang 3-4 0-2 6, D. Downs 2-7 0-0 5, Morse 1-5 2-2 4, Dorman 1-3 0-0 2, Carel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 14-20 53.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON (19-2, 12-1 GNAC)
Berry 5-12 4-5 14, Perez 4-10 3-3 13, Johnson 4-7 4-6 12, Harris 2-6 6-6 10, Sprinker 2-4 4-6 8, Scott 2-9 0-0 4, Gibler 1-5 0-0 2, Clyde 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 21-26 63.

Halftime – CWU 33, SPU 24.

3-point goals--SPU 3-12 (J. Downs 1-6, D. Downs 1-3, Sweet 1-1, Morse 0-1, Dorman 0-1), CWU 2-16 (Perez 2-6, Johnson 0-1, Harris 0-3, Scott 0-3, Berry 0-3). Fouled out--SPU-None, CWU-Clyde. Rebounds--SPU 36 (Sweet 9), CWU 30 (Johnson 9). Assists--SPU 12 (D. Downs 4), CWU 10 (Harris 3, Scott 3). Total fouls--SPU 21, CWU 18. Technical fouls--SPU-None, CWU-None. A-2,355.