Box Score    |   Final Stats

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – A trio of seniors played well. But Seattle Pacific needed better performances from the rest of the cast to avoid its first league setback.
 
Dom Williams compiled 19 points and five assists Saturday, leading Central Washington to a 73-67 Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball win over the SPU men at Nicholson Pavilion.
 
The defending champion Falcons (6-3) had their league record evened at 1-1. They won 77-51 at Northwest Nazarene on Thursday.
 
Central (5-2) improved to 2-0 in GNAC play and halted a five-game losing streak in the series against SPU.
 
The Falcons fell despite prolific performances from three seniors. Cory Hutsen (Sammamish, Wash./Skyline HS) tallied a game-high 21 points, his fifth 20-point outing in nine games this season.

 

Matt Borton (Yakima, Wash./West Valley HS) registered an 18-point, 14-rebound double-double.
 
"Matt was good. We just didn't have enough guys giving the same type of effort that he did," said SPU coach Ryan Looney.
 
Reserve forward Shawn Reid (Post Falls, Idaho) came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points, all of them coming during the final 11:20. He didn't enter the game until the 11:58 mark of the second half.
 
"We were really struggling on offense so we thought we'd give him a chance," Looney explained "Shawn hasn't had much opportunity yet this year and he did a nice job."
 
Gary Jacobs finished with 14 points for Central, which also got 13 from Jordan Russell and 10 from Joseph Stroud.
 
CWU led the entire game after Williams started the scoring with a 3-pointer one minute into the contest.
 
"Dom Williams made some threes that their team wasn't necessarily making earlier in the year," said Looney. "A lot of them were off our turnovers or bad shots, leading to open threes on the other end."
 
While nearly every other statistical category was even, the Wildcats were decisive victors in long-distance shooting. They nailed 9 of 18 shots from 3-point range while holding SPU at 4-for-11 on treys.
 
With 8:48 left in the first half, Russell was fouled on a 3-point attempt and converted the subsequent trio of free throws to cap a six-point run and establish a 23-14 Wildcats lead.
 
They owned a similar nine-point advantage before Hutsen drained a jump hook with 3.6 seconds left to draw the visitors within 31-24 at halftime. SPU trailed at the break for the first time all season.
 
Hutsen amassed half of his team's 24 points during a first half that saw just three Falcons score. Along with Hutsen's 12, Borton scored eight points in the opening period and Brendan Carroll had four.
 
After CWU's Jacobs hit two free throws to start the second half, the Falcons netted the next six points, four of them from Borton, to move within 33-30. That is as close as they would come as CWU soon staged a seven-point surge to go ahead 43-32. Stroud punctuated the run on a tip-dunk with 13:38 remaining.

 

SPU again trimmed the margin to three points with 6:50 to play on a seven-point spree that featured two treys from Reid.
 
Jacobs answered with a 3-pointer to ignite a seven-point Wildcats run. The Falcons never got closer than five points after that.
 
Saturday's game capped a six-game road trip for the Falcons, who last played at home on Nov. 18. They played four games in six days last week in Hawaii before returning to the mainland to start league play.
 
"If you ask where do we go from here, I think we're going to rest," Looney said.
 
The Seattle Pacific men return to Brougham Pavilion on Friday, Dec. 12 to host George Fox at 7 p.m. That is their lone home game in December and starts a stretch of three games to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule.
 
The Falcons travel to Las Vegas to meet Dixie State on Dec. 17 and Rollins on Dec. 18.
 
SPU's first GNAC home game is slated for Jan. 1 at 7 p.m. against Western Oregon.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014
Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.

at Central Washington 73, Seattle Pacific 67

SEATTLE PACIFIC (6-3, 1-1 GNAC)
Borton 7-11 4-6 18, Swanson 0-0 0-0 0, Hutsen 7-16 7-9 21, Leavitt 0-1 0-0 0, Stockton 1-5 0-0 2, Reid 5-11 1-2 13, Carroll 3-4 1-2 9, Penner 1-3 0-2 2, Parker 0-4 2-2 2, Rasmussen 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-56 15-23 67.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON (5-2, 2-0 GNAC)
Vaughn 2-3 0-1 4, Jacobs 3-5 6-9 14, Dressler 1-2 1-2 3, Rodgers 1-4 0-0 2, Williams 7-17 1-2 19, Russell 4-10 3-3 13, Stroud 5-5 0-2 10, Dawn 1-2 4-4 7, Roppo 0-2 1-2 1, Matthews 0-2 0-2 0, Bryant 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 16-27 73.

Seattle Pacific........   24   43  -  67
Central Washington.....   31   42  -  73

3-point goals--SPU 4-11 (Carroll 2-2, Reid 2-5, Stockton 0-1, Parker 0-2, Borton 0-1), CWU 9-18 (Williams 4-7, Jacobs 2-3, Russell 2-5, Dawn 1-2, Matthews 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, CWU-None. Rebounds—SPU 39 (Borton 14), CWU 31 (Stroud 8). Assists--SPU 10 (Borton 4), CWU 15 (Williams 5). Total fouls--SPU 19, CWU 21. Technical fouls--SPU-None, CWU-None. Att.-1363.


Next Men's Basketball Game
George Fox at Seattle Pacific
Friday, Dec. 12, 7:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.