Inside Central’s upset of Western

Western Washington came into Nicholson Pavilion last Saturday night as the 10th-ranked NCAA Division II team in the country and No. 1 in the West Region.
Coach Brad Jackson’s Vikings (14-1 GNAC, 23-3 overall) had won 10 straight games, including a 99-86 decision over Central Washington on Jan. 18. They had compiled a .497 field goal percentage and were seeking to become the first team to post an unbeaten GNAC road record.
“We’ve played pretty well, for the most part,” Jackson said before tipoff, “but you never know about games like this.”
Central Washington’s hope was to speed Western up, to make its shooters hurry just a touch. The Wildcats also wanted to attack the basket in hopes of shooting a substantial number of free throws and to get the Viks in foul trouble.
CWU succeeded on all counts.
Western point guard John Allen, who scored 32 points in the Viks’ win over CWU in Bellingham, picked up his second personal foul with 15:58 left in the first half, did not score before intermission and was limited to 20 total minutes of floor time uring which he totaled 14 points. Forward Rory Blanche, who was lighting up Central like a pinball machine early on, was limited to 26 minutes.
And after scoring 18 of the Vikings’ first 22 points, the 6-foot-6 senior finished with 22.
The Wildcats shot 38 free throws and made 30 compared to Western’s 11 for 18.
Also, while Central shot 53 percent from the field, eschewing the 3-pointer (1 for 6) and taking the ball inside, the Vikings finished at .449.
Key contributors for CWU (7-9, 13-11) were Roby Clyde, normally a defensive and rebounding presence, who scored 12 points, and Brandon Magee, who came off the bench to score all 14 of his points in the second half.
“That’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Central coach Greg Sparling said of Magee, a 6-4 junior swingman from Bethel High School and Tacoma Community College who was a starter early this season. “That’s why we recruited him. He took the game over for a good stretch of the second half.” One of Western’s bright spots, meanwhile, was reserve guard Rico Wilkins, a former Yakima Valley Community College standout who produced nine points in 22 minutes.
The victory, easily CWU’s biggest of the season, left the Wildcats with a one-game lead over Northwest Nazarene in the race for the sixth and final GNAC tournament berth.
Each team has two road games this week against the same opponents: Central visits Saint Martin’s on Thursday and Western Oregon on Saturday while the Crusaders flip-flop opponents.

FROM THE QUOTE FILE
“Yeah, I like the shot — when it goes in.”
— Roby Clyde, Central Washington power forward, on his left-handed jump hook