Wildcats in the Basin

MOSES LAKE — With renovations in progress at Central Washington University’s Nicholson Pavilion, the Wildcat men’s and women’s basketball teams have yet to play a game on their home court this season.

“We haven’t had a gym since the end of last basketball season,” Central Men's Basketball Head Coach Brandon Rinta said.

Along with playing games at Ellensburg High School, the Wildcats have ventured to Yakima Valley College and now Big Bend Community College to play home games.

“(It’s been) really challenging,” Rinta said. “We’ve been practicing at the rec center here, on a smaller court with no three-point line. Not really having any time of home court environment, it’s been challenging.”

Central Women's Head Coach Randi Richardson-Thornley said that despite the circumstances, the Wildcats are focusing only on what they can control.

“A lot of that is out of our control, and we can’t waste some time and energy on things that we can’t control,” she said. “We’re just focusing on what we can, and that’s whatever gym we’re in we can focus on our energy, our efforts and our want to play for each other and execute our game plan.”

Although the current playing situation is less than ideal, the Wildcats know that it will pay off in future seasons.

“It’s just part of the price that you have to pay short term for the benefit of having a beautiful, new facility long term, and I think everybody knows that,” Rinta said. “Does it make it any easier in the short term? No, but everybody is able to take a long-term perspective about it, I think.”

Richardson-Thornley believes the circumstances will pay off when it comes time for postseason competition.

“I told the girls that when you go to the playoffs, you’re going to have to play in a lot of different gyms, and you’re on the road for the playoffs unless you’re the host,” Richardson-Thornley said. “This is good practice for us, and also I think our youth has played to our benefit – they show up and play basketball, wherever it’s at.”

GET TO KNOW THE WILDCATS

CWU Women

With an 11-2 record ahead of Thursday night’s game against Western Washington, the Wildcats have used a strong buy-in by players to pursue success as a team, not just individual accomplishments. Central is ranked No. 24 by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association poll.

“We only have 10 healthy bodies, but of those 10 everybody’s fully committed to one another, and truly a group who understands that they have to invest and are eager to do what’s right to win basketball games,” Richardson-Thornley said.

Helping guide Central to its strong start is the leadership of upperclassmen Samantha Bowman and Tori Maeda, as the Wildcats have 10 underclassmen on their roster.

“What’s helped us is our leadership with Sam and Tori in giving our younger players some confidence, but also we have the ability to shoot the basketball and to score it,” Richardson-Thornley said.

Through Central’s first 13 games of the season, the Wildcats have outscored opponents by nearly 130 points in the first half, including averaging a nearly 20-point lead at halftime over their previous six games.

“Our ability to score the basketball early on has covered for a lot of our weaknesses, and some of our hiccups along the way,” Richardson-Thornley said.

The Wildcats are coming off their first conference loss of the year to Seattle Pacific, a “possession-to-possession” 70-63 loss to the Falcons on Saturday.

“(Seattle Pacific) did a really good job of defending us for all four quarters and not allowing us to have an explosive quarter, which has been a theme of our previous games,” Richardson-Thornley said.

Standouts for Central include Bowman, whose leadership has helped guide younger players into developing on the court; Maeda, who has done a “terrific job” in running the Wildcat offense according to Richardson-Thornley; and sophomore guard Valerie Huerta, a “dynamic guard” who averages nearly 21 points per game and shoots 47.8% from three.

“Those three have been big foundational pieces for us, and I think a lot of the rest of the team gains a lot of confidence from those three showing up every day,” Richardson-Thornley said.

After Thursday’s tough GNAC matchup against the 9-1 Western Washington Vikings, the Wildcats will play against Simon Fraser at the Big Bend Community College campus at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

CWU Men

After beginning the season 1-7, the Wildcats bounced back with three-straight wins over Evergreen State, Langara and Walla Walla to wrap up non-conference play. Central averaged 109 points per game while holding opponents to under 53 points per game.

“It gave our guys some confidence offensively, and I think that we’re in a better place offensively from those games – rhythm-wise and confidence-wise,” Rinta said.

As the Wildcats enter the full slate of GNAC play, they travel to Moses Lake to play the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Thursday and Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks on Saturday at Big Bend Community College. Rinta described the Nanooks as a “good, solid defensive team” that also has strong athletic qualities.

“You’ve got to make sure that you’re playing good, solid team defense,” Rinta said. “You’ve got to be ready to help each other.”

Central, which sits at 4-9 on the year ahead of Thursday night’s matchup against Alaska Anchorage, has been led by standouts Camron McNeil and Matt Poquette according to Rinta.

“They’re both versatile, Camron has been our most consistent scorer from an efficiency standpoint, especially from the three-point line,” Rinta said. “Matt has been our most consistent inside presence.”

McNeil is a transfer from Radford University and averages 15.1 points per game for Central, shooting 43.8% from beyond the arc.

“(The transfer process) went really smooth,” Rinta said. “He’s an awesome young man that adapted to the team and area very smoothly.”

The Wildcats and Nanooks tip off at 6:15 p.m. in Moses Lake.

“Not having a gym has been a challenge, but it creates opportunities like this for us to play games in other areas,” Rinta said. “We really appreciate Big Bend allowing us to come over here and play, and hope that the Moses Lake community takes advantage of it and comes out and checks out some Division II basketball in their backyard.”

Ian Bivona can be reached via email at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.