CWU men earn first GNAC win, women fall to Simon Fraser

MOSES LAKE — Both the Central Washington men’s and women’s basketball teams concluded their home stand in Moses Lake on Saturday, with the men’s team surviving a scare and the women’s team suffering its third consecutive loss.

CWU men vs Alaska Fairbanks

The Wildcats led wire-to-wire in their 78-66 win over Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday, including a 20-plus point lead in the first half that the Nanooks cut to a two-point lead in the second half.

“They’re a good team, and we knew that they would make a run,” CWU Head Coach Brandon Rinta said. “It got close there, and that makes it mean more that we had to gut it out like that.”

Rinta credited senior guard Isaiah Banks’ defensive play for helping guide the Wildcats to a strong start. Banks’ hustle play to intercept an in-bounds pass for a layup and a foul set Central up 12-4 at the under-16 timeout. From there, a 16-0 run featuring back-to-back three-pointers by Colby Gennett increased the Central lead to 28-6.

“We had really good energy,” Rinta said. “That was about as good a stretch of defense as we’ve played all year.”

Down 41-23 at the half, the Nanooks began to find success driving to the rim and drawing fouls against the Central frontcourt and found themselves down 55-53 with under 10 minutes remaining in the second half. Rinta made the decision to switch to a zone and put more shooters on the floor, sparking a quick six-point run to give the Wildcats some breathing room.

“The zone was big for us,” Rinta said. “We went zone, slowed them down, and then we put three shooters out there with (Brock) Gilbert and got enough space to be able to make things happen off those ball screens.”

More shooters on the floor opened up space for Gilbert to weave in and out of Alaska Fairbanks defenders and created open looks for teammates.

“He’s the best passer I’ve ever coached, and if you can give him space, nine times out of 10 he’s gonna get a good shot,” Rinta said. “He did a nice job.”

Central would hold on to win 78-66 over Alaska Fairbanks, its first GNAC win of the 2022-2023 season.

“These guys, they’ve been battling,” Rinta said. “We had the toughest non-conference schedule that we’ve ever played, and no home gym – it’s been tough. Being able to win a home game an hour and a half away from home, we’ll take it.”

Rinta said he has three major takeaways from Saturday’s win, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

“There’s three things; our energy that we defended with in the first half; being able to get some miles out of our zone like we did in the second half; and that offense that we went to late there, and Brock being able to create off those ball screens,” Rinta said.

The Wildcats are back in action on Saturday on the road against Northwest Nazarene. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.

CWU women vs Simon Fraser

It was a cold shooting night for Central, who only managed to connect on five of 27 attempted three-pointers. A poor performance from three, combined with missed layups and a slow start, gave Central a 65-57 loss, its third-straight loss.

“We just missed some shots that we shouldn’t have, and we forced some offensively,” CWU Head Coach Randi Richardson-Thornley said. “We were taking poor shots.”

The Wildcats were scoreless for the first two and a half minutes of the first quarter before senior center Samantha Bowman hit a layup, sparking an 11-4 run to tie the game at 11. With under 10 seconds remaining, a turnover forced by the Red Leafs led to a layup in transition, giving Simon Fraser a 19-18 lead to end the quarter – a lead they would not surrender the rest of the evening.

“We were in a game that we could have won, but we had critical mistakes down the stretch, we didn’t shoot the ball well from three and missed a lot of layups,” Richardson-Thornley said. “That’s the difference in the game.”

Simon Fraser’s capture of the lead shifted momentum in favor of the Red Leafs, who outscored the Wildcats 14-8 in the second quarter to take a 33-26 lead into the half.

“It’s very difficult (to recapture momentum) when we can’t get stops consistently and we are making critical mistakes as well as not shooting the ball well, which is something our team has relied on,” Richardson-Thornley said. “When those things aren’t going for you, it’s hard to get back into games.”

Two fourth-quarter three-pointers by CWU sophomore small forward Claire Heitschmidt cut the deficit to four points with just over one minute remaining. The Red Leafs took advantage of intentional fouls to take home a 65-57 win over the Wildcats.

“That was a big boost because I think at that point we were 2-17 until Claire hit those,” Richardson-Thornley said. “That was big for her, Claire’s a great shooter and it’s great to see her shooting with confidence. But, we have to have those shots and get stops.”

The loss is the third in a row for Central after a promising 11-1 start to the season. The Wildcats return to the court on Thursday on the road against Alaska Anchorage.

“We’re young, and we’re learning that we have to go through it and we're going to get it,” Richardson-Thornley said. “That’s a hard spot to be in for our All-American center, who does get it, but we’re going to have to go through it for our younger, inexperienced players to get it and hopefully we can get it before Thursday.”

Men's Box Score

Central Wash.: 41-37 78

Alaska Fairbanks: 23-43 66

Women's Box Score

Central Wash.: 18-8-13-18 57

Simon Fraser: 19-14-13-18 65