Friday, March 21, 2014

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Western Washington senior Austin Bragg and Central Washington senior Mark McLaughlin have been selected by the National Association of Basketball Coaches to play in the 2014 Reese’s Division II College All-Star Game on Friday, March 28 at 7 p.m. EDT at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

The contest will be played during the NCAA II Elite Eight on the day between the semifinals and championship games.

The game will have two teams of 10 seniors. Two student-athletes are selected from each of the eight regions in NCAA II with the four remaining selections made at-large.

Bragg and McLaughlin are the ninth and 10th GNAC players to be selected for the game since 2006.

Other GNAC players who have participated in the contest include Ryan Diggs of WWU in 2006, Dustin Bremerman of Seattle Pacific in 2007, Ira Graham of WWU in 2009, Jake Linton and Blake Poole of Saint Martin's in 2009 and 2011, Parrish West of Alaska Fairbanks in 2011, Taylor Rohde of Alaska Anchorage in 2012 and Jobi Wall of Seattle Pacific last year.

Bragg was recently named a first-team NABC DII West District all-star. He also was picked to the Daktronics West Region second team and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference first team.

Bragg, a senior from Longview, averaged 17.3 points on 58.7 percent (178-of-303) field-goal shooting and 8.8 rebounds, and blocked 49 shots, all team-leading figures for the Vikings. Those numbers all ranked among the top five in the GNAC.

Bragg had just the second triple-double in school history and only the third in GNAC history on Feb. 1 in a 99-76 victory over Alaska Anchorage, finishing with 13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

McLaughlin broke a handful of CWU records this season.  He scored a NCAA Division II school record 43 points in a heart breaking loss to Western Washington University.  In that game he also broke another CWU record by converting 44 straight free throws (spanning six games).  He followed that performance up by scoring 40 points two days later to become the first Wildcat to record back-to-back 40-point scoring outputs and just the second player in GNAC history.

"This is a huge accomplishment for Mark, and one he definitely deserves." CWU head coach Greg Sparling said. "It's no secret that he is one of the top talents in the nation, and this selection is a true statement of his ability to play basketball."

The 6-6 forward scored 30 or more points 10 times this season, and eclipsed 40 points three times, which is another school record.  Earlier this season, he amassed 1,000 career points and was the fastest player in GNAC and CWU history to reach that mark, finishing his career with 1316 points, which is 12th best in school history.

His career average of 24.8 is also a GNAC and CWU record, and he converted 205 free throws this past season, also tops in school history for a single season.  He shot 86.1 percent from the free throw line and that ranks him fourth in school history.