Wednesday, November 20, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - Western Washington has moved up to seventh in the latest NABC Division II Men's national poll.

The Vikings improved to 2-0 Tuesday rallying from a 19-point deficit to defeat BYU-Hawaii 80-74 and extend its GNAC and school home winning streak to 29 games.

Seattle Pacific and Alaska Anchorage are also ranked in this week's poll.  The Falcons are ranked ninth and the Seawolves are ranked 21st.

Non-conference action continues this week as GNAC teams are entered in three tournaments.

Alaska Fairbanks welcomes the University of Mary, Emporia State and Fresno Pacific to Fairbanks for the Alaska Invitational.  Each team will play three games beginning Thursday.

Central Washington will host the CWU GNAC/PacWest Challenge at Ellensburg.  Joining the Wildcats in the two-day event beginning Friday will be Seattle Pacific, BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific.

Northwest Nazarene will also host the NNU/College of Idaho Invitational at Nampa.  Western Montana and Colorado - Colorado Springs will join the Crusaders and Coyotes for the tournament.

Elsewhere this week, MSU Billings will host Rocky Mountain Wednesday and Montana Northern Friday, Simon Fraser will host Academy of Art and Dixie State will play at Western Oregon on Saturday and Quest will play at Western Washington Sunday.

Last week, Mark McLaughlin of Central Washington scored 60 points in a pair of contests, including 42 in a 95-90 win over Colorado Christian to earn all-tournament and GNAC Red Lion Player of the Week honors in the SPU Sodexo Tipoff tournament. 

That equaled the ninth highest point total in GNAC history and was the most since John Allen of Western Washington and Parrish West of Alaska Fairbanks had 43-point games in January, 2011.

McLaughlin made 17 field goals against CCU, one off the GNAC single-game record of 18 by Gerrit Eades of Saint Martin’s against Alaska Anchorage in 2002.

McLaughlin was one of eight players to earn all-tournament honors in two separate events.

Alaska Anchorage’s Travis Thompson was named the MVP in the AT&T Alascom Invitational, scoring 53 points on 14 of 26 shooting, including nine of 19 treys. 

Joining him on the all-tournament team were teammates Kyle Fossman (43 points, 10-19 treys), Teancum Stafford (29 points, 18 rebounds) and Brian McGill (28 points, 17 to 2 assists-to-turnover ratio) and Alaska Fairbanks’ Ronnie Baker (35 points),

Joining McLaughlin on the all-tournament team at the SPU Sodexo Tipoff tournament was Seattle Pacific’s David Downs (43 points, 14 assists) and Patrick Simon (38 points).

Here is a look at other highlights from last week's action:

Alaska Anchorage: Including Sunday’s non-tournament game against Holy Names, Thompson averaged 26.3 points in three game, shooting 50.0 percent from the floor (23-46), 43.8 percent from the arc (14-32) and 90.5 percent from the foul line (19-21).  Fossman had 59 points and Brian McGill contributed 54 points and 22 assists ... UAA, which extended its win streak to 16 games in the jamboree and improved its overall record in its tournament to 40-7, equaled a school record with just four turnovers in Sunday’s game against Holy Names.  They were just one off the GNAC single game record of three.

Alaska Fairbanks: Baker scored 35 points and had eight rebounds and six assists in earning all-tournament honorsat Anchorage.  Joe Slocum chipped in with 25 points and Stefan Tica and Sergej Pucar each had 24 points.  Kelly Andrew had 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Central Washington:  In addition to McLaughlin, JB Pillard had 27 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to a 1-1 record at the Sodexo tournament.  CWU got the split despite being outshot 51.2 to 47.8 and outrebounded 79-65.

MSU Billings: Kalob Hatcher and Jonathan Mesghna each scored 31 points as the Yellowjackets dropped a pair of games in South Dakota.  Mesghna also had a team high 11 rebounds, while Hatcher led MSUB in assists (13) and steals (4). 

Northwest Nazarene: Kevin Rima had a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in a 91-74 home win against Willamette, then added 20 points in a 78-64 exhibition loss at the University of Idaho.  Michael Loomis had 16 points in NNU’s victory.

Saint Martin’s: Riley Carel scored 34 points, including a career-high 22 in a 86-79 loss at Cal Baptist.  In two games, Carel shot 63.2 percent, making 12 of 19 from the floor.  He also had 11 rebounds, four assists and a team-high six assists.  Ryan Rogers and Evan Coulter chipped in with 27 and 24 points, respectively. 

Seattle Pacific: David Downs and Cory Hutsen each scored 43 points and Patrick Simon had 38 as the Falcons split two home games.  Downs scored a career-high 34 points in a 90-88 overtime loss to Dixie State after Simon tied a career-high with 30 points in Seattle Pacific’s 94-78 win over Colorado Christian.  Hutsen, who had a career-high 24 against Dixie, made 16 of 27 shots, while Downs had 14 assists and was perfect from the foul line (15 of 15).

Simon Fraser: The Clan beat Notre Dame de Namur by seven to go 2-0 after defeating Vancouver Island.  David Gebru paced SFU in the two contests with 36 points and 12 rebounds.  Ibrahim Appiah had 14 rebounds. Simon Fraser shot 52.2 percent in its two contests (60 of 115).  Sango Niang had 15 assists. 

Western Oregon: The Wolves knocked off No. 7 Cal Poly Pomona, but then fell to Cal State Dominguez in the Azusa Pacific Invitational.  CSUDH improved to 2-0 against GNAC teams as it previous beat Alaska Anchorage in the CCA Division II Tipoff Classic.  Marwan Sarhan came off the bench to lead the Wolves with 31 points, making 17 of 18 foul shots to contribute to a 92.1 free throw percentage (35-38) by WOU.  Rodney Webster had 24 points.

Western Washington: The Vikings extended their GNAC-and school record home win streak to 28 games (now at 29 after Tuesday's win) with a 10-point win over Notre Dame de Namur as Richard Woodworth led the way with 18 points.  Austin Bragg had 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks.