Friday, February 21, 2014

Television: DirecTV channel 687 and Dish Network channel 426.

ROOT SPORTS NW: check local listings for channel in your area.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball returns to ROOT SPORTS Saturday, as arch-rivals Central Washington and Western Washington are set to clash inside Sam Carver Gym in Bellingham, Wash., at 7 p.m. Pacific time.

The primetime matchup is the sixth in the eight-game series on ROOT SPORTS, and Brad Adam and Dave Harshman will handle the commentary duties. The Game of the Week series features all 10 GNAC schools and both men’s and women’s games. For more information including a complete schedule of games to be televised and ROOT SPORTS local listings, check out the ‘related links’ section of this article.

Central Washington University
Coach: Greg Sparling, 19th season
Record: 11-12, 7-8 GNAC (T-6th)
Home: 7-4
Away: 3-5
Neutral: 1-3
Current Streak: L3
All-Time vs WWU: 153-95

Featuring the top scorer in NCAA Division II in senior guard Mark McLaughlin (27.1 ppg), Central Washington is currently enduring a 3-game losing skid that has pushed the Wildcats down the conference standings into a tie for 6th. Most recently, CWU lost to Simon Fraser 112-99 Thursday evening in Burnaby as the Wildcats could not overcome a 20-point 2nd-half deficit. The last time CWU and WWU met, the Wildcats kept pace with the Vikings but fell 99-94 in Ellensburg on Jan. 23. McLaughlin unleashed for a season-high 43 points in the defeat, and JB Pillard and Kevin Davis each had a double-double.

Individually, Pillard and Davis have acted as the most prolific complements to McLaughlin in terms of scoring, averaging 13.9 and 11.2 points per game, respectively. The duo also ranks one-two on the team in terms of rebounding, with 8.0 and 7.2 per game. While McLaughlin has proved his effectiveness as a scorer, he is also the team leader in assists with 69. Freshman guard Marc Rodgers has seen significant playing time as well, starting 15 games and contributing 54 assists.

As a team, the Wildcats rank fifth in the GNAC in terms of scoring margin with a mark of plus-1.8. This is directly attributed to CWU’s strong scoring ability (84.3 points per game, 3rd in the GNAC), and tendancy to allow high opposing scores (82.5 points allowed per game, 10th in the GNAC). The Wildcats are an excellent free-throw shooting team at 76.1 percent, ranking second in the GNAC only to Alaska Anchorage. From the field, CWU shoots 48.4 percent and ranks third in rebounding margin at plus-1.4. Only WWU averages more blocks per game than CWU, as the Wildcats come up with 4.2 per contest. CWU generates a conference fifth-best 5.7 steals per contest, and holds a turnover margin of plus-0.35.

Probable Starters
*Mark McLaughlin (G, 6-6, Sr., Bothell, WA)
*Kevin Davis (C, 6-9, Sr., Federal Way, WA)
*JB Pillard (F, 6-6, Sr., Kirkland, WA)
*Joey Roppo (G, 6-2, So., Monroe, WA)
*Marc Rodgers (G, 6-2, Fr., Los Angeles, CA) 

2013-14 Red Lion Players of the Week

Week of Jan. 20-26: Mark McLaughlin became the second player in GNAC history to record back-to-back 40-point games (joining Parrish West of Alaska Fairbanks who accomplished the feat in 2011) scoring 83 points. He was efficient in producing 43 points in a 99-94 loss to Western Washington and 40 points in a 96-79 win against Simon Fraser, shooting 68.3 percent from the floor (28-of-41), including 5-of-9 3-pointers. McLaughlin, who leads Division II in scoring (28.3), also made 22-of-26 free throws, extending his streak of foul shots made to 42 before missing late in Thursday’s contest.

Week of Jan. 6-12: Mark McLaughlin scored 66 points, including 39 in a 106-103 double overtime win over Western Oregon. McLaughlin, who is averaging nearly 30 points per game (29.4) in five conference contests and 26.3 overall, made 7-of-9 3-pointers in the two contests, including a trey with 10 seconds left in the first overtime to force the second extra 5-minute period against WOU. Overall, he connected of 17-of-34 shots and 25-of-26 foul shots, including 16-of-16 against the Wolves.

Week of Nov. 11-17: Mark McLaughlin scored 60 points in a pair of contests, including 42 in a 95-90 win over Colorado Christian to earn all-tournament 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.

Western Washington University
Coach: Tony Dominguez, 2nd season
Record: 17-6, 11-4 GNAC (2nd place)
Home: 13-1
Away: 4-3
Neutral: 0-2
Current Streak: W1
All-Time vs. CWU: 95-153

After losing back-to-back road games to Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific to snap a six-game winning streak, Western Washington responded with a strong 84-72 win over Northwest Nazarene in Bellingham on Thursday evening. The Vikings are 13-1 overall at home this season, the only loss being to No. 13-ranked Seattle Pacific on Jan. 15 in a defeat that snapped WWU’s school-record 36-game home winning streak dating back to Jan. 2012. The Vikings withstood McLaughlin’s incredible performance the last time these two teams met, as senior guard Richard Woodworth had 28 points and Austin Bragg added 21 more in the 99-94 win.

Woodworth leads the team in scoring and ranks fourth in the conference with 17.3 points per game. Like CWU, WWU’s top scorer is also its top facilitator, as Woodworth leads the team with 82 assists on the season. Bragg has led the GNAC in rebounding for the majority of the season, currently topping the conference with a mark of 8.9 per game. The senior ranks just behind Woodworth in scoring at 17.2 points per contest, and his 43 blocks rank second only to CWU’s Davis in the GNAC. Since obtaining a starting role, freshman Jeffrey Parker has proven instrumental in the Vikings’ lineup as well. Parker is averaging 11.3 points per contest, while shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point range and has played in all 23 contests this season. Robert Harris is another double-figure scorer, averaging 11.0 points with 69 assists in 23 starts this season. 

As a team, WWU leads the GNAC in scoring with 87.4 points per contest, and ranks second only to Seattle Pacific in scoring margin with a mark of plus-8.9. WWU also ranks second in field goal percentage at 49.5, and allows a conference-low 44.5 percent. WWU holds the second-best rebounding margin in the GNAC at plus-5.6, and the Vikings lead the conference in blocks with 133 (5.8 per game). WWU generates 7.3 steals per contest, and has a turnover margin of minus-0.35. 

Probable Starters
*Richard Woodworth (G, 6-3, Sr., Bellevue, WA)
*Austin Bragg (C, 6-9, Sr., Longview, WA)
*Anye Turner (F, 6-7, Jr., Olympia, WA)
*Jeffrey Parker (F, 6-6, Fr., Richmond, CA)
*Robert Harris (G, 5-10, Sr., Kent, WA)

2013-14 Red Lion Players of the Week

Week of Jan. 27 – Feb. 2: Austin Bragg had 31 points, 26 rebounds and 13 assists and recorded the first triple-double in the GNAC in 10 years in leading the Vikings to wins over Alaska Fairbanks (53-51) and Alaska Anchorage (99-76). Bragg had one-third of WWU’s points (18-of-53) and rebounds (14-of-42) in Thursday’s win against the Nanooks before recording the third triple-double (13 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) in GNAC history in Saturday’s regionally-televised win over Alaska Anchorage. In the two contests, Bragg made 12-of-20 field goal attempts and all five of his free throw attempts.

Week of Nov. 25 – Dec. 1: Austin Bragg scored 20 points and also had 13 rebounds and five blocked shots to lead Western Washington over No. 1-ranked Metro State. Bragg hit a driving layup with 11.8 seconds to give WWU, which ran its home win streak to a school and GNAC-record 31 games, a 4-point lead.