BURNABY, B.C. – The Simon Fraser men's basketball team couldn't overcome an early deficit in a 92-65 Great Northwest Athletic Conference loss to Central Washington Thursday night in Burnaby. The visiting Wildcats jumped out to a 25-6 lead within the opening 9:37, and SFU never built enough momentum to make up the difference.
CWU (11-3, 5-2 GNAC) beat SFU (8-6, 3-3 GNAC) on Tuesday in Ellensburg, Washington, in a contest that was re-scheduled from January 1.
On Thursday, senior guard/forward
Jordan Lyons scored 13 points and recorded three steals off the bench to lead the hosts. Sophomore guard
David Penney had 11 points, while junior guard
Wilfried Balata recorded 10.
Julian Roche, a senior forward, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds to go with nine points.
David Thompson scored a game-best 22 points on 9 of 11 shooting for the Wildcats.
After CWU's run to commence Thursday's matchup, SFU was unable to close the difference between the teams to single digits before halftime.
Penney provided some spark with a basket with 3:18 to go before halftime. With the shot clock running down, he spun into the paint and threw up a one-handed jumper for a score that cut SFU's deficit to 13 points at 40-27. With two and a half minutes on the clock, Penney intercepted a CWU pass and went down the floor for a layup, getting SFU to within 13 points again at 42-29.
The Wildcats scored the final six points of the half to lead 48-29, and extended their run by posting the first 11 points of the second.
A Balata layup with 6:46 to go capped off a 9-2 SFU surge, which also included a Roche triple, and a Lyons dunk, to cut the team's deficit to 75-55.
Jordan Lyons. Photo by Wilson Wong
SFU was successful on 39.1 per cent of its shots from the field (25 of 64), 26.1 per cent on three-point attempts (6 of 23) and 81.8 per cent at the foul line (9 of 11).
The Wildcats had an excellent shooting night, converting 37 of 61 chances from the floor (60.7 per cent). CWU shot 52.9 per cent from beyond the arc (9 of 17) and 69.2 per cent on free throws (9 of 13).
SFU will return to the court Saturday, with a 7 p.m. tip-off against Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) at the West Gym in Burnaby.
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