BY DILLON PETERSON, Staff Reporter
Senior guard Mark McLaughlin had another great game for Central Washington University Wildcats, exploding for 40 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals and was rewarded as Player of the Game, in a 96-79 victory over Simon Fraser.
Senior forward JB Pillard also had a stellar game, finishing with 21 points, six rebounds, one assist and one block in the Wildcats win over Simon Fraser, who dropped to 8-9 overall, 1-8 Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
“Just wanted to get a big win, I love this group of guys and I just wanted to get a win for them, this is a great team,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin became the first player in CWU history to score 40 points in consecutive games. McLaughlin dropped 43 points on Western Washington on Thursday in a 99-94 loss.
Central improved to 9-8 overall and 5-4 in the GNAC with its win over The Clan.
“When Mark McLaughlin plays like that it’s contagious with everybody, he shoots [a high percentage] that’s pretty incredible,” head coach Greg Sparling said.
The game had a slow start with Central trailing most of the first half. All that was turned around after Clan guard Chris Evans was called for a flagrant on McLaughlin, sending McLaughlin to the line, where he converted both free throws to tie the game.
On the next possession, a McLaughlin lay-up gave Central its first lead of the night. This would be the start of a 16-0 run by the Wildcats, which included a big alley-oop to Kevin Davis for the second game in a row.
Going into halftime the Wildcats had a 50-35 lead, shooting 65.5 percent. McLaughlin was shooting 90 percent, Davis 66 percent and Pillard was shooting 50 percent from the field.
The second half was a little different with the Simon Fraser Clan starting to close in on the Wildcat’s lead. McLaughlin and Pillard along with the rest of the team put an end to the clan run by feeding off each other.
Towards the end of the game with the Clan trailing, Pillard came off the bench and hit two big three-pointers, fueling the bench and the rest of the team.
“Guys on the team were telling me I’m not gonna make the next one, so the whole team was into it and they were hyped when I made the second one with the reserves coming in after it,” Pillard said.
Central plays Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, Feb. 1st at 7 p.m. in Nicholson Pavilion.
“Northwest is where I transferred from and we got a win down there last time,” Pillard said “we got nine games left, every game is gonna treated like a championship game.”
“They really shoot the ball well at the three line down there, they can really shoot the ball,” Sparling said. “It’s a good feeling to be at home, it’s a good crowd we just got to move forward and get better each day and you’re seeing us get better just have to take it one at a time.”
