As the time clock ticks down on the 2014-15 GNAC season, Central’s Mens basketball team (13-7, GNAC 8-5) knows that it has punched their ticket to Billings, Mont. and locked up a place in the 2015 GNAC basetball tournament.

Senior guard, Dom Williams, said he is glad to have a tournament spot locked up, but wants to make sure he is still pushing his teammates.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that we have our spot already locked up,” Williams said. “Our team saying is to never be satisfied and keep moving forward each day. I just expect that from my teammates.”

The Wildcats are coming off a statement win over the nation’s top scoring team, Simon Fraser (10-13, GNAC 5-10).

Central now sets its focus on a two game home stand at Nicholson Pavilion against the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (14-10, GNAC 10-4) on Thursday night and Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks (6-16, GNAC 3-11) on Saturday.

Both games carry meaningful significance, as Thursdays night’s game is a battle for the second seed in the GNAC tournament and Saturday night’s game is Central’s senior night.

The Wildcats currently are in the fourth seed, but sit a game out of the second seed, which the Seawolves currently occupy.

Assistant basketball coach Drew Harris knows how important a win over Anchorage would be this late in the season.

“It’ll be a huge victory for us because they are a good team every year,” Harris said. “Anytime you can beat Anchorage twice in a season, you know your team is doing something right.”

The Wildcats have limited opponents to under 76 points per game over the last seven games, and have been led by the shot blocking of junior forward Joseph Stroud, who is currently seventh in the nation in blocks, at 2.85 per game.

Stroud knows that he has to protect the basket as tournament time nears.

“I feel like my team has a lot of security with me in the paint,” Stroud said, “and I love blocking shots and cleaning up the boards. Everyone knows defense wins championships so that’s big going into the tournament.”

The Wildcats’ defense presented a multitude of problems for Anchorage in their first meeting.

In that game, the Wildcats created nine steals and five blocked shots, and held the Seawolves to 37.7 percent shooting from the game.

Assistant coach, Jared Johnson, said that he expects the Wildcats defense to be even more trouble for the Seawolves this meeting.

“We did a really good job against them during our last meeting,” Johnson said, “but we expect our high pressure denial-style defense to be the most important against them this meeting.”

The Wildcats also look to present a different look against the Seawolves this time out.

The Wildcats expect to see significant playing time from junior guard Gary Jacobs and sophomore guard Jalen Peake this game.

Coach Harris feels that the addition of the depth on the bench will help the Wildcats against Anchorage.

“It’s been amazing to have Gary back these last few weeks,” Harris said. “And we are getting the most out of Jalen all season. We’ve had a lot of minutes open up and these guys have just taken the opportunities given to them and made the most of them.”

Anchorage comes to Ellensburg on a low note after having its five game win streak versus GNAC opponents snapped in an overtime loss against Seattle Pacific.

Anchorage offense features four players averaging in double figures for scoring this season.

The Seawolves are led by the three-point shooting of senior guard, Travis Thompson, who averages 7.2 three-point attempts per game hitting 44 percent of those attempts.

The Wildcats also welcome another team from Alaska this week, as the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks come to Central after snapping their eight game GNAC losing streak.

Fairbanks is hoping to keep the momentum going.

The Nanooks are led by junior guard, Ashton Edwards, who averages 14.2 points per game but shoots under 41 percent on the season.

While the Nanooks are not GNAC tournament eligible this season, they are still battling every team on a nightly basis.

Williams knows that the Nanooks are dangerous, and is making sure his teammates don’t get too confident when they meet on Saturday.

“I treat every game the same,” Williams said. “I treat it like it’s Seattle Pacific or Western because you can’t take any game off and you have to always stay ready.”