They both share the same middle name, they both attended the same middle school. They’ve had every class together for the four years they’ve been in college, and they’re both sociology majors.

Senior guards Gary Jacobs and Devin Matthews have shared the same dream since their friendship began in sixth grade.

“What sparked our friendship was the love for the game, and both of us just wanting to play basketball and sharing the same dream,” Matthews said.

Their dream of playing basketball at the collegiate level has transformed through the years into a reality, as they both have established themselves as top performers for Central’s basketball team.

Before Central, both Jacobs and Matthews worked hard and used their connections wisely to assume the position they are in today. Both of them didn’t have a single offer from any college coming out of high school, forcing them to look in other places.

“I’ve never, in my whole career, received a college letter for basketball, or for sports period,” Matthews said.

Fortunately for the two, they’re mutual friend Donovan Williams, who they both played with in high school, was already playing junior college basketball at Pierce Community College (PCC) in Lakewood, Washington.

Williams helped convince PCC’s head coach Bill Mendelson to recruit both Jacobs and Matthews.

Recruiting the pair of athletes paid off for Mendelson as Jacobs earned the team’s MVP and was named First Team All-Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC). Averaging 24 points per game in his two years at PCC.

Matthews took the PCC Raiders to the NWAC title game and was the team’s all-time assists leader averaging 7.5 assists per game.  He was named to the NWAC first team his sophomore season.

Jacobs and Matthews both had positive experiences beginning their college basketball career in the Northwest.

“It was a great experience, the people, the culture around there was all positive vibes and so welcoming,” Jacobs said. “Our coach there and our athletic director, they were both great to us.”

Even though they enjoyed their time in the Northwest, they had a major culture shock in the beginning.

“That weather man,” Jacobs said.

“We had to talk each other into going to class everyday, that rain was tough to deal with,” Matthews said, finishing Jacobs thought.

Their successful careers at PCC helped shed light on their basketball talents. Jacobs had a few schools look at him, but Central was the most interested in his abilities.

“The main interest I had was from Central,” Jacobs said. “I had a couple schools in Hawaii look at me and Texas A&M Kingsville, but CWU showed the most interest.”

Central was the only school to give Matthews a look.

“Drew Harris was the only one who actually recruited me,” Matthews said.

Central pulled the trigger on the right guys. Jacobs has averaged 13 points and five rebounds per game and Matthews has averaged 7.7 points and 4.2 assists per game with four games left in their Central careers.

Both players have seen improvements in the others game throughout the years playing with each other.

“His ball handling and his ability to score the ball in different ways,” Matthews said.

Jacobs has seen a lot of improvement in Matthews’ shooting.

“His jumper, everything about his shot has gotten better,” Jacobs said.

He went on to say good things about Matthews’ on his IQ.

“I praise him on having one of the best IQ’s out of anybody I have ever played with,” Jacobs said.

After their careers at Central, Jacobs and Matthews have aspirations to play overseas. Along with their dream of playing basketball after college, both Jacobs and Matthews would also want to pursue coaching.

During their free time, Jacobs and Matthews enjoy playing the NBA 2K games. Jacobs calls them “2K wars.”

“We battle almost every night, we do playoff series and things like that,” Matthews said. “We definitely have fun with the video games.”

Jacobs and Matthews both agree that they have a unique relationship, due to the fact they are so similar.

“Even though we come from the same area, it’s crazy to see how much we are alike,” Matthews said. “All four years we have taken every single class together, we even have the same middle name, Lavon.”