Berry MVP as CWU Wins GNAC Title - Mar 8, 2011 Jamar Berry scored 25 points and had seven rebounds and four of his teammates played strong supporting roles leading Central Washington to a 83-71 win over Alaska Anchorage Friday in the GNAC championship basketball game before a crowd of 2,519 at Nicholson Pavilion. The win in the FSN regionally televised game earned the Wildcats (26-3) their first conference basketball title since the 1999-2000 season and an automatic berth in the NCAA West Regionals which begin next Friday. Alaska Anchorage (23-9) will also likely receive an at-large berth in the regional. First-round pairings and the site for the tournament will be announced at 7 p.m. Sunday on a webcast at ncaa.com. Berry finished the tournament with 65 points and 20 rebounds to earn Most Valuable Player honors. Central also got 19 points from Chris Sprinker, 16 from reserve guard Chris Scott, 10 second-half points from Humberto Perez and a game-high seven assists from Drew Harris. Brandon Walker and Lonnie Ridgeway led Alaska Anchorage with 19 points each, while Mario Gill had 11. First-team all-conference center Taylor Rohde, however, was held to a season-low four points as CWU's perimeter pressure made it tough for UAA to feed the ball inside. Central's defensive pressure forced UAA into 18 turnovers offsetting a 57.1 percent shooting performance by the Seawolves, who made 28 of 49. The Wildcats had a season-low six turnovers and finished with a 22-9 advantage in points off turnovers. Scott once again was the sparkplug for the Wildcat defense, which had a 13-3 advantage in steals. Scott also made six of 10 shots, including four of seven three-pointers. His first trey jump-started a 17-3 run midway through the first half as CWU overcame a 26-18 deficit. Berry followed Scott's trey with one of his own and two free throws to tie the contest at 26-26. Travis Thompson then hit a three-pointer to put UAA back on top 29-26, but the Wildcats then ran off nine straight points including two dunks by Sprinker, a dunk by Berry, a layup by Sprinker and a free throw by Harris to take the lead for good. Three of those four baskets came after CWU steals. Central took a seven-point lead (40-33) into halftime and then went ahead 49-40 early in the second half. At that point Walker hit back-to-back treys to pull UAA to within three points. CWU, however, then got a key three-point play by Coby Gibler and following a basket by Ridgeway, ran off six more points in a row to go up by 10. UAA didn't get closer than six the remainder of the way. CWU ended up shooting 47.5 percent, making 10 of 26 three-pointers. They were also outrebounded 29-26. But even with a 10-point advantage in shooting percentage and more rebounds, UAA couldn't overcame the edge CWU's tenacious defense provided. GNAC Summary 2010-11 GNAC Tournament Final: Central Washington - Alaska Anchorage 83-71 GNAC Tournament Semifinals: Central Washington - Northwest Nazarene 76-58 Alaska Anchorage - Seattle Pacific 72-67
All-Tournament MVP: Jamar Berry (6'5''-G-85) of Cent.Washington Player of the Year: Blake Poole (6'5''-C) of St.Martin's Freshman of the Year: Paul Egwuonwu (6'8''-F-92) of NW Nazarene Freshman of the Year: David Downs (6'2''-G) of Seattle Pacific Newcomer of the Year: Jamar Berry (6'5''-G-85) of Cent.Washington Coach of the Year: Greg Sparling of Cent.Washington Coach of the Year: Tim Hills of NW Nazarene 1st Team C: Blake Poole (6'5'') of St.Martin's F/C: Taylor Rohde (6'9'') of Alaska-Anch. F: Michael Duty (6'6'') of W.Washington F: Parrish West (6'5'') of Alaska-Fairb. C/F: Chris Sprinker (6'9'') of Cent.Washington G: Jamar Berry (6'5''-85) of Cent.Washington 2nd Team G: Blair Wheadon (6'2'') of W.Oregon F: Jeff Downs (6'4'') of Seattle Pacific G: Brandon Walker (6'3''-89) of Alaska-Anch. C: Brian Barkdoll (6'10''-89) of NW Nazarene G: John Allen (6'0''-89) of W.Washington G: Drew Harris (6'0'') of Cent.Washington 3rd Team C: Andy Poling (6'11'') of Seattle Pacific C: Ryan Sweet (6'6'') of Seattle Pacific G: Ricky Berry (6'3'') of Seattle F: Jeremy Green (6'7'') of St.Martin's G: Mario Gill (6'2'') of Alaska-Anch. F: Rory Blanche (6'6'') of W.Washington G: Jaxon Myaer (5'10''-89) of Montana St. - Billin All-Academic Team Liam Gibcus (6'10''-F/C) of Alaska-Anch. Phillip Hearn (6'6''-F) of Alaska-Anch. Steve White (6'0''-G) of Alaska-Anch. Drew Robinson (6'2''-G-85) of Alaska-Anch. Drew Harris (6'0''-G) of Cent.Washington Cj Shula (6'3''-G) of NW Nazarene Lateef Williams (6'2''-G-89) of NW Nazarene Brady Bomber (5'10''-G) of St.Martin's Roger O'Neill (6'5''-F) of St.Martin's Ryan Votaw (6'2''-G) of St.Martin's Scott Morse (6'7''-F) of Seattle Pacific Jeff Downs (6'4''-F) of Seattle Pacific Jake Anderson (6'6''-F) of Seattle Pacific Zach Frehlick (6'0''-G) of Simon Fraser Christopher Paredes (6'5''-F/C-90) of Simon Fraser Rory Blanche (6'6''-F) of W.Washington Chris Mitchell (6'8''-C) of W.Washington Anthony Wiederkehr (5'11''-G) of W.Washington | |||||||||||||||||||||
Men
Women
Subscribe
Login
