WWU men’s basketball falls at home

BYU Hawaii senior center Ian Harward scored a game-high 28 points on 12-of-14 shooting to lead BYU Hawaii to a 93-80 win over Western Washington University on Wednesday, Nov. 18, in a non-conference college basketball game at Whatcom Pavilion.

Western falls to 3-2 on the season with the loss. BYU Hawaii (1-0) earned the road win in their first contest of the season.

Junior forward Jeffrey Parker led the Vikings with 26 points, including four 3-pointers. Senior point guard Ricardo Maxwell added 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting and senior center Blake Bowen contributed 16 points off the bench.

“There are no excuses, I didn’t get our team prepared for this game,” WWU coach Tony Dominguez said in a news release. “We were not balanced on the court and a lot of that falls on me and my preparation. We’ve got a great group of players who work really hard, and we’ll be ready to play Friday vs. Flagler.”

The Vikings trailed by as many as nine points at 30-21, but battled back to within one at 38-37. BYHU closed out the first half with a 7-0 run to take a 45-37 lead into the break. Parker led Western with 11 points in the first half on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. The Seasiders shot a scorching 65.5 percent from the field in the half (19 for 29) with Harward leading the way with 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

The Seasiders extended their lead to as many as 17 points in the second half at 71-54, but the Vikings didn’t give up. Western closed to within seven points at 85-78, but couldn’t draw any closer as BYUH went on an 8-2 run to close out the game.

Harward, a transfer from BYU, led four Seasiders in double-figures scoring, narrowly missing the double-double with nine rebounds. Cory Lange (19 points), Scott Friel (16 points) and Justin Yamzon (14 points) rounded out the top scorers for the Seasiders. Overall BYUH shot percent from the floor (36 for 61) and was 16 for 19 (84.2 percent) from the free throw line.

The Bellingham Herald

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 9:58 PM with the headline "WWU men’s basketball falls at home."