Senior guard Tyler Payne was honored during a pregame ceremony on Senior Night. PHOTO: WWU Athletics
Vikings End Season With Home Loss to Concordia
March 2, 2019
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University men’s basketball suffered a season-ending 79-70 defeat against Concordia University Saturday night in front of a Senior Night crowd of 924 on WECU Court in Carver Gym.
With Western Oregon beating Simon Fraser 68-56 Saturday night, the scenario was pretty straightforward. A WWU victory over the Cavaliers would advance the Vikings to the upcoming GNAC Championships that will be held next week in Carver Gym. But the Vikings couldn’t overcome a late first-half and early second-half run by the Cavaliers in the 9-point defeat.
WWU officially finishes in a three-way tie for 6th place in the conference at 9-11 in GNAC play and 15-15 overall. Conference tiebreaker criteria broke the three-way tie between Simon Fraser, Alaska Anchorage and WWU, with the final criteria being the best record by WWU and SFU against teams with a .500 or better record in league play. WWU was 2-8 and SFU was 3-7.
The Vikings trailed by as many as 11 points midway through the second half at 58-47, but battled back to a one-point deficit at 63-64 by going on a 16-6 run. Junior guard Micah Winn fueled the run with 14 points. Senior guard Tyler Payne missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with the opportunity to tie the game, and the Cavaliers answered with a game-clinching 9-1 run to pull back ahead by a nine-point margin at 73-64 with 2:11 remaining.
Winn came off the bench to lead the Vikings in scoring with 14 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Junior forwards Trevor Jasinsky and Cameron Retherford each had 13 points. Junior guard Leif Anderson chipped in 11 points, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
The Vikings shot 38.2% for the game (26-for-68), including a 44.4% clip in the second half, but Concordia was a touch better at 47.2% (25-for-53) for the game. The Cavaliers also won the battle of the boards 39-35, despite WWU holding a 12-6 advantage in offensive rebounds.
The Cavaliers had four players reach double-figures in scoring, led by 17 points and 5 rebounds by Hunter Sweet. Dakota Ayala came off the bench to contribute a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double and Jarrett Gray added 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Concordia finished its season with a road sweep of Simon Fraser and WWU, ending the season at 11-17 overall and 6-14 in GNAC play.
JASINSKY CAPS AMAZING JUNIOR SEASON
Trevor Jasinsky capped a stellar junior season averaging 19.1 points per game (574 points), the 10th-best single-season scoring average in program history. Jasinsky also moved into 10th place in the WWU record book with 143 career 3-pointers and is 21st with 1,075 points. He scored in double-digits in 28 of 30 games in 2018-19, including a GNAC-best 16 games with 20-or-more points. The iron man has played in all 90 possible games of his WWU career and will lead the league averaging 35.5 minutes per game.
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