Nigel Williams-Goss collects WCC player of week honor

Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss has been named WCC player of the week after pouring in a career-high 36 points in Thursday’s win over San Francisco.

Williams-Goss made 12 of 15 shots, including 3 of 4 3-pointers. He was 9 of 9 at the free-throw line. Williams-Goss leads the WCC in free-throw accuracy at 90.6 percent.

The junior guard grabbed 11 rebounds to post Gonzaga’s first double-double of the season. He had six assists and just one turnover in 35 minutes.

Williams-Goss became the fifth player in the last 20 years with at least 35 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and 80 percent shooting from the field in a game.

Williams-Goss was honored once before as the WCC player of the week in late November.

EWU ranked fourth

The Eastern Washington University football team ended the postseason 10 positions higher than the way it started by ranking fourth in a pair of final NCAA Football Championship Subdivision polls announced Monday.

On their way to a 12-2 finish that included an 8-0 Big Sky Conference record, the Eagles finished fourth in the STATS Top 25 Poll of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and others. In the Coaches Poll, Eastern was also fourth.

The only teams ahead of EWU were FCS champion James Madison at No. 1, runner-up Youngstown State at No. 2, and North Dakota State third. The Bison had won five-straight FCS titles and 22-consecutive postseason games before top-seeded NDSU was defeated at home by fourth-seeded JMU 27-17 in the semifinals.

The next day, second-seeded Eastern fell to Youngstown State 40-38 on an improbable TD reception with one second left by the Penguins.

James Madison went on to beat Youngstown State 28-14 in the championship game last Saturday in Frisco, Texas.