NW Briefs | Central basketball signs two JC players

Two junior-college guards have signed national letters of intent to continue their men's college basketball careers at Central Washington.

Humberto Perez, of Davis High in Yakima, will transfer to Central from North Idaho College. Toussaint (T.J.) Tyler from Kentwood High is playing his sophomore year at Tacoma Community College.

Perez averaged 13.3 points per game.

Tyler began his junior-college career at Bellevue Community College in 2006-07. In his freshman season with the Bulldogs, he averaged 9.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He sat out the 2007-08 campaign before transferring to Tacoma CC.

"T.J. is a point-guard/off-guard who is very physical and can really get to the rim," Sparling said of Tyler. "He is very effective on the defensive end, and plays every possession with 110 percent which caught our eye."

Tyler is the son of Toussaint Tyler, who played running back for the Huskies and the New Orleans Saints.

Other men's basketball

After trailing by 12 points at the half, Northwest University came back to defeat George Fox 72-64 in nonconference action.

Down 41-29 at the half, Northwest stepped up its defense to force 10 George Fox turnovers and outscore the Bruins 43-23.

Northwest (2-3) was led by Eddie Coulson with 17 points and four steals. Sophomore Lucas Ashe came off the bench to score 13 points, and reserve Rich Skillman scored 12. Freshman Jason Waltman led Northwest with 10 rebounds.

Soccer

Seattle Pacific senior defender Claire Grubbs was honored as a first-team member of the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America women's soccer team.

Grubbs compiled a 3.96 grade-point average while majoring in psychology. She is a three-time all-district academic team selection.

Seattle University's Kate Edstrom and Puget Sound's Fiona Gornick were voted to the third team.

• Northwest University senior defender Jason Hatcher of Kennewick was named to the Cascade Conference first team.

It is the second consecutive All-CCC award for Hatcher, who was a second-team member in 2007.

Five other Eagles received All-CCC honorable mention.

Women's basketball

Montana's Sarah Ena of Kenmore's Inglemoor High and Portland State's Kelsey Kahle are the Big Sky Conference women's basketball co-players of the week.

Volleyball

Washington heads east to Pullman for the final road contest of the regular season. The Huskies are ranked No. 5 for the third consecutive week after dealing losses to Oregon State and No. 8 Oregon last weekend.

The Huskies have sole possession of second place in the Pac-10 after winning both of their weekend decisions and with Stanford defeating California last Friday. Washington is 12-3 in conference play while Cal is 10-4.

Compiled from sports-information departments and other sources.