Tuesday, December 30, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. -  With all 10 conference teams coming off wins in their final 2014 contests,  the Great Northwest Athletic Conference  men’s basketball race resumes Thursday with four conference games.

The marquee game will be at Brougham Pavilion where Western Oregon (10-2, 2-0) will take on defending champion Seattle Pacific (9-3, 1-1).

The Wolves have won nine in a row. Seattle Pacific comes into the contest off two impressive wins in Las Vegas over Rollins and Dixie State and has won three in a row.

Pre-season favorite Western Washington (7-4, 1-1), meanwhile, will be in Fairbanks to take on the Alaska Nanooks (3-7, 0-2).

WWU split two games in Las Vegas defeating Cal State San Bernardino after sustaining a narrow loss to unbeaten and No. 4 ranked Tarleton State.

The New Years Day schedule will also feature Simon Fraser  (6-3, 1-0) and Alaska Anchorage (5-7, 1-1) in Anchorage and Saint Martin’s (4-8, 1-1) and MSU Billings in Billings (2-10, 0-2). 

Central Washington (7-2, 2-0) will be idle prior to hosting Northwest Nazarene (3-9, 1-1) on Saturday.  The Wildcats bring a five-game win streak into 2015.

GNAC teams combined for a 14-6 record in the week prior to Christmas to finish the non-conference campaign with a 47-46 record and avoid just the second overall losing record in conference history.

Only in 2001-02 when conference teams combined for a 43-48 non-conference record have GNAC teams finished below .500.

WWU/SPU TV Game Rescheduled For 9 p.m.

Tip-off for the Seattle Pacific at Western Washington game on Jan. 10 has been changed from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

The game will be televised on ROOT Sports.

The switch was made to not conflict with the Seattle Seahawks playoff game on that date which kicks off at 5:15 p.m.

Western Oregon Ranked 4^th in D2SIDA Region Poll

Western Oregon held on to fourth place in this week’s D2SIDA West Regional poll.

The Wolves for the first time, however, earned one first-place vote in the poll. 

WOU is one of three GNAC teams ranked in the poll.  Central Washington is ranked eighth and Seattle Pacific is ranked ninth.

The poll is unofficial.  The NCAA will conduct its own official regional poll beginning in February which will determine which five teams join the GNAC, CCAA and PacWest champions in the playoffs in March. 

D2SIDA West Regional Poll – 1. Azusa Pacific (12-1); 2. Cal Baptist (10-1); 3. BYU-Hawaii 8-1; 4. Western Oregon (10-2); 5. Cal Poly Pomona (7-2); 6. Sonoma State 7-1; 7. Point Loma (7-2);  8. Central Washington (7-2); 9. Seattle Pacific (9-3); 10. Hawaii Pacific (8-2).

Simon Fraser Still On Top In Five Categories

Simon Fraser’s high-powered offense continues to lead the nation in five categories including scoring (130.0).

The Clan also is ranked first in three-pointers made (16.3), assists (23.9), steals (19.0) and turnover margin (13.7).

Individually Sango Niang of Simon Fraser ranks second in assists, averaging 7.9 per game.  Niang also leads the GNAC and is ranked 19^th nationally in scoring (21.8).

GNAC Men’s Basketball Players of the Week

 Dec. 15-21: Shawn Reid, Seattle Pacific (F, 6-4, Sr., Post Falls, ID) scored a team-best 36 points shooting 71.4 percent in leading the Falcons to wins over Dixie State (76-66) and Rollins (74-54) in the Las Vegas Challenge.  Reid made 15-of-21 shots, including 5-of-9 three-pointers.  He also led the Falcons with three steals.  Reid came off the bench against Dixie State with SPU trailing 17-2 and scored 30 points in just 18 minutes to rally SPU to the 10-point win.  Reid, whose previous SPU career-high was 13, made 12 of 15 shots, including 5-of-7 from the arc.

Team Notes

Alaska: Kyle Tomlinson led six players in double figures with 18 points in the Nanooks’ 88-74 counting victory over Portland Bible Dec. 19.  UAF completed a two-game sweep of the bible college with a 62-59 exhibition win on Dec. 20.  Ruben Silvas made all six of his shots and also had six rebounds, five assists and two blocks in the counting win.

Alaska Anchorage: Travis Thompson made 7-of-12 three-point shots increasing his career total to 254 in a 91-52 win over Portland Bible.  Thompson ranks sixth in GNAC history in treys.  Thompson finished the contest with 23 points.

Central Washington: Jordan Russell exploded for 30 points and also had eight rebounds and five assists in a 125-68 win over Multnomah.  Dom Williams made 5-of-8 three-pointers and scored 22 points.

Montana State Billings: Momir Gataric led the Yellowjackets with 34 points and Emmanuel Johnson had 28 points and 18 rebounds as the Yellowjackets posted a 1-2 record in Hawaii. 

Northwest Nazarene:  Erik Kinney scored 32 points converting on 13 of 21 shots as the Crusaders split two games in California.  Mike Wright contributed 21 points and 10 assists and Bouna N’Diaye netted 20 points.

Saint Martin’s:  Tyler Idowu scored 46 points and also had 26 rebounds in a trio of games prior to the holidays.  Idowu made 16 of 23 field goal attempts.  Riley Carel had 29 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds and Brent Counts scored 27 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked six shots.

Seattle Pacific:  Riley Stockton had 16 assists and nine rebounds as the Falcons won a pair of games in Hawaii. His nine rebounds gave him exactly 600 for his career, moving him into a tie for 16^th place with SPU’s Rob Will (2005-08) on the GNACC all-time list.  He ranks 14^th in assists with 373.  He also ranks 22^nd in steals with 132.  Shawn Reid had 36 points in the two wins (See GNAC Player of the Week notes).

Simon Fraser:  Simon Fraser scored 160 points for the second time this season defeating Capilano 161-108 in its final game of the 2014 callendar year.  In November, the Clan beat Northwest Indian 160-99.  SFU has now produced the top three scoring games in GNAC history this winter.  Sango Niang had 12 assists in the contest.

Western Oregon: The Wolves have won nine straight after closing their non-conference schedule with wins over Multnomah and Capilano.  Jordan Wiley had 30 points and Devon Alexander had 29 in the two contests.  Wiley made 10 of 21 treys and Alexander converted on 7-of-15.  Julian Nichols had team-highs of  16 assists and seven steals. Andy Avgi had 26 points and 18 rebounds.

Western Washington:  Jaamon Echols scored 68 points as the Vikings won two of three games.  Thirty-nine of his points came in Las Vegas as the Vikings split two games, losing 72-65 to unbeaten and No. 4 ranked Tarleton State (10-0) before defeating Cal State San Bernardino 72-66.  Jeffrey Parker netted 44 points in the three contests.