Tuesday, January 27, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. –   Western Oregon has received its first NABC national ranking of the 2014-15 season.

The Wolves (16-3), who had been “among others receiving votes” in the last six polls, debuted in the Top 25 at No. 24 after sweeping road games at Simon Fraser and Western Washington last weekend running its winning streak to six games.

Seattle Pacific (15-4) and Central Washington (12-4) were “among others receiving votes” in this week’s rankings and were 32nd and 41st overall.

The Falcons and Wildcats are tied for second place at the midway point of the conference race with 7-2 GNAC records, trailing Western Oregon (8-1) by one game.

In this week’s D2SIDA West Regional poll, Western Oregon is ranked fourth and Seattle Pacific is ranked fifth.  

The Wolves are “among others receiving votes” in the D2SIDA national poll and are 34^th overall.  They are the first GNAC teams to receive votes in the D2SIDA national poll since Dec. 9.

Western Oregon opens the second half of the conference season at home Thursday hosting Montana State Billings (4-15, 2-7) Thursday before facing Seattle Pacific Saturday in a showdown for first place.

The Falcons open their week Thursday with a road game at Saint Martin’s (5-14, 2-7).

Elsewhere Thursday, Alaska (5-12, 2-7) plays at Simon Fraser (7-10, 2-7) and Alaska Anchorage (10-9, 6-3) visits Western Washington (10-9, 3-6).

Meanwhile, Central Washington will take Thursday off before traveling to Nampa to play Northwest Nazarene (8-11, 6-3) Saturday.

D2SIDA West Regional Poll (records through Jan. 26) – 1. Azusa Pacific (17-2); 2. Cal Baptist (15-2); 3. BYU-Hawaii (15-2); 4. Western Oregon (16-3); 5. Seattle Pacific (15-4); 6. Dixie State (13-5); 7. Cal Poly Pomona (13-4); 8. Point Loma (13-5);  9. Chico State (12-5); 10. Cal State Stanislaus (12-5). (Note: D2SIDA poll is unofficial.  NCAA will conduct an official regional poll beginning in February).

Avgi Joins 1000-Point Club

Western Oregon center Andy Avgi scored 44 points last weekend to become the 60th player in GNAC history to score 1,000 or more career points.

Avgi made 18-of-29 field goal attempts.  He also had 13 rebounds and three steals and also converted on 7-of-7 free throws.   Avgi currently ranks  60th in GNAC history in scoring with 1,020 points.

The next player likely to join the 1,000-point career club is Kevin Rima of Northwest Nazarene.  He has 946 career points.  Rima also needs 40 rebounds to reach 600.  Riley Stockton of Seattle Pacific needs four assists to reach 400.

In this week’s national statistical report, Sango Niang of Simon Fraser ranks fourth in assists (6.9) and ninth in scoring (23.5).

Also in the Top 10 are Anye Turner of Western Washington, Julian Nichols of Western Oregon and Joseph Stroud and Dom Williams of Central Washington.

Turner ranks fourth (3.28) and Stroud is eighth (2.75) in blocked shots.  Nichols is fifth (3.36) and Williams is eighth (3.31) in assist/turnover ratio (3.36).

In team categories, Simon Fraser leads Division II in scoring (113.1), three-pointers (13.1), steals (14.1) and turnover margin (10.5) and also ranks second in offensive rebounds (16.7) and ninth in assists (18.9).

Seattle Pacific is second in rebounding margin (13.7) and fifth in scoring margin (18.7) and field goal percentage (52.0).

Western Washington is fifth in blocked shots (5.9) and Western Oregon is sixth in free throw percentage (77.9).

Team Notes

Alaska: Ashton Edwards scored 37 points, making 11-of-11 free throws in a pair of narrow home losses to Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington … Almir Hadzisehovic had 35 points including a team-high of 24 points in Thursday’s 75-73 loss to NNU.  In that game, Edwards scored 11 consecutive points at one point finishing with 19. Hadzisehovic finished the weekend with 13 rebounds.

Alaska Anchorage: Dom Hunter and Travis Thompson each scored 34 points as the Seawolves split two games.  Thompson made six treys moving into second place on the GNAC all-time career list with 269.  He trails all-time leader Jake Linton of Saint Martin’s by 23. 

Central Washington:  Dom Williams had 36 points and Joseph Stroud made 11-of-14 shots and had 23 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks as the Wildcats earned a sweep in Alaska.  After nearly letting a 16-point first-half lead get away Thursday in a 77-68 win at Anchorage, CWU outscored the Alaska Nanooks 12-2 over the final 3:40 to pull out a 74-70 win Saturday at Fairbanks.

Montana State Billings The Yellowjackets are in a four-way tie for seventh and trail sixth-place Western Washington by just one game as all 10 GNAC teams are within one game of earning a possible playoff berth at the midway point of the conference season.

Northwest Nazarene: Erik Kinney scored 35 points as the Crusaders divided two games in Alaska.  Kinney made 17-of-23 foul shots, taking more than half of NNU’s 44 attempts.  Alex Birketoft scored 24 points and led NNU with 14 rebounds.  He made 6-of-9 three-pointers.

Saint Martin’s: Tyler Idowu had 24 points and 12 rebounds in road losses at Bellingham and Simon Fraser.  Riley Carel scored 19 points and led the Saints with 18 rebounds and 10 assists.  Sixteen of his rebounds came off the defensive  glass.

Seattle Pacific: Seattle Pacific held Montana State Billings to a GNAC season-low 44 points (for conference games) in a 60-44 road win at Billings Saturday.  Earlier this season, the Falcons led Minnesota  Crookston to a GNAC defensive season-best 38 points in a tournament at Brougham Pavilion.  Offensively, Matt Borton paced SPU with 15 points and nine rebounds.

Simon Fraser: Sango Niang scored 31 points as the Clan split two home games to finish the first half of the conference season in a four-way tie for seventh.  Niang also had nine assists.  Justin Cole had 27 points.  Cole and Roderick Evans-Taylor each had 11 rebounds.

Western Oregon: Jordan Wiley (see GNAC Player of the Week notes) made 7-of-8 three-pointers and scored 26 points in a 39-point win at Simon Fraser Thursday. Julian Nichols had 15 assists, equaling the eighth highest single-game total in  GNAC history.  Nichols finished the week with 23 assists as WOU shot 57.4 percent from the floor (74-of-129).

Western Washington: The Vikings ran their home win streak to 14 with a 64-61 win over Saint Martin’s Thursday before Western Oregon ended the streak Saturday with a 90-87 victory … Ricardo Maxwell had 37 points including 31 against the Wolves.

GNAC Players of the Week: Jordan Wiley, Western Oregon (G, 6-6, Jr., McKenzie River, OR) scored 26 points in a 114-75 win at Simon Fraser and had 15 points including a key three-pointer with 1:49 left in a 90-87 victory at Western Washington as the Wolves completed the first half of the conference race with an 8-1 record and a one-game lead over Seattle Pacific and Central Washington.  Wiley shot 75.0 from the field (12-of-16) and also had nine rebounds, four assists and three steals in the two wins.  He made 7-of-8 three-pointers against SFU equaling the second highest total for three-pointers made in a game with just one miss in GNAC history. 

GNAC WEEKLY (PDF)