Tuesday, December 15, 2015

RED HOT N’ ROLLIN: The hottest team in the west continues to be Western Oregon. The Wolves have opened the season by winning 10 straight games. They added to that total on the road Monday night in a key regional contest, coming from behind to beat UC San Diego 67-63. Jordan Wiley led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points on 5 of 9 from the field.

The Wolves are one of just five teams in Division II that is undefeated. They maintained their No. 3 position in the NABC Division II Poll and moved up one spot to No. 5 in the D2SIDA Division II Media Poll, which included one first place vote.

Western Oregon will keep a light schedule over the Holiday Break with just two games, both in the state of Oregon. The Wolves will host Division III Willamette on Sunday and will play at Division I Oregon on Dec. 29 (both counting contests) before returning to GNAC play on the road on Dec. 31 at Central Washington.

The Wolves enter the week leading the GNAC in scoring margin (+16.9), field goal percentage (.493), steals (10.40 per game) and turnover margin (+6.50) and is second in the league in scoring defense (66.6 points allowed per game), three-point percentage (.390), rebounding defense (30.9 rebounds allowed per game) and assist/turnover ratio (1.59). In this week’s NCAA Division II stats, Western Oregon is fifth in turnover margin, sixth in assist/turnover ratio and steals per game and 14th in tunrovers per game.

Individually, GNAC Preseason Player of the Year Andy Avgi is second in the GNAC in scoring, averaging 21.1 points per game and is 15th in Division II with a .680 field goal eprcentage. Tanner Omlid is second in the GNAC and third in Division II with 2.75 steals per game and is fifth in Division II with a .655 field goal percentage.

FALCONS STREAKING: Western Oregon is not the only GNAC team on a roll. After losing their season opener to Concordia-Irvine at the Dixie State Classic, Seattle Pacific has rolled to nine straight victories. The Falcons swept their opponents in their own Oak Harbor Freight Lines Classic over the weekend, posting a 76-64 win over NAIA Northwest (Wash.) on Friday and a 71-54 victory over Azusa Pacific on Saturday. Seattle Pacific shined in the tournament on the boards and the free throw line, outrebounding their opponents 83-64 and shooting 70.1 percent (54-77) from the charity stripe.

Mitch Penner was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and also earned the GNAC’s Player of the Week after he finished with a total of 30 points and 112 rebounds in the two games. The senior forward’s top performance was a 16-point, five-rebound effort in the win over Azusa Pacific.

Penner was far from the only Falcon carrying the load over the weekend. Junior center Joe Rasmussen came off the bench to score 25 points in 21 minutes in the win over Northwest. He shot 9 of 12 from the field and 3 of 4 from three-point range in the game. Senior center Gilles Dierickx led the Falcons with 19 points on 6 of 12 from the field and eight rebounds in the win over Azusa Pacific. Rasmussen enters the week leading the GNAC in field goal percentage at 67.4 percent while Dierickx is second at 65.7 percent. Neither player has met the minimum of five field goals made per game to qualify for the NCAA Division II statistics.

One of the top defensive teams in the nation, Seattle Pacific leads the GNAC in scoring defense (61.9 points allowed per game), field goal defense (.367), three-point defense (.215), rebounding defense (28.3 rebounds allowed per game) and rebounding margin (+11.8). The Falcons leads Division II in three-point defense and is ranked fourth in scoring defense and sixth in field goal defense. Additionally, the Falcons are third in Division II in rebounding margin (11.8) and eighth in scoring margin (18.3) and free throws made (205).

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MAN: Alaska Anchorage’s Corey Hammell is a double threat every time he gets on the floor. The junior transfer notched his eighth double-double in 13 games on Monday, finishing with 24 points and 12 rebounds on 7 of 8 from the field and 10 of 12 from the free throw line in the Seawolves’ 108-67 win on Monday over Northwest Indian. Hammell leads Division II in the category. Coming into Monday’s game, he was one of four players in Division II with seven double-doubles. Hammell also leads Division II with 118 total rebounds and he leads the GNAC with an average of 10 rebounds per game. Hammell also leads Division II in offensive rebounds per game (5.00) and is ranked seventh in free throw attempts (90), ninth in free throws made (71) and 29th in rebounds per game.

HE CONNECTS...FROM DOWNTOWN: The GNAC is using the three-point shot to their advantage. All 11 GNAC teams are shooting 30 percent or better from beyond the arc with eight of those teams shooting better than 35 percent. Saint Martin’s leads the way at 43.5 percent from three-point range (74-170). That ranks the Saints eighth in Division II. Alaska Anchorage leads the GNAC and is 12th in Division II in three-point attempts (271) as well as 18th in Division II in three-pointers made (98).

Individually, six GNAC players are making 50 percent or more of their shots from three-point range. Saint Martin’s Isaac Bianchini leads the way at 55.9 percent (8-19). The top five on the list, however, have not met the minimum of 2.5 made per game to qualify for the Division II national statistics. Central Washington’s Joey Roppo has. He is sixth in the GNAC and 21st in Division with a .500 percentage (20-40). Roppo also ranked 26th with 3.33 three-pointers made per game. Simon Fraser’s Max Barkeley enters the week ranked 22nd in DivisionII  with 3.38 three-pointers made per game and 24th with 74 three-point field goal attempts.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES OF NOTE: Western Oregon’s Kadeem Strickland scored 17 points and went 5 of 8 from three-point range in the Wolves’ win on Friday over Corban...Alaska’s Bangaly Kaba led six players scoring double figures in the Nanooks’ win over Northwest Indian on Friday with 20 points on 9 of 12 from the field. He repreated the feat in the win over Northwest Indian on Saturday as he went 8 of 9 from the field...Northwest Nazarene’s Mike Wright scored 26 points, including 9 of 17 from the field and 5 of 8 from three-point range in the Crusaders’ win over Dominican. Bouna N’Diaye had 17 points, nine rebounds and six blocks in the same game before coming up with 22 points in the loss Monday at Cal State LA...Montana State Billings’ Preston Beverly finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench in the Yellowjacks’ Saturday win over Northwest (Wash.). Beverly was named to the Oak Harbor Freight Lines Classic All-Tournament Team.

IN THE NATIONAL POLLS: Western Oregon maintained their No. 3 ranking in this week’s NABC Division II Poll and climbed one spot to No. 5 in the D2SIDA Division II Media Poll. Seattle Pacific climbed four spots in both polls to No. 9 in the NABC Poll and No. 19 in the D2SIDA Poll. In the D2SIDA West Region Raknings, Western Oregon maintained it’s No. 1 spot and Seattle Pacific maintained it’s No. 4 spot. Alaska climbed one position to No. 9.

THE WEEK AHEAD: Eight of the league’s 11 teams will play in one counting contest before holiday break. Simon Fraser and Western Washington will play in the only GNAC contest of the week on Tuesday. It is the last conference game before the official return to the full GNAC schedule on New Year’s Eve. Western Oregon closes the week, hosting Willamette on Sunday. Montana State Billings and Alaska Anchorage will play exhibition games while Alaska will be out of action until their conference games at Saint Martin’s on Dec. 31.

GNAC BASKETBALL GAMES TO AIR ON ROOT SPORTS, AMERICAN SPORTS NETWORK: Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s and women’s basketball returns to ROOT SPORTS during the 2015-16 season, with a five-game telecast schedule set to open up Jan. 9 in a contest featuring defending regular season men’s conference champion Western Oregon playing host to Saint Martin’s.

In addition to the ROOT SPORTS schedule, the championship doubleheader of the GNAC’s postseason tournament on Sat., Mar. 5, will be carried live throughout the country as part of the Division II Basketball National Showcase on the American Sports Network. The men’s game tips off at 5:30 p.m. PST and will be followed by the women’s title game at 7:30 p.m. PST.

In all, the GNAC will be featured either regionally or nationally three times in January, twice in February and twice in March. The 2015-16 campaign marks the seventh consecutive season in which the GNAC will have a presence on ROOT SPORTS, the premier regional sports network in the Pacific Northwest, and the third consecutive year in which the conference has featured a “Game of the Week” series on the network.

“The GNAC is extremely pleased to continue our Game of the Week series on ROOT SPORTS,” said conference commissioner Dave Haglund. “This has been a successful and long-standing association and helps expose our great brand of basketball to fans in our conference footprint and beyond. And we are looking forward to featuring our conference tournament championship games on the DII basketball showcase and reaching an even wider audience for the GNAC.”

GNAC Men’s Basketball Games On ROOT SPORTS
Sat., Jan. 9: Saint Martin’s at Western Oregon, 9 p.m. (Pacific)
Sat., Jan. 23: Western Washington at Central Washington, 6 p.m. (Pacific)
Sat., Feb. 20: Montana State Billings at Seattle Pacific, 9 p.m. (Pacific)

GNAC PRESEASON POLL - WESTERN WASHINGTON PICKED TO WIN: For the second year in a row, Western Washington is picked as the team to beat by conference coaches in the annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll.

The Vikings received five of 11 first place votes and a total of 114 points, finishing just ahead of defending regular season champion Western Oregon. The Wolves netted four first place votes and a total of 106 points.

Seattle Pacific, who finished second in the conference last year and won the GNAC Tournament championship, is picked third with a total of 100 points. The Falcons received the remaining two first place votes.

After a successful start in their non-conference schedule, Western Washington stumbled to lose seven of their first 10 GNAC games. The Vikings rebounded to win eight straight to end the regular season, tying for fifth to claim a spot in the GNAC Tournament. The Vikings went on to beat Alaska Anchorage and Western Oregon to claim a spot in the tournament final, where they lost to Seattle Pacific. Western Washington finished the season with a 20-11 overall record.

PRESEASON ALL-GNAC TEAM, AVGI PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Western Oregon forward Andy Avgi, the defending GNAC Player of the Year, added another award to his preseason arsenal as he was selected by the league’s head coaches as the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year. The senior was a unanimous selection for the honor, receiving 10 first place votes in the balloting (coaches could not vote for their own players).

Avgi was one of eight unanimous selections to the squad and is the only player on the list to be selected for a third year in a row. Joining him as a repeat selection on the 15-man squad were Western Washington forward Jeffrey Parker, WWU guard Ricardo Maxwell, Alaska Anchorage guard Brian McGill and Alaska guard Joe Slocum.

Other unanimous selections to the team include Parker, Maxwell, McGill, Western Oregon guard Julian Nichols, Seattle Pacific forward Mitch Penner, Montana State Billings guard/forward Momir Gataric and Central Washington center Joseph Stroud.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS: The following GNAC players have been selected to all-tournament teams during the 2015-16 season:
GNAC/PacWest Crossover (Nov. 13-14, Fairbanks): Travante Williams, UAF (Most Valuable Player).
Seawolf Jamboree (Nov. 21-22, Anchorage): Sekou Wiggs, UAA (Most Outstanding Player); Bangaly Kaba, UAF; Travante Williams, UAF.
Sodexo Classic (Nov. 21-22, Seattle): Gary Jacobs, CWU (Most Valuable Player); Joseph Storud, CWU; Bryce Leavitt, SPU.
GCI Great Alaska Shootout (Nov. 25-27, Anchorage): Sekou Wiggs, UAA.
Oak Harbor Freight Lines Classic (Dec. 11-12, Seattle): Mitch Penner, SPU (Most Valuable Player); Gilles Dierickx, SPU; Preston Beverly, MSUB.

THIS WEEK'S GNAC MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Mitch Penner
Seattle Pacific
F • 6-5 • 215 • Sr. • Seattle, Wash.
Penner was named the Most Valuable Player of the Oak Harbor Freight Lines Classic by scoring 30 points and 11 rebounds in two games. He scored 14 points and had six rebounds in a 76-64 win over NAIA Northwest (Wash.) and then had 16 points and five rebounds in a 71-54 win over Azusa Pacific on Saturday. He made 18 of 23 free throws during the tournament.

Also Nominated: Preston Beverly (Montana State Billings), Bouna N’Diaye (Northwest Nazarene), Kadeem Strickland (Western Oregon).