Saturday, March 5, 2016

LACEY, Wash. – The championship ride for Western Oregon continues as the No. 1 seeded Wolves brushed off a rusty start to claim the GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships title with a 78-71 win over No. 2 seed Alaska Saturday at Saint Martin’s University’s Marcus Pavilion.

After trailing 6-0 to open the contest, the Wolves tightened up and proceeded to turn the game in a close one. Trailing 34-31 at the half, the Wolves turned up the heat by shooting 61.9 percent in the final 20 minutes and 57.1 percent from three-point range.

Senior guard Devon Alexander was named the GNAC Championships Most Valuable Player after leading the Wolves with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five assists. Jordan Wiley tied Alexander in the scoring column with 16 points. Alex Roth scored 14 points and GNAC Player of the Year Andy Avgi finished with 12. The Wolves finished the game shooting 49.1 percent from the floor (27-55), 46.2 percent from three-point range (12-26) and 12 of 15 from the free throw line.

Alaska First Team All-GNAC senior forward Travante Williams led all scorers with 23 pointers, connecting on 9 of 17 from the field. Bangaly Kaba added 19 points, Joe Slocum scored 13 and Brandon Davis finished with 10. The Nanooks finished the night shooting 53.7 percent from the field (29-54) and 50 percent from three-point range (8-16).

With the win, Western Oregon (27-3 overall) is awarded the GNAC’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament. The No. 1 ranked team in the West Region, the Wolves will find out tomorrow if they will earn the right to host the west regional next weekend. Alaska (22-8) will wait to see if they will be among the at-large qualifiers to the tournament. The NCAA Selection Show will air at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific) on NCAA.com.

Knowing a potential NCAA Tournament berth was on the live, the Nanooks came out playing to win and jumped out to a 6-0 lead on Kaba’s lay-in 90 seconds in. Western Oregon pulled right back into it, coming with 8-6 on Janvier Alaby’s lay-in at the 16:49 mark, only to watch the Nanooks go back up seven on Davis’ lay-in with 14:14 to go.

After Alexander’s three-pointer brought the Wolves back within at 13-12, the truly back-and-forth game that has been the hallmark of the tournament developed. Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the half and the Wolves took their first lead of the game, 26-25, on Jordan Wiley’s three-pointer with 4:52 left. Back-to-back threes by Williams and Davis put Alaska right back up by five and they took a 34-31 lead into halftime.

Things continued to stay close in the second half, with four ties and 16 lead changes over the first 16 minutes of the stanza. Neither team led by more than four points until Avgi’s lay-in with 4:20 left sparked a 7-1 run over the next two minutes, which culminated on Alex Roth’s three-pointer with 2:32 left that put the Wolves ahead 69-62. The teams proceeded to trade three-pointers for the next minute, which allowed Alaska to challenge at 75-71 when Slocum connected from long-range with 27 seconds left. The Nanooks quick fouled on the next possession and Wiley converted two free throws to return the lead to six with 21 seconds to go. Alaska could not convert on their trip down the floor, locking the win for the Wolves.