Men's Basketball | 1/17/2012 2:13:00 PM

MEN'S BASKETBALL - ALASKA ANCHORAGE AT WESTERN OREGON
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2011 – 7:00 p.m. – Monmouth, Ore.

TICKETS: https://www.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?w=64842a3d315b28c4909efccca718a02e&t=tix
LIVE VIDEO: www.pennatlantic.com
LIVE STATS: http://athletics.wou.edu/live/xlive.htm

MEN'S BASKETBALL - ALASKA FAIRBANKS AT WESTERN OREGON
Saturday, Jan. 21st, 2011 – 2:00 p.m. – Monmouth, Ore.

TICKETS: https://www.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?w=64842a3d315b28c4909efccca718a02e&t=tix
LIVE VIDEO: www.pennatlantic.com
LIVE STATS: http://athletics.wou.edu/live/xlive.htm

This Week:
The Western Oregon men's basketball team welcomes in two Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents from Alaska. They will match up against Alaska Anchorage on Thursday, Jan. 19th at 7:00 p.m., and then see action against Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday, Jan. 21st at 2:00 p.m.

Wolves Stay In First:
Despite losing their first GNAC game of the season, 74-65 to Saint Martin's on Saturday, the Wolves remained tied for first place with Western Washington atop the GNAC standings with a 6-1 record (13-3 overall). The 6-1 start for WOU in GNAC play is still their best start in conference history.

GNAC Player Rankings:
James Gehring remained in second in the GNAC with .600 field goal percentage. Kolton Nelson is ninth with a .530 fg%. Blair Wheadon and Kyle Long remained at fifth and sixth in steals in the GNAC with 33 and 28, respectively. Wheadon also ranks third with a .845 free throw percentage.

WOU Lose a Tough One For Their First GNAC Loss:
Western Oregon had what they do best turned against them on Saturday against the Saint Martin's as the Saints closed the game on a 27-7 run to earn a 74-65 win in Monmouth. Jeremy Green had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Saints.

WOU led most of the opening half and took a 37-30 lead into halftime. The Wolves would extend its lead to as many as 12 in the second period, however, a scoring drought would prove to be the Western Oregon's downfall. After Long hit a jumper for WOU with 9:08 left, the Wolves went cold and would not hit another bucket for over eight minutes.

Meanwhile, the Saints fought back and tied the game at 60-60 on a 3-pointer by Will Bond. Green would follow up with a layup and foul shot, and Bond would add in a 3-pointer to increase the Saints lead to six. They would hit 6-of-7 free throws in the final 45 seconds to preserve the win.

A Look at the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves:
Tipoff: 7:00 p.m.
Overall Record: 11-4, 5-2 GNAC (fourth place)
Last Five: 3-2

Alaska Anchorage heads to the New P.E. building coming off a two game split at home.  They beat Simon Fraser 86-81 on Thursday, Jan. 12th and then loss to Western Washington, 73-68, on Saturday.

Taylor Rohde leads the Seawolves with 21.1 ppg, a .613 field goal percentage and 8.6 rebounds per game.

Last season Alaska Anchorage swept Western Oregon with a 79-59 win in Anchorage and a 88-83 win in Monmouth.

The Seawolves lead 14-12 all-time against the Wolves.

A Look at Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks
Tipoff: 2:00 p.m.
Overall Record: 4-13 overall, 1-6 GNAC (T-9th place)
Last Five: 1-4

Alaska Fairbanks comes to Monmouth looking for a win. Their last win came against Central Washington on Dec. 31st, when they won 91-80 in overtime. The Nanooks will see action against Saint Martin's on Thursday (Jan. 19th) before they meet up with the Wolves.

Stefan Tica leads the team with 14.9 ppg and Nico Matthews is averaging 6.2 rebounds per game. Daniel Shaw also leads the Nanooks with a .563 field goal percentage.

WOU swept the season series from UAF last year winning 89-85 in Fairbanks and 87-70 at home. Alaska Fairbanks leads the Wolves in the all-time series with a record of 15-11.

Other Notes:
Saturday was the first time the Wolves have lost when Blair Wheadon scored 20 or more points… Long currently stands at 966 career points, only 34 points away from 1,000…Jordan Freelander ranks ninth in the GNAC with 27 steals (1.7 avg./g.)…Wheadon ranks fourth with a .464 3-point field percentage…Kolton Nelson is tied for seventh with Emery Henning from MSUB with 16 steals (1.1 avg./g.) and ranked 10th with 30 offensive rebounds.