Men's Basketball | 11/16/2012 9:44:00 PM

Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team used a suffocating defense to force 17 turnovers as the Wolves cruised to a 73-51 victory over Notre Dame de Namur on Friday night. With the victory, WOU improves to 1-2 on the season while the Argonauts fall to 0-2 with the loss.

“We're getting better every day and I was really proud of the effort tonight,” head coach Brady Bergeson said. “I thought we did a great job of executing what we talked about in practice and we were able to make them uncomfortable when they had the ball.”

WOU converted the 17 Argonaut turnovers into 26 points as the Wolves held a 16-point edge over NDNU in points off turnovers. The defensive effort keyed a 16-4 run in the first half that gave the Wolves a 27-15 lead with 6:44 remaining.

NDNU would only manage to get the WOU lead within nine points the rest of the way as the Wolves built a lead of 23 points en route to the 22-point victory.

Jordan Wiley led three WOU players with 15 points while Devon Alexander added 13 points and Rodney Webster had 11 as the Wolves shot 28-of-61 (45.9 percent) from the floor for the contest. Nathaniel Carter had a solid all-round contest as the guard scored eight points while leading the team with four assists and six steals.

Wiley connected on four three pointers on the night as WOU shot 10-of-29 (34.5 percent) from behind the arc.

Defensively, WOU limited the Argonauts to just 18-of-51 (35.3 percent) from the floor as NDNU shot just 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from behind the arc. Steven Palmer led NDNU with 12 points as he was the only Argonaut in double figures.

NDNU held a slight, 34-33, edge on the boards as Andy Avgi led WOU on the glass with seven rebounds, six offensive, to go along with nine points.

WOU will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 17, as the Wolves host Emporia State in the finale of the Phoenix Inn D2 Shootout at 7:30 p.m.