Men's Basketball | 11/29/2012 9:42:00 PM

Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team erased a nine-point halftime deficit and rallied to defeat Northwest Nazarene, 92-84, in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener for both schools on Thursday night. The victory gave the Wolves their fifth-straight win as they improved to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in league play while the Crusaders fell to 3-3 on the season and 0-1 in conference action.

“I was really proud of the way our team responded in the second half after facing some adversity,” head coach Brady Bergeson said. “We came out of the break with a ton of energy and our ability to force some turnovers led to some easy baskets. It was a great win to start the conference season.”

The Wolves got off to a fast start as WOU scored the first six points of the contest; however, the Crusaders would use a 17-4 run midway through the first half to build a 32-19 lead with 6:30 remaining. WOU managed to cut the lead to single digits at the break as the Wolves used a 20-12 edge in points in the paint to remain within striking distance.

After NNU scored the first four points of the second half, the Wolves went on a 30-6 run over the next seven minutes to grab control of the game. During the game-deciding run, WOU hit four three-points as the Wolves would shoot an incredible 8-of-11 from behind the arc in the second half.

The Wolves pressure keyed the second-half run as WOU forced 13 turnovers over the final 20 minutes to end the game with a decided, 32-20 advantage in points off turnovers. Devon Alexander finished the night with eight steals, one off the school record of nine set by Matt Jones against Humboldt State in 1996.

Freshman forward Andy Avgi once again led the WOU attack as he was 8-of-15 from the floor and finished the contest with a game-high 24 points. Alexander added 20 points while Jordan Wiley finished with 14 as the Wolves shot 30-of-62 (48.4 percent) from the field.

The Wolves held NNU to 45.1 percent from the field (32-of-71) as Kenny Jones led the Crusaders attack with 23 points while shooting 9-of-19 from the field.

NNU managed to hold a 44-31 edge on the class; however, managed to score only nine points off of 18 offensive rebounds.

WOU will look to make it six wins in a row when the Wolves host Central Washington on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 2:00 p.m.