Men's Basketball | 12/1/2012 5:43:00 PM

Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team trailed for most of regulation; however, Jordan Wiley's three-pointer at the buzzer tied the contest as the Wolves eventually prevailed over Central Washington, 118-113, in triple overtime on Saturday afternoon. The marathon win gave WOU its sixth straight victory as the Wolves improve to 6-2 on the season, 2-0 in conference play, while CWU fell to 5-2 overall, 1-1 in league play with the loss.

“It was just one of those games where nobody deserved to lose,” head coach Brady Bergeson said. “We played our hearts out and just kept battling after falling behind early. It has been incredible to see the team grow over the first few weeks and they showed a lot of poise tonight to eventually get a fantastic win.”

After trailing for most of the game, it looked as if the Wolves' late rally would fall short as a pair of free throws by CWU's Mark McLaughlin would give the Wildcats an 87-83 with just 10 seconds remaining. Following the free throws, WOU's Devon Alexander raced down the court and heaved in a three-pointer with three seconds remaining to cut the lead to one at 87-86.

The Wolves would immediately foul on the inbounds play to send Dom Williams to the line for CWU with just 1.5 seconds left. The guard calmly knocked down a pair of free throws and WOU would need to go the length of the floor without any timeouts.

With the game on the line, WOU would perfectly execute the final play of regulation as the Wolves heaved the ball the length of court to find Andi Avgi at the top of the key. The forward tapped it over to Jordan Wiley on the wing as the freshman rose-up and calmly drained a three-pointer at the horn to tie the score at 89-89. The shot sent the bench and the home crowd into a frenzy as the Wolves would head into overtime looking for their sixth-straight win.

Neither team could find the winner after the first two overtimes as the Wolves and Wildcats would head into a third overtime period with the score tied at 105-105.

With WOU trailing 112-110 in the third extra period, the Wolves would explode on an 8-1 run to close out the game and end the second longest contest in school history, defeating the Wildcats 118-113. After Alexander's lay-in tied the score at 112-112, the Wolves would connect on six consecutive free throws over the final minute to claim the hard-fought victory.

Once again, Avgi would lead the WOU attack as the freshman scored a career-high 36 points to go along with 12 rebounds to give him his first double-double of his career. The Wolves top three scorers were freshman with Alexander scoring a career-high 28 points while Wiley added 20 on 5-of-9 from behind the three-point line.

The Wolves hoisted 91 shots during the contest, connecting on 44, as WOU shot 48.4 percent from the field while CWU went 39-of-82 from the floor (47.6 percent).

Mark McLaughlin led four CWU players in double figures with 33 points while Brandon Magee added 25 in a losing effort.

The Wolves frenetic defense played a key role in the victory, forcing 25 CWU turnovers to hold a decided, 27-19 advantage in points off of turnovers. Alexander forced five steals while Wiley and Drew Johnson each posted three for the Wolves.

WOU managed to overcome a 57-41 rebounding edge by Central Washington as the Wildcats' Nate Walker led all players with 19 boards. Tyler Funk was the Wolves second-leading rebounder with five boards as the newcomer dished out seven assists to lead all players.

The game was surpassed only by a four-overtime, 126-122 loss to Cal State Monterey Bay during the 2006-07 as the longest in school history.

WOU will step out of NCAA Division II play and will look to make it seven wins in a row when the Wolves travel to Logan, Utah, to face Utah State on Saturday, Sept. 8, at 6:00 p.m.