Men's Basketball | 1/19/2013 9:47:00 PM

Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team was in control from the start as the Wolves cruised to a 78-60 victory over Simon Fraser in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest on Saturday night. With the victory, WOU improves to 8-7 on the season, 3-4 in league play, while the Clan fall to 5-10 overall, 0-7 in conference action.

“I was really pleased with the effort the team gave tonight,” head coach Brady Bergeson said. “We emphasized rebounding and defense in practice all week and we really executed those two phases of the game tonight. It was a good win and an effort we can build on moving forward.”

WOU was in control from the start as the Wolves built a 16-6 lead midway through the first half. From there, WOU would go on a 24-12 run to close out the half to lead 42-18 as the Wolves built a 24-point edge at the break. The cushion would be all the Wolves would need as WOU went on to claim the 18-point victory.

The WOU defense was stifling throughout as the Wolves held Simon Fraser to 20 points below its season average as the Clan shot just 22-of-63 (34.9 percent) from the field. The Wolves limited one of the conference's leading  three-point shooting teams to just 8-of-27 from behind the arc and just 1-of-11 during the first half.

The Wolves were nearly as efficient on the offensive end as WOU finished the night 25-of-48 (52.1 percent) from the field and 5-of-12 from behind the three-point line. WOU had 11 players score in the win as Andy Avgi led the Wolves with 15 points on 5-of-6 from the field while Kolton Nelson came off the bench to score 12 points in just 14 minutes.

WOU also managed to dominate the glass as the Wolves out-rebounded the Clan, 38-28. James Gehring led the rebounding effort for WOU as he finished the night with eight rebounds and seven points.

Taylor Dunn, Anto Olah and Dillon Hamilton led the Clan with 11 points each.

The win broke a four-game losing skid for the Wolves as WOU will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 24, when the Wolves travel to Seattle, Wash., to take on Seattle Pacific at 7:00 p.m.