MONMOUTH, Ore. – A 9-0 run near the end of the first half along with a hot-shooting second half was what Western Oregon University's men's basketball team needed en route to earning its sixth straight win via an 87-66 victory over the University of Alaska-Anchorage in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play Saturday inside the New PE Building.

"Today's win feels good, as we took a big step forward," said Head Coach Brady Bergeson. "We are always looking for improvement each day that we take the floor and I think that we saw that tonight. Certainly, you enjoy the outcome when you get that. For us, it's really one step in front of the next and I thought that the first half was the best half of basketball that we've played all year. I thought that we did a solid job following it up with another solid half, as we did not let them come up for air and make a big run at us which was our primary goal to defuse their runs through out the game."

Junior guard Julian Nichols led Western Oregon (7-2, 2-0 GNAC) in scoring with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field that included a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the three-point line, while three other Wolves – senior Adam Hastings, junior Andy Avgi, and junior Devon Alexander – also scored in double figures with 16, 12, and 10 points, respectively. Avgi led WOU's rebounding effort that produced a 32-26 advantage on the boards with five rebounds, while Nichols and Alexander chipped in with four rebounds to go along with a seven-point, four-rebound night for junior Dezmond Dupree-Turner. Nichols handed out a game and season-high tying nine assists with Alexander also providing six assists. For the third time in the last four games, Nichols led the team in scoring.

In reference to Nichols and his performance as well as his role on the team, Bergeson said, "I think that he is one of the guys that we can go to to be a play-maker. He is not the only one. We try and make sure that the ball is hitting open hands and he is the guy that can find open hands. That is what we really liked about him during the recruiting process. He found open people, took pride in doing that, was really good at it, and is doing that for us. As a result, lanes have opened up for him, he has been able to score around the rim, and his jump shot started working for him tonight which is good to see. He was a triple-threat tonight and he can do that. If it's not him, we expect someone else to pick up the slack and we feel that we have enough weapons to do that."

For Alaska-Anchorage (3-5, 1-1 GNAC), Kalidou Diouf led the Seawolves with 16 points with Brian McGill, Derrick Fain, and Sjur Berg providing 14, 12, and 11 points, respectively. Diouf tied Avgi with a game-high tying five rebounds, while McGill handed out a team-best six assists for UAA.

The game would begin with Western Oregon jumping out to a 9-5 lead on a three-pointer by Nichols with 17:12 on the clock before UAA put together a 5-0 run over a span of 90 seconds to take a 10-9 lead at the first media timeout of the opening half. Both teams would battle back and forth over the next nine minutes, as Hastings connected on a driving lay-in to tie the score at 24-24 prior to the eight-minute media timeout. Following the break in action, Hastings converted on the three-point play that jumped started a 9-0 run by the Wolves over a span of two-plus minutes with Hastings providing all nine points and handed WOU a 33-24 lead with just under five minutes left in the first half. Alaska-Anchorage would get as close as seven points (33-26) before Western Oregon closed the half on a 9-4 run that resulted in a 42-30 lead at halftime.

Western Oregon began the second half by scoring the opening four points, as the Wolves slowly extended their lead to 19 points (58-39) on a lay-in by senior Marwan Sarhan with 14:17 remaining. The Seawolves would creep back within 12 points (60-48) with 12:22 on the clock only to watch Western Oregon score six unanswered points to push the lead to 66-48 on a lay-in by Dupree-Turner with just under 11 minutes left. Over the next eight minutes, Western Oregon extended its lead to a game-high 24 points (87-63) via a 21-15 run that concluded on a three-pointer by freshman Nick Nestell with 2:39 on the clock. Neither team would score again until the final 13 seconds when McGill capped his 14-point second half performance with a three-pointer for the final margin of 21 points (87-66).

As a team, Western Oregon combined to shoot 31-for-57 (54.4%) from the field that included a 15-for-24 (62.5%) performance in the second half.

When asked about the second half shooting performance, Bergeson said, "I do not think that there was a difference between the two halves, as I thought that we just built on what we did in the first half. We did a tremendous job in the first half taking care of the basketball and we did a good job in the second half. That has been one of our markers all year long, as every day out is ball security and taking care of the basketball. That was pretty steady. Our game plan did not change half-to-half, as we were just making sure that we entered the second half with the same mentality that we had in the first half. Those were our goals and I thought that we hit our goals."

The Wolves were also a combined 10-of-21 (47.6%) from beyond the three-point line and 15-of-19 (78.9%) at the free throw line. For Alaska-Anchorage, the Seawolves were a combined 23-for-53 (43.4%) from the field, 7-of-23 (30.4%) from long distance, and 13-of-14 (92.9%) at the charity stripe. UAA began the game a perfect 4-for-4 before closing out the game 19-for-49 from the field.

When asked about Western Oregon's defense holding UAA's leading scorer Brian McGill to no points in the first half, Bergeson said, "He is an all-conference type of player and makes them go in a lot of ways. We had a lot of attention on him. It hurt them that Travis Thompson was not in uniform out with an injury, but that is part of the game. I thought that we did a good job on McGill certainly in the first half, as he got loose a few times in the second half. Overall, I thought that we were able to take the ball out of his hands just enough and cut off some of his avenues for making plays that did not allow him to get into a rhythm. That was the focus for us."

Western Oregon will return to action one week from today – Saturday, December 13 – when the Wolves begin a three-game non-conference home stand against the Charger of Camosun University (B.C.) in an 11 a.m. tip off inside the New PE Building in Monmouth.

When the next few weeks, Bergeson responded by saying, "Like I said earlier, our goal each day is to take the floor and really push ourselves to be the best team that we can be. We now have three non-Division II, non-league games coming up for us over the next few weeks and will be afforded a little more practice time that we have had the last month. We are hoping that we can be focuses in the practice gym and continue to refine, chip away, and get better each day. The games will be measurements of where we are at on the week, but our focus will be on growth."