MONMOUTH, Ore. – Western Oregon University's No. 15-ranked men's basketball team was upset by Western Washington University, 73-50, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play Thursday inside the New PE Building.

Despite the loss, Western Oregon (21-4, 13-2 GNAC) clinched at least a share of the regular season GNAC title. With three games remaining in the regular season, the Wolves hold a three-game lead over a trio of teams – Seattle Pacific, Central Washington, and Alaska Anchorage – that sit in second place with identical 10-5 conference records following UAA's loss to CWU earlier tonight in Ellensburg, Washington.

WOU has already clinched a first-round bye in the upcoming GNAC Tournament that will be played March 5-7 in Billings, Montana and will enter as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed pending the results of the Wolves' final three games of the regular season.

Western Oregon had only two players score in double figures with juniors Julian Nichols and Devon Alexander providing 13 and 12 points, respectively. Senior Marwan Sarhan, senior Lewis Thomas, and junior Jordan Wiley added seven, six, and six points, respectively, as the Wolves were without leading scorer junior Andy Avgi due to a medical condition. On the boards, Thomas led WOU with six rebounds, while Thomas, Nichols, and Wiley handed out a team-best two assists each.

"The team did a really good job of fighting until the end, and it's hard to continue to fight when you can't put the ball in the net," said Head Coach Brady Bergeson. "The story of the game was simple. The second half, we missed a lot of good looks. Not every shot was a great shot, but the vast majority of them were very good shots and the same shots we should take every single time. Tonight, we missed them. You can't punish anyone for that. We're going to have to move on quickly."

Jeffrey Parker helped Western Washington (16-10, 9-7 GNAC) capture the sixth and final spot in the GNAC Tournament with a game-high 18 points that included 16 in the first half, as the Vikings extended their winning streak to a conference-high six-in-a-row. Three other Vikings – Ricardo Maxwell, Anye Turner, and Mac Johnson – also scored in double figures with 16, 15, and 11 points, respectively. Turner and Johnson also registered a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds each, while Harris Javier handed out a game-high four assists for WWU.

The opening five minutes of the game would be a back-and-forth battle, as neither team secured more than a two-point lead until Western Washington broke a 10-10 tie with a 4-0 run to pull ahead 14-10 on a jumper by Turner with 14:07 on the clock. Western Oregon would battle back to tie the game for the fifth time at 25-25 before WWU used a 13-5 run over a span of six minutes to pull ahead 38-30 on a three-pointer by Maxwell with 2:32 left. Over the final two-and-a-half minutes, Western Oregon would close the gap to two points (38-36) on a half-court, buzzer-beating three-pointer by Alexander to pull the Wolves within a single basket at halftime.

When asked about his halftime speech, Coach Bergeson said, "We were just talking about some small adjustments we needed to do. I thought we came out and took care of most of those things. The one thing we weren't happy about at halftime was we felt we got beat to loose balls in the first half. The 50/50 balls didn't go our way, and that was a problem. We fought, and we won a few more of those battles in the second half. But again, when it's all said and done, the story is written. It was missing open shots. That's the way it goes sometimes."

In the second half, Western Oregon erased a pair of four-point leads for Western Washington and tied the game for the sixth and final time at 44-44 on a jumper in the paint by Nichols with 15:53 left in the game. Over the next eight minutes, Western Washington used a 16-0 run to pull ahead 60-44 on a lay-in by Maxwell with 7:36 remaining. Nichols would hault WWU's run with a jumper in the paint to pull within 14 points (60-46), but it was too little, too late as the visiting Vikings used a game-closing 13-4 run en route to securing a 73-50 victory that snapped WOU's 11-game winning streak.

As a team, Western Oregon was a combined 21-for-65 (32.3%) from the field, including 6-of-32 (18.8%) in the second half, as the Wolves connected on 3-of-18 (16.7%) three-pointers and 5-of-8 (62.5%) at the free throw line. Western Washington, on the other hand, combined to shoot 30-for-58 (51.7%) from the field that included 16-for-30 (53.3%) in the first half. The Vikings were also 7-of-17 (41.2%) from beyond the three-point line and 6-of-9 (66.7%) at the free throw line.

Western Oregon will close out the home portion of its schedule on Saturday, February 21, against Simon Fraser University beginning at 4 PM inside the New PE Building in Monmouth. Prior to the start of the game, the Wolves will honor four seniors and thank them for the hard work and dedication to the program during their career donning the Red & White.