BILLINGS, Mont. – In the semifinals of Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Basketball Championships hosted by Montana State Billings, Western Oregon University's nationally-ranked men's basketball team could not overcome a a pair of double-digit runs in each half as the Wolves fell to Western Washington University, 88-79, Friday inside Alterowitz Gymnasium.

"I couldn't be more proud of the effort put forth tonight," said Head Coach Brady Bergeson. "Our kids competed like champions for 40 minutes. We simply ran into a team that made a lot of shots. We dug ourselves a hole early and couldn't string enough stops together to climb out."

Despite a game-high 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field by junior Andy Avgi, Western Oregon (23-6) could not stop the hottest team in the conference as Western Washington extended its winning streak to 10 straight games. Avgi was aided offensively by three other Wolves – juniors Julian Nichols, Devon Alexander, and Jordan Wiley – in double figures with 15, 14, and 13 points, respectively, while Avgi led WOU with six rebounds to go along with a team-high five assists by Nichols.

Western Washington (20-10), who advances to its third straight GNAC Championship final, had five players score in double figures led by Jeffrey Parker with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, while Joey Schreiber, Ricardo Maxwell, Mac Johnson, and Kyle Impero added 15, 14, 12, and 12 points, respectively. On the boards, Johnson and Impero led all players with a game-high eight rebounds each with Johnson also handing out a game-high eight assists.

Over the opening three minutes, Western Oregon jumped out to a slim one-point lead (7-6) before Western Washington used a 21-10 run en route to earning a 27-17 lead on a three-pointer by Mark Hopkins with 10:20 left on the clock. The home Wolves would pull within six points (29-23) via a 6-2 run over a span of four minutes, as a dunk by senior Lewis Thomas with 6:41 left would be as close as WOU would get over the final six-plus minutes of the first half. Western Washington would increase its lead to 12 points twice over the next two minutes, as Parker connected on a lay-in with 4:11 remaining to increase the Vikings' lead to 37-27. WWU would settle for a nine-point cushion (41-32) at halftime, as Nichols scored the final points of the first half via a lay-in that cut Western Oregon's deficit to single digits with 20 minutes left in the game.

The second half would begin with Western Oregon scoring four unanswered points to pull within five points (41-36) on a free throw by Nichols a mere 54 seconds into the final period. Unfortunately, Western Washington would score four of the next five points to increase its lead back to double digits (48-37) ono a lay-in by Maxwell with 17:40 left. Seven minutes later, Western Oregon would get back within single digits (56-50) on a lay-in by senior Marwan Sarhan with just over 11 minutes left before Western Washington used a 21-11 run over the next eight minutes to grab its largest lead of the night (77-61) on a three-pointer by Schreiber with 3:32 left in the game. Western Oregon could not cut the Vikings' lead to single digits until the game's final 22 seconds, as Nichols hit a driving lay-in to get within 85-76. Unfortunately, timely free throw shooting by WWU down the stretch would help the Vikings earn the 88-79 victory that propelled them into tomorrow night's championship game against No. 2 seed Seattle Pacific.

As a team, Western Oregon combined to shoot 31-for-63 (49.2%) from the field that included a 56.7% (17-for-30) clip in the second half. The Wolves were also a combined 7-for-16 (43.8%) from beyond the three-point line and 10-of-15 (66.7%) at the free throw line. Western Washington, on the other hand, was a combined 33-for-54 (61.1%) from the field, 8-of-18 (44.4%) from long distance, and 14-for-19 (73.7%) at the charity stripe.

Western Oregon, who is ranked seventh in the final NCAA Division II West Region rankings, will have to wait and see how the PacWest and CCAA Tournaments unfold before learning if the Wolves will advance to the program's first-ever NCAA Division II National Tournament that begins with regional play next week – March 13-15 – at a site still to be determined.

When asked about his team's chances of qualifying for next week's regional bracket of the national tournament, Coach Bergeson said, "I believe that we are a NCAA tournament team. We were 20-6 in Division II games, including 5-2 in the region with three 'true' road wins. We have no bad losses and won our conference by two games. Unfortunately, the decision is now in the hands of the committee."

NOTE: The NCAA Division II Selection Show will air on-line at ncaa.com on Sunday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific Time), as the Wolves will learn their fate along with the rest of the country.