NAMPA, Idaho – Sophomore guard Alex Roth led five players in double figures with 16 points, and the Western Oregon men's basketball team outscored host Northwest Nazarene by a 41-26 count in the second half of its 75-53 victory in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup on Saturday night at the Johnson Sports Center.
 
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Wolves, who were ranked third in the NABC national poll this week. WOU is now 10-2 overall and 3-1 in GNAC play. Northwest Nazarene suffered it second consecutive loss at home and fell to 4-6 overall, 0-4 in the GNAC.
 
Roth made six shots from the floor, four coming behind the 3-point arc, in leading the Wolves to their 27^th win in the all-time meeting between the two schools. Senior guard Julian Nichols scored 13 points while WOU got 12-point efforts from senior guard Jordan Wiley and sophomore forward Tanner Omlid, who made his first start of the season. Rounding out the leading scorers for Western Oregon was senior forward Andy Avgi with 11 points and seven rebounds.
 
Western Oregon held Northwest Nazarene to its second lowest scoring effort of the year, and kept the Crusaders to just 29.2 percent shooting in the second half. It also marked the best defensive effort by a WOU squad this season, since they held Concordia to 59 points in the GNAC opener on Dec. 1.
 
The Wolves led for 30 minutes, 10 second in Saturday's contest, but didn't take control of the contest until the second half. They led 34-27 at halftime, taking their largest first-half lead on a lay-up by junior guard Janvier Alaby with 24 seconds before the horn.

An early string of 3-point makes from Wiley extended the lead to 15 points, 45-30, at the 17:51 mark of the period. The Crusaders sliced the lead down to eight, but the Wolves made four straight shots from downtown – two from Roth, one each from Nichols and Omlid – putting the margin at 20 points, 59-39. A late jump shot from senior guard Jordan Schriber set the largest lead at 24 points before a pair of foul shots set the final margin of victory.
 
Western Oregon shot 47.6 percent from the floor and flexed their muscle with a 34-28 advantage on the glass. Despite being outscored by seven at the free-throw line, the Wolves did connect on 75 percent from the stripe.

Northwest Nazarene was led by the 10 points of starting forward Joel Devastey. Bouna N'Diaye, NNU's leading scorer heading into the game, had eight point and six rebounds.

Western Oregon will host Seattle Pacific in the New P.E. Building on Thursday night (Jan. 7) at 7 p.m.