STORYLINES
•   The Western Oregon men's basketball team is set to travel to the southwest corner of the Beehive State to play in the Dixie State/Wingate Thanksgiving Classic at the Burns Arena. The Wolves will tip-off against Westminster College on Friday, Nov. 25 at 5 p.m. Mountain and face host Dixie State on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Mountain.
•   Friday's meeting with the Griffins will be the first-ever meeting between the schools on the hardwood. Westminster is in its second year of NCAA play and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
•   Saturday's game against Dixie State will be the fourth all-time. WOU holds a 2-1 advantage overall and won the lone meeting in St. George back in 2014. The Trailblazers are current members of the Pacific West Conference but will move to the RMAC for the 2018-19 season in all sports.
•   Both games in St. George will have free live stats, but video of the games will have a fee.
 
LAST TIME OUT
•   Western Oregon hosted the 2016 WOU/Doubletree by Hilton D2 Shootout with regional matchups with San Francisco State and UC San Diego of the CCAA.
•   The Wolves came back in the final moments of regulation to send Friday's game against San Francisco State to overtime. Both teams had chances to win in a pair of overtime periods before the Gators pulled out a 99-93 win.
•   Western Oregon had 21 turnovers and San Francisco State turned those into 24 points.
•   Ali Faruq-Bey had a WOU-high 21 points and eight rebounds for the Wolves in front of a rowdy crowd of 1,115.
•   On Saturday, the Tritons of UC San Diego exacted some revenge for two losses to WOU last year with a 75-63 win on Saturday night.
•   The Wolves shot 34.5 percent in the first half (10-29), but bounced back to hit 11 of 22 shots (50 percent) in the second half, but could not come back against the talented Tritons.
•   Yanick Kulich led the Wolves with 19 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the field against UCSD.
•   The WOU bench, led by Kulich, outscored the UCSD bench, 40-25.
 
ABOUT WESTERN OREGON
• Western Oregon is averaging 76.2 points per game on the season and owns a scoring margin of +3.8.
• The Wolves are shooting 40.5 percent from the field, including 33.1 percent from 3-point range.
• WOU is averaging 12.8 free throws a game and is shooting 68.0 percent from the stripe this season.
• Western Oregon is averaging 37.5 rebounds per game, but has faced a -2.5 rebound margin in 2016-17.
• Western Oregon is averaging 14.0 assists, 13.3 turnovers, 9.3 steals and 3.3 blocks per game.
• Ali Faruq-Bey enters this weekend leading the Wolves in scoring averaging 14.8 points per game.
• Faruq-Bey is also averaging 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
• Tanner Omlid is the only other WOU player averaging in double figures at 10.8 points per game. He has the only two double-doubles posted for Western Oregon this season.
• Seven players in all average 5.5 points or more a game.
• Head coach Jim Shaw is in his second season at Western Oregon. Shaw was the 2015-16 GNAC and NABC West Region Coach of the Year. His previous assistant coaching stops include Saint Mary's, Washington, Oklahoma, Portland, Montana State, Southern Utah, Oregon State, Chemeketa and Idaho State.
• New faces appear on Shaw's bench with the addition of Gage Aker, Zach Payne and Jalen James to the coaching staff. Josh Reber is the only assistant coach to carry over from the 2015-16 staff.
• Western Oregon was picked to finish sixth in the 2016-17 GNAC regular season title race by the league's coaches.
 
ABOUT WESTMINSTER
• Westminster has played three non-counting games so far on the season and will officially play their first regular season game against the Wolves.
• The Griffins picked up wins against California Miramar (102-61), Eastern Oregon (87-84) and Bristol (76-66) at the 2016 Griffin Classic.
• Westminster went 14-12 last season, 10-12 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
• Westminster has three returning starters for this year's team: Marcus Bryce, Casey Evans, Zerrion Payton.
• Westminster is coached by Norm Parrish who is in his second season.
 
ABOUT DIXIE STATE
• Dixie State enters their first homestand with a 1-3 record on the season.
• The Trailblazers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 74-72 overtime win at Seattle Pacific on Nov. 19. DSU has played top West Region teams so far with close losses to UC San Diego, Cal Poly Pomona and Central Washington.
• Dixie State enters the weekend averaging 74.5 points per game while allowing 78.8 ppg.
• DSU has shot 38.8 percent from the field, including 27.7 percent from behind the 3-point line,
• Dixie State is averaging 19.5 made free throws per game and is shooting 67.2 percent from the stripe.
• The Trailblazers are averaging 44.5 rebounds, 11.3 assists and 14.3 turnovers per game.
• Jon Judkins is in his 12^th season as head coach at Dixie State and is a five-time Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year award winner.