OPENING TIP
• The Western Oregon University men's basketball team opens up the defense of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday, March 2 against Montana State Billings in the first quarterfinal matchup at 5:15 p.m. at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash.
• The Wolves are 16-12 overall and 13-7 in the GNAC and the tournament's No. 3 seed, while the Yellowjackets are 14-14, 9-11 and the No. 6 seed.
• WOU enters the postseason having gone 9-5 in their final 14 games after starting the season 7-7 in the first 14.
• Western Oregon went a combined 5-5 against the other five teams in the tournament field. They swept both games against Saint Martin's and were swept by the top-seed Western Washington. The Wolves split the season series with other three teams (Alaska Anchorage, Concordia, MSUB) winning in Monmouth and losing on the road.
• All GNAC Championship games will be streamed on GNAC.TV.
 
LAST TIME OUT: ENDING WEEK SPLIT
• Western Oregon split their final games of the regular season last week suffering a two-point loss (69-67) to Concordia on Feb. 22 before earning a Senior Day victory over Montana State Billings (72-56) last Saturday.
 • The Wolves could not hold onto a five-point lead early in the second half while having three good looks in the final seconds to tie or win the game at Concordia before falling to the tournament-bound Cavaliers. The game featured 17 ties and 17 lead changes.
• The Wolves had three players in double-figures, led by Tanner Omlid who finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four assists.
• Ali Faruq-Bey went for 16 points and JJ Chirnside added 12 points and four rebounds.
• Four players scored in double figures including one senior (Evan Garrison, 10 points) as the Wolves closed out their regular season schedule with a home victory over MSUB.
• Omlid finished two rebounds shy of a double-double with 17 points and eight rebounds while Faruq-Bey and Demetrius Trammell each added 11 points.
• WOU held MSUB to a season-low 31.5 percent shooting from the field.
 
ALL-GNAC: OMLID, FARUQ-BEY
Western Oregon junior forward Tanner Omlid has been named Defensive Player of the Year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and first-team All-GNAC honors, the league announced Tuesday afternoon. Omlid, who enters the GNAC Tournament this week as the league and national leader in steals (3.26), was named to the six-person first team for the first time in his career after garnering second-team distinctions as a sophomore. In addition, junior guard Ali Faruq-Bey has secured an All-GNAC honorable mention for the first time. Faruq-Bey ranks second on the team in scoring (14.8 ppg) and steals (1.6), the latter ranking fourth among all GNAC players.
 
HIGH (AND LOW) MARKS
• Western Oregon saw junior Tanner Omlid set the school and conference record with 11 steals during the first triple-double for the Wolves since Robert Day did so against Montana State Billings in 2003.
• WOU allowed just 51 points to Alaska on Jan. 21, matching the lowest output for an opponent in the Jim Shaw era (NDNU; Nov. 27, 2015) while setting a new low for the Wolves for a GNAC opponent (previously 52 at NNU; Jan. 2, 2016).
• With a 98-77 win over Central Washington on Dec. 29, the Wolves set a single-game scoring mark under head coach Jim Shaw. Previously, the 96-point overtime effort against Seattle Pacific (Jan. 7, 2016) was the team's highest scoring effort
• The Wolves shot 56.4 percent against Alaska Anchorage (31-55), the highest mark by any WOU team since Jan. 30, 2016 against Central Washington (57.9 percent, 33-57)
 
WOLVES: BY THE NUMBERS
• Head coach: Jim Shaw (Western Oregon, '85), Second season
• Team's leading scorer: #11 Tanner Omlid, 15.3 ppg; #22 Ali Faruq-Bey, 14.8 ppg
• Team's leading rebounder: #11 Omlid, 7.5 rpg; #44 JJ Chirnside, 4.8 rpg
• Team's assists leader: #11 Omlid, 3.6 apg; #2 Evan Garrison, 2.2 apg
• Team's steals leader: #11 Omlid, 3.2 spg; #22 Faruq-Bey, 1.6 spg
• Team's blocks leader: #44 Chirnside 1.7 bpg,  #11 Omlid, 1.6 bpg
 
ABOUT MONTANA STATE BILLINGS
Montana State Billings dropped both games last week to end the regular season, at Concordia and Western Oregon, but secured the sixth seed after Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene both lost on the final night of the regular season. The Yellowjackets are averaging 80 points per game and has been outscored opponents by a slim 0.1 ppg. A high-powered offense, MSUB shoots 43.3 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from behind the arc, where they are making 9.6 3-pointers a game on average. Sophomore Preston Beverly has become one of the GNAC's rising stars scoring 19.1 points per game while pulling down a team-high 8.3 rebounds. Marc Matthews (14.6) is also averaging double figures while Jace Anderson (9.6) is just below the double-digit threshold.
 
• Head coach: Jamie Stevens (MSUB, '99), 6th season
• Team's leading scorer: #1 Preston Beverly, 19.1 ppg
• Team's leading rebounder: #1 Beverly, 8.3 rpg
• Team's assists leader: #2 Kendall Denham, 2.9 apg
• Team's steals leader: #2 Denham, 1.1 spg
• Team's blocks leader: #1 Beverly, 1.8 bpg