MONMOUTH, Ore.—Winners of eight straight games, the No. 9-ranked Western Oregon University men's basketball team will host a pair of GNAC foes this week with Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene making the trip to Monmouth.
As part of a WOU basketball doubleheader following the women's game against MSU Billings (5:15 pm), opening tip for the men's game against the Wildcats is set for 7:30 p.m. Start time for Saturday's battle with NNU is 4 p.m.
ABOUT CENTRAL WASHINGTON (8-7, 3-5 GNAC): The Wildcats have dropped three of their last four games after closing out 2017 with four straight wins... CWU stunned Alaska Anchorage in overtime, 72-71, at home on Jan. 11 but fell to Alaska Fairbanks, 86-83, two days later... CWU is ranked No. 7 in the GNAC by averaging 78.5 points per game and No. 6 defensively at 74.0 points allowed... The Wildcats lead the GNAC with 12.6 offensive rebounds per game... Ranked No. 10 in the GNAC, Khalil Shabazz leads the team with 14.5 points per game and is followed by Jawan Stepney (10.8 ppg) and Fuquan Niles (10.1 ppg)... Niles adds a team-leading 8.0 rebounds per game, good for No. 3 in the GNAC and tops the GNAC with 2.5 blocks per game... Shabazz holds the GNAC's best steal rate at 2.5 swipes per game.
ABOUT NORTHWEST NAZARENE (8-6, 4-4 GNAC): The Nighthawks have alternated wins and losses over their last four matchups with a 79-78 overtime win at home against Alaska Anchorage last Saturday... The Nighthawks have the GNAC's fourth-ranked offense at 82.4 points per game but are ranked last (11th) on defense by allowing 80.9 points per outing... Maurice Jones and Obi Megwa form the GNAC's highest scoring duo with a combined 39.3 points per game... Jones is ranked No. 1 in the GNAC at 19.4 points per game while Megwa is positioned one slot down with a 19.3 scoring average... Concordia's duo of Jarrett Gray (16.6 ppg) and Christopher Edward (16.1 ppg) is the next closest pair at 32.7 points per game combined... Adding Jayden Bezzant (14.3 ppg) and Khalil Thompson (14.1 ppg), the quartet has scored 73 percent (844-of-1153) of the team's points this season... Jones is second in the conference with 9.8 rebounds per game.
ABOUT WESTERN OREGON (15-1, 7-1 GNAC): The Wolves were picked to place second in the GNAC in the preseason poll after a third-place result a year ago… The Wolves lead the GNAC by scoring 85.9 points per game and top the league with a +17.4 scoring margin... WOU holds the league's top field goal percentage (.522) and 3-point percentage (.405) but are ranked 10th at the free throw line (.660)… Seven different players have led the team in scoring for a game this season with
Demetrius Trammell leading the way with five occurrences… Three players average at least 10 points per game with Omlid tops at 12.7 points per game and Trammell (11.4 ppg) and Vince Boumann (11.0 ppg) close behind...
Riley Hawken (9.5 ppg),
Ali Faruq-Bey (9.5 ppg) and Malik Morgan (8.4 ppg) provide additional offense for the Wolves.
NCAA DII STATS RANKINGS: The Wolves are ranked in NCAA DII's top 20 in several team categories, including steals per game (6th, 10.1), scoring margin (9th, +17.4) and field-goal percentage (5th, 52.2%).
NCAA DII RANKINGS: With eight straight wins, Western Oregon continued its climb up the NABC Division II rankings… The Wolves tallied a season-high 275 points for a No. 9 ranking in the national poll and carry the GNAC's highest ranking for the seventh week... WWU was ranked No. 22 in the preseason national poll as the only other GNAC program to enter the top 25 so far this season.
|
|
NABC NCAA D-II RANKINGS |
|
Date |
Ranking |
Points |
|
1/16 |
#9 |
275 |
|
1/9 |
#10 |
253 |
|
12/26 |
#14 |
194 |
|
12/12 |
#16 |
150 |
|
12/5 |
#19 |
91 |
|
11/28 |
#13 |
216 |
|
11/21 |
#15 |
131 |
|
Pre. |
RV |
2 |
|
|
. |
|
D2SIDA WEST REGION RANKINGS |
|
Date |
WOU |
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
|
1/15 |
#1 |
Western Ore. |
Western Wash. |
Cal Baptist |
|
1/8 |
#1 |
Western Ore. |
Poly Pomona |
Cal Baptist |
|
12/18 |
#2 |
Chico State |
Western Ore. |
Cal Baptist |
|
12/11 |
#3 |
Poly Pomona |
Chico State |
Western Ore. |
|
12/4 |
#4 |
Poly Pomona |
Concordia (CA) |
Chico State |
|
11/27 |
#1 |
Western Ore. |
Cal Baptist |
Chico State |
|
11/20 |
#2 |
Cal Baptist |
Western Ore. |
Chico State |
|
11/13 |
#2 |
Cal Baptist |
Western Ore. |
Chico State |
|
Pre. |
#7 |
Cal Baptist |
Chico State |
Western Wash. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
OMLID RECORDS 5X5 GAME: Scoring 25 points and notching at least five rebounds, assists, steals and blocks,
Tanner Omlid led WOU to a 100-57 win over Portland Bible College on Dec. 7… Omlid ended the night with 11 rebounds, seven blocks, five steals and five assists... His block total eclipsed his previous career high of five set against Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 28, 2016… By comparison, only three NBA players—Hakeem Olajuwon, Derrick Coleman and Draymond Green—have ever scored at least 20 points and added 10 rebounds, five assists, five rebounds and five blocks in a single game... Olajuwon accomplished the feat on five occasions in his 17-year career.
OMLID IN NCAA DII RANKINGS: Senior forward
Tanner Omlid is represented inside the NCAA DII individual top-25 statistical rankings in total steals (No. 15, 37 steals) and total blocks (No. 20, 34 blocks)… Omlid is ranked 22nd in the country with 2.31 steals per game and No. 21 with 2.23 blocks per game.
OMLID CAREER WOU RANKS: Senior
Tanner Omlid is climbing several WOU DII-era career lists... Omlid entered the top-10 in career scoring and topped 1,000 career points this season... He has 1,033 career points with Sean Kelly (1,128) next on the list... Omlid is third in total rebounds with 533 career caroms… Andy Avgi (596) and Robert Day (546) hold the top two DII-era rebounding marks… Omlid is No. 8 with 200 career assists and No. 3 in steals with 206 swipes… Devon Alexander (2012-16) holds the school's DII record with 220 career steals… Omlid is already WOU's DII-era career record holder with 106 blocks.
FAST STARTS: The Wolves' 7-0 record to start the season was the second best start of WOU's NCAA DII-era (since 2000) while also representing the fourth best start for the program since 1950… The 1981-82 team started the season with a school record 22 straight wins while the 2015-16 team holds the DII-era record with an 11-0 start.
GNAC TEAM OF THE WEEK: After traveling to Texas to defeat Tarleton State and returning to hand Alaska Anchorage its first conference loss, WOU was named the GNAC Team of the Week on Dec. 18... The Wolves limited Alaska Anchorage to 27.5 percent shooting from the field and 19 percent from three-point range.
DII SHOOTOUT RECAP: Hosting a four-team tournament for the second straight week, WOU moved to 4-0 on the season with a 99-87 win over Azusa Pacific followed by a 97-86 victory against Dixie State... WOU was the lone team to go 2-0 in the tournament with Eastern New Mexico the fourth team involved.
GNAC/PACWEST CHALLENGE RECAP: The Wolves escaped with a 70-69 win over Point Loma in the season opener and came back to trounce Fresno Pacific, 123-67, in the tournament finale… Six different players scored at least 10 points for the Wolves against FPU with
Demetrius Trammell notching a game-high 26 points after connecting on 8-of-9 from 3-point range.
PRESEASON GNAC POY: Returning as the Defensive Player of the Year, senior forward
Tanner Omlid was picked as the GNAC Preseason Player of the year… Omlid was a Second Team NABC All-West Region selection after averaging 15.6 points per game and recording a GNAC record 97 steals (3.21 steals per game).
FARUQ-BEY PRESEASON ALL-GNAC: Along with first team selection
Tanner Omlid,
Ali Faruq-Bey was also named to the All-GNAC Preseason team by the league's coaches… Faruq-Bey averaged 15.0 points and 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game last season while earning honorable mention All-GNAC honors.
2017-18 GNAC PRESEASON POLL: The Wolves were picked to place second in the league standings following returning champion Western Washington… WOU received three of the 11 first-place votes for 108 total points in the poll to WWU's 116… Central Washington received one first-place vote and 91 total points for third to edge Alaska Anchorage (90) by a single point.
2016-17 REVIEW: The Wolves went 18-13 overall last season and 13-7 for the conference slate… As the No. 3 seed, WOU defeated No. 6 MSUB, 72-61, in the opening round of the GNAC Tournament and then survived a triple overtime affair in the semifinals, defeating Alaska Anchorage, 91-84… Top-seeded Western Washington captured the title with a 71-69 win over the Wolves in the championship bout.
