MONMOUTH, Ore.—With back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game by senior guard Ali Faruq Bay, the No. 4-ranked Western Oregon men's basketball team led for all but 24 seconds in an 86-73 win against Saint Martin's on Saturday.

With the win, the Western Oregon (23-1, 15-1 GNAC) has clinched a top-2 seed and a first-round bye at the GNAC tournament. The top six teams in the GNAC standings will qualify for the postseason tournament with the top two seeds receiving first-round byes.

With four games remaining in the regular season, WOU and Western Washington (18-6, 13-3 GNAC) maintaining the top two positions with WWU, currently holding a tiebreaker against the Wolves as the lone team to defeat the WOU this season.

WOU and WWU will square off again in Monmouth on Feb. 22. Prior to that rematch, WOU will head out for its final road trip of the season by facing Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 15 and Central Washington on Feb. 17.

Trailing right away against a team carrying a 15-game winning streak, Saint Martin's used an 11-2 run midway through the first to snare a brief lead (26-24).

The Wolves, however, dominated the action on the glass in the first half to prevent second-chance points for the visiting side and went on to stake a 45-37 edge at the break.

In addition to a 17-to-8 advantage in rebounding heading into the break, the Wolves received scoring efforts from a variety of sources as six different players notched at least five points in the first 20 minutes of action.

In the second half, WOU stepped back behind the 3-point line to extend its lead to as many as 25 points with 10 minutes remaining.

Entering the game, the two teams combined for 23 consecutive wins. The result halted SMU's streak at eight and extending Wester Oregon's school record (NCAA DII-era) to 16 straight victories.
Hitting 4-of-8 from 3-point range, Faruq-Bay ended the night with a game-high 24 points. The total was one points shy of his career high of 25 set last Thursday against Seattle Pacific.

Malik Morgan added 16 points while tanner Omlid (13 points) and Darius Lubom (10 points) also reached double figures in scoring.

Luke Chavez led SMU with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting.