MONMOUTH, Ore.— Breaking its own league record for most GNAC wins in a season, No. 4-ranked Western Oregon University defeated Simon Fraser, 77-52, in the regular-season finale inside New P.E. Gymnasium on Saturday.
After clinching the No. 1 seed and regular-season title on Thursday, Western Oregon (27-1) ended the regular season with a 19-1 (.950) mark in conference play to break the single-season record for conference wins.
The 20151-16 WOU team went 18-2 on the year for the former mark while Western Washington's 2012-13 team held the previous best conference winning percentage in league history at .944 after going 17-1 in conference games.
The Wolves ended the regular season with a 20-game winning streak and will receive a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the GNAC Tournament next week in Anchorage, Alaska. Western Oregon will play the winner of No. 4 Seattle Pacific and No. 5 Alaska Anchorage matchup that takes place on March 1.WOU's winning streak is the active leader among all NCAA DI and NCAA DII programs. Ferris State (Mich.) has the next longest winning streak in DII at 17 games while Michigan State, Gonzaga and Murray State share the current DI streak at 11 straight wins.
WOU also closed out a perfect home regular-season record (15-0) at home for the second time since the school transitioned to DII. The 2015-16 Wolves went 12-0 inside the New P.E. Gymnasium.
Against Simon Fraser, the Wolves jumped out to a 10-0 lead with Malik Morgan and
Ali Faruq-Bey popping early 3-pointers. In just over five minutes of game time, the lead soon swelled to 17 (21-4) and the Wolves never looked back as SFU was held to 35.3 percent shooting from the floor.
Morgan finished with a team-high 14 points as 11 different Wolves reached the scoring column.
Tanner Omlid and Vince Boumann finished with 12 points while
Demetrius Trammell added 10 points off the bench.
Kedar Salam led SFU with 21 points in 7 of 17 shooting.
Following the game, the team honored the eight seniors on the team.