Men's Basketball | 3/5/2018 9:13:00 PM

>>> DII West Region Tournament HQ
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MONMOUTH, Ore.—The No. 3-ranked Western Oregon men's basketball team continues its postseason run at the DII West Region Championships held in Monmouth, Oregon on March 9-12...  Quarterfinals will take place on Friday, March 9 with the eight teams playing four elimination games... Semifinals will take place at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 10 while the championship game set for Monday,March 12 at 7 p.m .The No. 1-seed Wolves will face Point Loma on Friday, March 9 with a 7:30 p.m. start.

WEST REGION TOURNEY HISTORY: WOU is 3-1 all-time in two previous appearances at the West Region Tournament... In its inaugural appearance in 2014-15, the Wolves fell to Azusa Pacific, 75-67, in the quarterfinals... The team hosted the 2015-16 West Region and captured teh title to advance to the Elite 8... WOU defeated Humboldt State (82-65), Azusa Pacific (81-69) and UC San Diego (60-55) inside the New P.E. Gymnasium that season. 

GNAC CHAMPS: After completing the best regular-season in GNAC history with a conference record 19-1 mark in league play, the Wolves posted a pair of double-digit wins to capture the team's second GNAC Tournament title while playing in Anchorage, Alaska... WOU defeated Seattle Pacific, 97-70, in the semifinals before winning the crown by a 65-55 margin over No. 3-seeded Saint Martin's.

GNAC POSTSEASON AWARDS: Backing up the preseason selection by the league's coaches, senior Tanner Omlid was voted the GNAC Player of the Year for 2017-18... Omlid ended the regular season leading Western Oregon in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals... Senior guard Malik Morgan was voted the Defensive Player of the Year and to the all-conference second team while head coach Jim Shaw was named the league's Coach of the Year.

NCAA DII RANKINGS: Western Oregon remained at the No. 3 ranking in the latest NABC Division II rankings this week… The Wolves tallied a 374 points to carry the GNAC's highest ranking for the 14th straight week... The Wolves were awarded two first-place votes... Dixie State (No. 20), California Baptist (No. 21) and Cal Poly Pomona (No. 25) gave the West Region four programs in the top 25 while  Saint Martin's (1 vote) also received a vote in the poll.

NCAA's LONGEST WIN STREAK: WOU enters the week with 22 straight wins... The mark is the longest active streak out of the 1,068 programs in NCAA Division I (351), Division II (301) or Division III (416)... Gonzaga and Murray State share the longest active streak in NCAA DI at 13 games while Plattsburgh State (N.Y.) holds the longest winning streak in DIII with 21 straight victories... Ferris State, currently ranked No. 2 in the NABC/DII poll has the next longest win streak at 20 games. 

ALL-TIME BEST WIN STREAKS: WOU's 22-game win streak is the longest in team history since it transitioned to NCAA DII (2000-01)... WOU's previous best DII-era winning streak was 13 games during the 2015-16 season… That streak was broken by Alaska Fairbanks after the Nanooks defeated the Wolves, 87-78 in Monmouth on Feb. 18... The 1981-82 team started the season with a school record 22 straight wins... The 1980-81 team had an 18-game winning streak for the next-longest streak in school history.

NCAA DII STATS RANKINGS: The Wolves are ranked in NCAA DII's top 25 in several team categories, including: winning percentage (3rd, 96.6%), scoring margin (3rd, +17.4), field-goal percentage (5th, 50.7 percent), steals per game (7th, 9.7 spg), turnover margin (14th, 3.9), assists per game (16th, 17.6 apg), scoring defense (21st, 67.3 ppg) and rebound margin (24th, +6.2).

PERFECT HOME RECORD: For the second time in its NCAA DII history, and second time in three seasons, WOU completed a season without a loss at home... WOU went 15-0 inside the New P.E. Gymnasium this season and 12-0 at home during the 2015-16 season... The Wolves are 35-4 at home since Jim Shaw took over as head coach in 2015-16. 

BALANCED ATTACK: Eight different Wolves have either led the team or shared game-high honors in scoring this season: Tanner Omlid (9), Demetrius Trammell (6), Ali Faruq-Bey (5), Vince Boumann (4), Riley Hawken (3), JJ Chirnside (2), Malik Morgan (2)... At just four games, Boumann has WOU's current longest streak of double-digit scoring performances... Omlid has the season-best streak for the Wolves at six games (Nov. 11-Nov. 30).

TRAMMELL FOR THREE/FREE: Demetrius Trammell has connected on four or more 3-pointers on six occasions this season, including a season-best 8 for 9 against Fresno Pacific on Nov.11... Trammell is currently 39 for 40 from the free throw line for a school season record 97.5 percent... Trammell has converted 23 straight free throw attempts with his last miss his opening attempt in a 4 for 5 night at Western Washington on Dec. 2.  

FOR STARTERS: The Wolves have used eight different starting lineup combinations this season... 11 different players have logged at least one start... Seniors have logged 75.3 percent (113 of 150) of the team's starts this season... Tanner Omlid is the lone player to start all 30 games while sophomore Riley Hawken (27 starts), freshman Darius Lubom (8 starts) and junior Brandell Evans (2 starts) are the lone non-seniors to crack the starting lineup.

THE LEAD: WOU has held the lead at half time in 26 of the team's 30 games and is a perfect 26-0 under those circumstances... The team is 27-0 while holding the lead with 10 minutes remaining and 29-0 while holding the lead with 5 minutes remaining. 

THE BENCH: With seven different players averaging at least 7.0 points per game, WOU's bench has outscored its opponent's bench in 25 of the team's 30 games.

20-POINT PERFORMERS: Five different Wolves have recorded 20-point games this season... Tanner Omlid leads the group with six games with at least 20 points and a team-high 32 points against Seattle Pacific on Feb. 8... Ali Faruq-Bey has had four 20-point games while Demetrius Trammell (2), Riley Hawken (2) and Vince Boumann (1) have all reached the mark. 

FARUQ-BEY NAMED GNAC POW: WOU senior guard Ali Faruq-Bey was named the GNAC Player of the Week on Feb. 12... Faruq-Bey led Western Oregon to its 15th and 16th straight wins on the season by averaging 24.5 points per game, shooting 51.9 percent from the field, 50 percent from three-point range and went a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line... Faruq-Bey opened the week by scoring a career-high 25 points in a 95-81 win over Seattle Pacific, which included a 12-for-12 effort from the free throw line... He then led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from three-point range in the Wolves' 86-73 win over Saint Martin's.

CAREER WEEK FOR CHIRNSIDE: Senior JJ Chirnside posted the best back-to-back lines of his career last week with a career-high 18 points against Central Washington on Jan. 18...  After shooting 8-for-11 from the floor against the Wildcats, Chirnside returned with another 18-point game on Saturday after converting 7-of-12 against Northwest Nazarene... In addition to the point tallies, Chirnside added 11 rebounds, one block and three steals in the two WOU wins.

	NABC NCAA D-II RANKINGS Date Ranking Points 3/6 #3 372 2/27 #3 374 2/20 #4 355 2/13 #4 352 2/6 #4 350 1/30 #4 346 1/23 #6 314 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
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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.

5X5 REPEATED: Tanner Omlid posted his second 5x5 line of the season with 32 points, seven assists, five rebounds, five blocks and five steals against Seattle Pacific on Feb. 9... Omlid scored 22 points in the first half of play and ended the night two points shy of his career high. 

OMLID SETS CAREER RECORDS: Senior Tanner Omlid has climbing several WOU DII-era career lists this season... Omlid moved into the school's career leader (DII-era) in total blocks (130), steals (231) and rebounds (600) this season after starting the season No. 4 in all-time in blocks, No. 4 in steals and No. 6 in rebounds... Omlid entered the school's top-10 career scoring list and topped 1,000 career points this season... He has 1,209 career points for No. 7 all-time with Sean Kelly (1,248) next on the list.

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.