BILLINGS, Mont. – A three-point halftime deficit was quickly erased by a 60-point second half that helped the Western Oregon University men's basketball team cruise to the 98-75 road win at Montana State Billings Saturday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.
"We are starting to hit our stride on the defensive end of the floor and it's fueling our transition game. It's good to pick up these two road wins and start our preparation for Seattle Pacific this Thursday," head coach Wes Pifer said.
Cameron Cranston helped ignite the offense with a game and career-high 29 points, going 11-17 from the field, 6-10 from three, along with grabbing five rebounds and adding both an assist and a steal in 31 minutes. Five reached double-figures with Emanuel Gant adding 17 points, Dalven Brushier with 15, Jaylyn Richardson with 13 and Darius Lubom at 12.
"It was great to have my teammates find me. I'm glad our defense changed in the second half so we could get stops and allow us to get out and run to get the lead back. It was great for us to get a regular season sweep against a tough team in a tough place," Cranston said.
It was another hot shooting night for the Wolves (13-5, 7-5 GNAC) connecting on 39-68 (57) from the field, 13-28 (46) from three and 7-10 (70) at the foul line. WOU once again took care of the ball turning it over just eight times while forcing 16 turnovers that led to a 24-10 points off turnovers advantage. The Wolves also dominated on bench points (21-7) and points in the paint (42-32).
Cranston got his career night going right away scoring the first points of the game 19 seconds in with a triple off an assist by Lubom for the 3-0 lead. A Cranston jumper and three-pointer by Richardson nearly five minutes in stretched the lead to 17-9.
MSU Billings (9-11, 4-8 GNAC) grabbed their first lead of the game near the midway point of the half on a three-pointer by Tyler Green for the 22-21 lead. The Yellowjackets held the lead the remainder of the half with Cranston hitting a three right before halftime leaving the 'Jackets lead at 41-38.
Still trailing by three just over four minutes into the second stanza, WOU began to make their move to take the lead for good. A long ball from Brushier evened the score and after a pair of foul shots from Gant pushed WOU back in front with 15:11 to play, the Wolves wouldn't relinquish the lead. It turned into a 9-0 run with John Morrill-Keeler hitting a layup and then a jumper by Lubom capped the run to leave WOU with the 58-52 lead.
"The second half we came out with more bounce and sense of urgency to finally get the lead where we wanted it," Gant said.
Still holding a four-point lead, a 17-3 run helped put the game out of reach. Lubom, Gant and Riley Hamilton all contributed multiple baskets during the run that left WOU holding a 75-57 lead with just under seven minutes to play.
The lead reached as many as 26 points off a three-pointer by Richardson before WOU took the 98-75 victory.
Three reached double-figures to lead the 'Jackets led by 22 points from Green. Brendan Howard also scored over 20 points tallying 21. MSU Billings went 27-63 (43) from the field, 11-30 (37) from three and 10-12 (83) at the foul line.
The win Saturday was the ninth straight in the series for WOU and the third straight in Billings. With the win, WOU moves into a three-way tie with Alaska Anchorage and Alaska for fourth in the conference with all three tied at 7-5. It was quite the shakeup in the conference this week with Seattle Pacific dropping their first conference game at Alaska, but the Falcons hold a three-game lead on first at 11-1 after winning at Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. Saint Martin's then went into Fairbanks and defeated Alaska Saturday night. Western Washington fell to both Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington on the road this week to drop to 8-4 in conference play which ties them for second place now with Northwest Nazarene.
WOU will carry their three-game winning streak into a road matchup with GNAC leader Seattle Pacific on Thursday night starting at 7:30 p.m.
