MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team left no doubt on Thursday night, handing the second-place team in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference an 89-72 loss when they defeated the Western Washington Vikings at NPE Gym.

"It was really good for us to get the win tonight. We felt like they snuck one out in Bellingham, so it was like we owed them one and we kind of showed that tonight," Gant said. "We pride ourselves on getting fastbreaks, but we just wanted to focus in on our pick-and-roll defense and it showed really well today."
 
Western Oregon (15-6, 9-6 GNAC) led for nearly the entire game and held the advantage for the entirety of the second half of play. Despite shooting just 34.4 percent from the field in the first half, the Wolves got off to a hot start from 3-point range, going 7-for-15 from deep before the break to establish a solid lead.

"Seventeen assists are hard to guard for any team and I think we matched that with the way we played defensively holding them to the percentages they shot it made it difficult for them," Brushier said.
 
Leading by eight coming out of the locker room, the Wolves never saw their lead get smaller than five points and grew it to as many as 20 on multiple occasions.
 
Five players finished in double figures for Western, led by the 17 points of Dalven Brushier. The senior guard also contributed five rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes. John Morrill-Keeler had his second-highest scoring game of the season, posting 16 points with six rebounds, two blocks and an assist.

"That's really been the mindset has been just to finish. Nearly all of the games we have been in we lead at the half, up in the second half and then don't finish the game. Just focusing on finishing and being aggressive all 40 minutes," Brushier said.
 
Defensively, the Vikings defended well at the rim, coming up with nine blocks despite allowing 89 points. Siaan Rojas paced WWU's offense with 19 points.
 
"That was a heavyweight battle as Western Washington is a very good team," said Western Oregon head coach Wes Pifer. "I thought we locked in defensively and were able to sustain it. This conference is so tough so to get a win like this is incredibly important."
 
Thursday's game represented a battle for prime position in the GNAC conference tournament. With both teams poised to earn a berth in the six-team bracket, Western Washington (14-9, 9-6 GNAC) sat in a tie for second in the conference entering the night and one game ahead of the Wolves. With both Northwest Nazarene and Alaska losing as well, there is now a four-team tie for second in the GNAC with WOU moving into the tie. Just two games separate second and eighth place in the standings with five games remaining in the regular season schedule.

"I feel like it's really big for us when we can get the ball moving around, when three, four or five of us score in double-figures, it's really hard to stop us as you can't key in on one player, you have to guard all five on the floor," Gant said.
 
Next up, Western Oregon hosts the Simon Fraser Clan on Saturday, Feb. 15. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. PST at NPE Gym.