MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon University men's basketball team built a solid lead early in the second half and then weathered a run by Simon Fraser to claim the 76-64 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory Saturday night inside NPE.
"On a night where we didn't shoot great, our defense held us together for a big win in a tight league race," head coach Wes Pifer said. "I thought our bench with Riley and Emanuel was very good for us. Darius and Cam were huge down the stretch for us to close it out."
WOU (16-6, 10-6 GNAC) looked to have the game in hand jumping out to a 54-39 lead just over six minutes into the second half. Simon Fraser (14-11, 7-9 GNAC) then went on a 18-4 run to trim the deficit down to just one at 58-57 with 5:13 to play.
The Wolves then answered back with a game-defining run with Cameron Cranston sinking a three-pointer and then after he hit a layup, Dalven Brushier added a free throw to quickly move the lead back to seven.
Simon Fraser would get no closer than five the rest of the way, finishing the game on a 10-3 run to take the 12-point victory.
Balanced scoring was the name again for the Wolves as five reached double-figures with Darius Lubom leading the way with 15 points. He went 5-9 from the field, dished out three assists and grabbed a rebound in 29 minutes. Emanuel Gant and Riley Hamilton added 14 points apiece, while Cranston added 13 points and Brushier with 11. Gant pulled down six rebounds, while Hamilton and John Morrill-Keeler each grabbed five rebounds. Gant tied Lubom with three assists and Morrill-Keeler had two steals.
"We kept the ball rolling with these wins. It helped to keep us confident and feeling the momentum. I wish we would have won by a little more, but a win is still a win," Lubom said. "It's hard to match up with us when we have so many guys scoring like that. It's hard to keep an eye on everybody when so many people are contributing. I felt like my game was a little slow tonight. Didn't score for six minutes at a time or so, but as long as we get a win that's all that matters."
WOU shot well overall from the field connecting on 28-58 (48), 10-26 (39) from three and 10-11 (91) at the foul line. WOU used a strong 28-15 edge on bench points and were plus-18 in point differential from three. Simon Fraser countered their struggles from deep by holding a 40-28 edge on points in the paint.
Early on, Brushier started the scoring with a three-pointer 38 seconds in. After Simon Fraser took a pair of one-point leads and with the game tied at 10, Morrill-Keeler took over with his own 6-0 run to move the Wolves to a 16-10 lead.
The lead reached 10 off a three-pointer by Hamilton. Hamilton caught fire in the first half scoring 10 points on 4-4 shooting that included 2-2 from deep. Gant also added 10 points through the first 20 minutes.
"I feel like we're finally hitting our peak and gelling. The game is getting easier for us and we're finding our chemistry so we're getting better as time goes on," Hamilton said. "Scoring like we did takes the pressure off a lot of players. Knowing everybody is going to show up is big for us, knowing they can't focus on just one player."
Coming out of the gate, I felt good in shootaround. My teammates found me and helped get me in a rhythm that I never got out of.
The Clan had the lead down to six with two minutes to play before the half when a three-pointer by Brushier helped end the half on a 5-0 run with Hamilton hitting a jumper as the buzzer sounded leaving WOU with the 39-28 lead at the break.
WOU then opened the second half strong, taking a 9-point lead and moving it out to 15 with Lubom and Cranston combining on an 8-2 run over nearly two minutes of action that had the lead out to 54-39 before Simon Fraser made their last push to get within a point.
Jasdeep Singh led Simon Fraser and all-scorers with 18 points on 7-14 shooting. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Othniel Spence added 15 points and Julian Roche with 10 points. The Clan went 24-61 (39) from the field, 4-21 (19) from three and 12-17 (71) at the foul line.
With WOU playing earlier in the day, only two other games were final currently with Northwest Nazarene picking up the commanding win at Alaska and Western Washington rolling to the win at Concordia to put all three teams into a tie for second in the GNAC standings at 10-6.
WOU will now hit the road for a pair of important games starting on Thursday at Central Washington starting at 7:30 p.m., before closing the trip on Saturday at Northwest Nazarene starting at 6:30 p.m. Pacific.
