{"id":498,"date":"2015-01-09T12:53:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=498"},"modified":"2015-01-09T12:53:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:53:34","slug":"mens-basketball-11-3-overall-geared-up-for-conference-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/mens-basketball-11-3-overall-geared-up-for-conference-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s basketball, 11-3 overall, geared up for conference play"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC019652\"<\/a>
PHOTO BY NEIL GRAVATT STAFF PHOTGRAPHER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ
\nmen\u2019s basketball team brought in the
\nNew Year with a bang as they concluded
\na nine-game winning streak.
\nScoring more than 100 points in
\ntheir last two games and breaking a
\nsingle game 3-point record (20), the
\nWolves were looking unstoppable.
\nThe Wolves lost on New Year\u2019s
\nDay by a close seven-point margin
\n(76-83) at Seattle Pacific University.
\nThey were able to rally just two days
\nlater after a long road trip to Billings,
\nMont., to solidify another conference
\nwin against Montana State
\nUniversity (72-64).
\nThe Wolves are currently 3-1 in
\nthe Great Northwest Athletic Conference
\nand 11-3 overall. They rank
\nsecond in the GNAC in scoring
\ndefense, allowing only 65.1 points
\nper game, as the Wolves have not
\nallowed more than 83 points to be
\nscored in a single game so far this
\nseason.
\nThe Wolves are led by guard Devon
\nAlexander who has started 30
\ngames in a row and leads the GNAC
\nwith 2.1 steal per game. Alexander
\nalso leads the team with 2.9 assists
\nper game.
\nStarting alongside Alexander is
\nguard Jordan Wiley, who is averaging
\n8.7 points per game along with
\n2.7 rebounds a game. Wiley leads
\nthe team with 30 3-point field goals
\nthis season.
\nThe dynamic duo constantly
\nthreatens teams with their speed
\nand range abilities as Alexander has
\n17 3-pointers of his own this season.
\nA lot of the opportunities come
\nfrom point guard and notorious
\n\u201cdime-dropper\u201d Julian Nichols as
\nhe ranks third in the GNAC in assists
\nper game handing out five assists
\nper game. Nichols also leads the
\nGNAC in 3-point percentage hitting
\n50 percent (14-for-28) of his shots.
\nForwards Andy Avgi and Lewis
\nThomas dominated the paint for
\nthe Wolves with a combined 176
\nrebounds this season. Avgi earned
\nGNAC honorable mentions as a
\nredshirt sophomore and looks to
\ncontinue his impressive career as
\nhe scored double figures in 13 of
\n14 games this season, including a
\nseason high 26 against Alaska Fairbanks
\non Dec. 4.
\nAvgi is also tied for first in the
\nGNAC in blocked shots per game,
\nrejecting an average of 2.8 shots per
\ngame.
\nA big relief for Avgi and Thomas
\nis forward Marwan Sarhan. Standing
\n6 feet 8 inches and weighing in
\nat 220 pounds, his presence is a force
\non the court. Averaging over eight
\npoints a game, Sarhan can be a game
\nchanger as well.
\nHe scored 13 points and pulled
\ndown a team high of seven rebounds
\nlast week in their win against Montana.
\nHead Coach and Western Oregon
\nalumnus, Brady Bergeson had his
\neyes set on the conference championship
\nduring his fourth year on the
\njob.
\n\u201cSometimes growth is steady;
\nsometimes it comes in bursts,\u201d
\nBergeson said. \u201cOurs is steady.\u201d
\nWith 14 games left in the season,
\nthe title as champion is still up for
\ngrabs.
\n\u201cThe two games this weekend are
\ncrucial,\u201d Bergeson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very
\nbalanced conference.\u201d
\nWestern Oregon played their first
\nhome game of 2015, Thursday, Jan.
\n8, against Northwest Nazarene University
\nbefore welcoming Central
\nWashington University on Saturday
\nJan. 10, which tips off at 7:30 p.m.
\nThe Northwest Nazarene Crusaders
\nentered Thursday\u2019s game with an
\noverall record of 4-9 that includes a
\n2-1 record in GNAC play.
\nThe Crusaders are on a two-game
\nwin streak as they beat rival Central
\nWashington last weekend. They lead
\nthe all-time series against Western
\n31-24.
\nCentral Washington enters the
\ngame at 7-3 overall and 2-1 in
\nGNAC games.
\nNorthwest Nazarene snapped the
\nWildcats five-game win streak as
\nthey look to bounce back. They trail
\nin the all-time series 43-54 against
\nthe wolves.
\n\u201cWe need to play the way we play
\nand make opponents adapt,\u201d said
\nBergeson on this weekend\u2019s games.
\n\u201cThere isn\u2019t really an X factor, we
\njust need to stick to what we do, and
\nwe\u2019ll be fine.\u201d
\nThe Wolves will play three of their
\nnext five games at home before hitting
\nthe road for 5-of-7 games in
\nFebruary to close out the regular
\nseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The ÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ men\u2019s basketball team brought in the New Year with a bang as they concluded a nine-game winning streak. Scoring more than 100 points in their last two games and breaking a single game 3-point record (20), the Wolves were looking unstoppable. The Wolves lost on New Year\u2019s Day by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}