Men's Basketball Weekly Report

Feb. 10, 2015 Contact: Bob Guptill ([email protected]) 503-305-8756 /www.gnacsports.com Tight Battle For Second First-Round Bye; 4 Separated by 1 ½ Games Conf. GNAC W L Western Oregon 12 1 Alaska Anchorage 9 3 Central Washington 8 4 Northwest Nazarene 8 4 Seattle Pacific 8 5 Western Washington 6 7 Simon Fraser 4 9 Saint Martin’s 3 10 MSU Billings 3 10 (x) Alaska 2 10 (x) – Ineligible for post-season All W 20 13 13 10 16 13 9 6 5 5 L 3 9 6 12 7 10 12 17 18 15 H 11-1 8-5 8-2 5-4 7-3 10-2 7-4 4-5 3-8 4-5 The Wolves are 3 ½ ahead of Central Washington (13-6, 84) and Northwest Nazarene (10-12, 8-4) for the second bye. Seattle Pacific (16-7, 8-5) is four back. A N 8-2 1-0 5-3 0-1 3-3 2-1 4-5 1-3 5-4 4-0 2-6 1-2 1-8 1-0 2-7 0-5 1-8 1-2 1-7 0-3 All five teams have good opportunities to claim one of the two available byes. Western Oregon needs just three wins in its final five contests to secure one. The Wolves have the opportunity to get one of those wins Wednesday when they take a 10-game win streak to Lacey, Wash., to take on Saint Martin’s (6-17, 3-10) in a ROOT SPORTS game. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. LAST WEEK: Thursday – Western Oregon 78 at Central Washington 71; Simon Fraser 78 at MSU Billings 85; Saint Martin’s 70 at Northwest Nazarene 83; Western Washington 82 at Seattle Pacific 72. Saturday – Alaska 72 at Alaska Anchorage 74; Saint Martin’s 79 at Central Washington 88; Western Washington 75 at MSU Billings 65; Western Oregon 66 at Northwest Nazarene 62; Simon Fraser 84 at Seattle Pacific 83. WOU’s win streak is the 14th longest in GNAC history. The Wolves also had a nine-game win streak earlier this season. Those are WOU’s two longest win streak during the GNAC era (since 2001-02). WOU’s current 11-game home win streak equals the 15th longest in GNAC history. THIS WEEK: Wednesday – Western Oregon at Saint Martin’s, 8 p.m. (ROOT SPORTS). Thursday – Seattle Pacific at Alaska; MSU Billings at Alaska Anchorage; Central Washington at Western Washington; Northwest Nazarene at Simon Fraser. Saturday – MSU Billings at Alaska, 1 p.m.; Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 2 p.m.; Central Washington at Simon Fraser; Northwest Nazarene at Western Washington. WOU also has won 11 consecutive conference home games, matching the fifth longest in GNAC history. The WOU at Saint Martin’s game is the only game on the GNAC schedule Wednesday. WOU Takes Double-Digit Win Streak Into ROOT Game On Thursday, Alaska Anchorage will try to protect its onegame lead for the second bye when it hosts MSU Billings (5-18, 3-10). PORTLAND, Ore. – Its beginning to look like the real race in the GNAC is for second place. Other games Thursday will send Seattle Pacific to Fairbanks to take on Alaska (5-15, 2-10), Central Washington to Bellingham to take on Western Washington (13-10, 6-7) and Northwest Nazarene to Burnaby to battle Simon Fraser (9-12, 4-9). And that is important because both the regular-season champion and the second-place finisher earn first round byes for the conference tournament. The tournament begins Thursday, Mar. 5 at Alterowitz Gymnasium on the campus of MSU Billings. WOU Ranked 18th in NABC, 16th in D2SIDA Polls After a road sweep at Ellensburg and Nampa last weekend, Western Oregon (20-3, 12-1) has a 2 ½ game lead over second-place Alaska Anchorage (13-9, 9-3) for the first bye. Western Oregon moved up two positions to No. 18 in this week’s NABC national poll after two road victories last week. 1