By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
Men’s basketball continued its dominant streak with two wins at home last week.
This extends the winning streak
The Wolves beat St. Martin’s 82-73 in a Feb. 2 home match. Junior forward Tanner Omlid lead the scoring with 23 points.
The defense shutting St. Martin’s down opened the door for a lot of points, as the
Wolves forced 16 turnovers and scored 22 points off of turnovers. Junior forward JJ Chirnside grabbed 8 rebounds and made 3 blocks, while Omlid added 5 rebounds, six steals and 2 blocks of his own.
Chirnside also contributed 15 points of offense.
The game saw a few lead changes as the teams sparred through the first half. But after halftime it was all Wolves. Western Oregon lead by as much as 16 throughout the second half on their way to the 9-point win.
Three dunks were slammed in by Omlid and Chirnside through the second half.
Tanner Omlid continued to put on a clinic when Seattle Pacific came to Monmouth on Feb. 4. He scored 18 and made 15 rebounds on his way to a double-double.
The Wolves took down Seattle Pacific, 84-70 in the GNAC Game of the Week.
Junior guard Ali Faruq-Bey and JJ Chirnside both put up 17 points. Coming off the bench, junior guard Demetrius Trammell scored 11 to make it four – Wolves with double digit points.
Trammell lead the much stronger bench performance, which saw the Wolves’ reserves score 27 while the Seattle Pacific bench was held to four. Senior forward Yanick Kulich also contributed 8 points in 10 minutes off the bench.
“We are just playing a lot harder and we’re all on the same page now,” JJ Chirnside said on the team’s recent form. “We’re moving the ball well and getting better on the defensive end. We’re getting stops which leads us to transition points.”
The Wolves are on the road this week, and will face Western Washington, one of the last teams they lost to before going on the win streak.
“We’ve learned a lot from them,” Chirnside said. “We just need to keep getting better everyday ‘til then.”
Western Washington are the top-ranked team in the GNAC, but have only a single game advantage on the third-ranked Wolves.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
