By Jacob Hansen Staff Writer
Last week Western Oregon University’s men’s basketball team showed their perseverance and strength by finishing strong not once, but twice late in the fourth quarter.
On Thursday Jan. 8 in the New P.E. building forward Andy Avgi secured the win over Northwest Nazarene by tipping in a shot with seconds on the clock that gave the Wolves a commanding five-point lead. On Saturday Jan. 10 the Wolves found themselves in a back-to-back battle with Central Washington University that had countless lead changes. With the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s (GNAC) best free throw shooter playing for the Wolves, Guard Julian Nichols, Western Oregon was able to come out on top 78-74 in a game that was all but easy.
“Tonight’s win was gutsy,” said head coach Brady Bergeson about Thursday night’s game. “We did a beautiful job in the second half taking care of the basketball. They clamped down defensively on us and made everything hard in the second half, but we did take care of the ball. I just thought we were a little bit more detailed with our attack in the last four minutes of the game. This was a one-possession game. It could have gone any way. Our guys showed a lot of poise closing the game out.”
Thursday night’s game was led by Western Oregon’s (13-5, 5-1 GNAC) Avgi with 18 points. Guard Jordan Wiley scored all of his 16 points in the second half and came up big in the fourth quarter. Nichols had eight rebounds, 11 points, five steals, five assists, and a pair of game ending free throws.
Western Oregon combined to shoot 24-for-59 (40.7%) from the field that also included a respectable 6-for-17 (35.3%) from three-point range. They were 12-for-15 (80%) from the free throw line, outperforming Northwest Nazarenes in all categories.
Saturday night the Wolves found Central Washington (8-4, 3-2 GNAC) to be a worthy opponent as the game went on. Both teams had streaks of their own trumping the others as they met at 10-10 early, then at 28-28 late in the half. After coming back from a 10-2 run by the Wildcats, the Wolves rallied to go into the half trailing by only a single point (38-37). With 14:20 remaining in the game forward Marwan Sarhan sunk back-to-back free throws to tie the game for the 10th time.
The game was tied for its 17th and final time at 73-73 in the final two minutes of the game. Avgi went on to score six straight and with a missed free throw by the Wildcats the Wolves would pull ahead for a final time. Western Oregon won its third straight and remains to be unbeaten at home this season with their 78-74 victory.
“We had a lot of guys step up in different patches,” said Bergeson. “The quiet difference, to me, was there was a stretch of eight or ten minutes in the middle of the second half where we really dominated the boards. It didn’t show up on the scoreboard immediately, but we would have been down six or eight or nine points had we not done that, and we were at a plus ten at some point on the boards during that stretch. That allowed us to stay within striking distance. Between that and our detail and execution in the last four minutes, that’s what did it.”
Andy “big cat” Avgi was name co-GNAC player of the week as he played a huge roll in both games. Avgi averaged 20.5 points per game last week in the wins. He shot a combined 17-for-29 (58.6%) from the field that included one three pointer. He was 6-of 7 from the line. Standing at 6-foot-6, he leads Western Oregon in eight statistical categories. This is Avgi’s first career weekly conference award as he becomes the first to earn the honor since former wolf Rodney Webster on December 22, 2013.
“It’s nice to be on top after those two wins but there is still a lot of season left,” said Avgi.
Western Oregon will play only one game this week when the Wolves welcome GNAC rival Saint Martin’s to Monmouth on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
