Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer
Last week on Jan. 18 and 20 was business as usual for the men’s team as they racked up another two victories against GNAC conference opponents. This brings their current winning streak to double digits, after the team cracked the top ten in national rankings earlier in the week.
On Thursday, Jan. 18, the Wolves ousted Central Washington Wildcats, 89-70. Then on Saturday, Jan. 20, they derailed Northwest Nazarene, 82-64.
Up early against the Wildcats, it was clear that Western was in control, as the defense held the Wildcats to just 29.4 percent shooting in the first half. On the offensive side of the ball, Senior Tanner Omlid started off at a blistering pace, scoring 17 points on 7/9 shooting in the first twenty minutes.
After holding a fifteen point advantage at the end of the first half, the Wolves continued to outpace Central Washington. Omlid’s hot start seemed to inspire key members off the bench on Thursday as the game went on. Junior guard, Demetrius Trammell, was lights out during the second half of play. He scored 14 points in 13 minutes while shooting perfectly from the field, including four three pointers.
After the win, the team moved to an overall record of 16-1 heading into Saturday’s game against the Nighthawks. The game plan for this matchup was to make life difficult for Nazarene guard Obi Megwa, who came into the game leading the conference in scoring (19.1 ppg). That is exactly what the Wolves defense did, forcing Megwa to shoot 8/21 from the field while limiting his impact on the result of the game. The team started off hot once again, this time capturing a 13 point lead at halftime, while bringing that lead up to 25 at one point in the second half. After scoring 18 points against Central Washington earlier in the week, senior JJ Chirnside scored another 18 off the bench against the Nighthawks to help capture the 82-64 win.
With these two solid wins, the Wolves may start to climb even higher in the national rankings when they are released on Tuesday, Jan. 23. The team will look to extend their streak to 12 this week against two Alaskan conference foes on the road when they take on the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks on Jan. 25. Their road trip finally concludes on Saturday, Jan. 27 against the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu
Photo by: wouwolves.com
