WWU men lose at home to Western Oregon

Western Oregon University used a big run to start the second half to break the game open and went on to defeat Western Washington University, 78-58, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball contest Saturday, Jan. 16, at Whatcom Pavilion.

Senior guard Ricardo Maxwell had a team-high 17 points for the Vikings, who fall to 10-7 overall, 4-4 in the GNAC. Western Oregon, ranked 11th nationally in NCAA Division II, improve to 13-3 and 7-1.

Leading by one at halftime, WOU opened the second half with a 20-4 run in first 6:13 that included 4-of-5 3-point shooting. The Vikings rallied to within nine, 58-49, on a Maxwell layup with 8:35 remaining, but never got that close again as the Wolves scored the next 10 points to pull away.

Redshirt freshman forward Trey Drechsel added 16 points and a game-high eight rebounds for WWU, but the Vikings shot just 40.4 percent (21 of 52) from the field, including 32.1 percent (9 of 28) in the second half.

Senior center Andy Avgi, the reigning GNAC Player of the Year, led Western Oregon with 19 points. Alex Roth, a transfer from Oregon State, added 18 points off the bench on 7-of-10 field goal shooting.

WOU jumped to a 10-1 lead to open the game, but behind the 13 first-half points of Maxwell, the Vikings rallied to trail only 34-33 at halftime.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 9:40 PM with the headline "WWU men lose at home to Western Oregon."