Late basket lifts Western Oregon into GNAC championship game

With 26 seconds left, the top seeded Western Oregon Wolves trailed by one to the fourth seed Seattle Pacific Falcons in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament semifinal.

The Wolves looked to point guard Julian Nichols to stave off the upset and he delivered.

The senior point guard drove from the top of the key with his left hand, coming off a screen set by forward Andy Avgi and converted a turn-around right handed hook shot to give the Wolves a 58-57 lead with 3.8 seconds left.

Falcons guard Will Parker’s last second 3-point shot missed wide left and the Wolves escaped with a one point victory.

“The initial part was a set plan to put him in an on-ball,” said WOU head coach Jim Shaw when asked about the game-winning shot. “However they responded and reacted to the on-ball we were just going to play from there. He made a good read; he got a shot in the paint.”

The Wolves were able to grind out a close win despite a tough night offensively. They shot just 39 percent from the field, 60 percent from the foul line and 16 percent from the three-point line. Despite the tough shooting night, Shaw was content with the looks his team got throughout the night.

Since the Wolves were getting what Shaw thought to be better looks, he wasn’t worried about the outcome.

“We were getting some shots that I was like ‘okay, it’s bound to start working out here pretty quick’ and fortunately that last one that Julian (Nichols) hit was the big one.”

Western Oregon advances to the championship game at 5:30 p.m. Saturday against Alaska, a game that has eluded the Wolves despite being back-to-back regular season GNAC champions. The accomplishment is not lost on Devon Alexander, who scored a team-high 19.

“We have definitely come a long way since I have been here,” said Alexander.” I came here four years ago and it means everything just to get to the championship.”

WOMEN

MSU Billings 78, Western Washington 60: Alisha Breen scored a game-high 23 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to register her second consecutive tournament double-double, while Monica Grimsrud and Rylee Kane scored 11 points apiece to power the Yellowjackets (21-9) over the Vikings (20-9) to advance to the GNAC championship game 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Alaska Anchorage (32-2) at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Late basket lifts Western Oregon into GNAC championship game."