BURNABY, B.C. – Simon Fraser University kept it close for half of its men's basketball game against Western Oregon but a second half surge by the Wolves turned into a 90-67 victory in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action Thursday at SFU's West Gym.
It was a tale of two halves. The Clan was within three points at the half but was outscored 48-28 in the second half.
With Simon Fraser (1-12) looking to end its losing streak, the Clan and Western Oregon (13-2) went back and forth in a fast-paced and physical first half. SFU lead by seven midway through the first but Western Oregon battled back to take the lead at 4:15.
The Wolves led 42-39 at the break.
SFU shot 45% in the first half with
Michael Harper leading with 13 points while forward Andy Avgi led the way for Western Oregon with 16 points and 7 rebounds. SFU hit 50% of its 3-point attempts (4-8) while Oregon hit 30% of their 3's (3-10).
The second half was a different story. The game was decided with a 33-12 Western Oregon run spanning the opening 12 minutes of the second half.
Western Oregon started the second half off with a bang hitting a three-pointer to get things going and they kept their foot on the pedal leading by 10 just four minutes later.
The lead quickly grew to 66-47 for WOU with Avgi dominating down low and SFU searching for an answer to stop him.
Clan head coach
Virgil Hill said it was hard to stop Avgi all night.
"You have to double team him and we decided to pick our poison and not double team him," said Hill. "Maybe a mistake on my part to not double, and force him to kick out for three's, so we let him get two's versus the three's and he got a lot of two's."
With 10 minutes to go in the second half Oregon pushed its lead to 31.
Harper finished with 17 points while Clan guard
Andrew Williamson, who earned his first start of the season, finished with 15 points on five-of-12 shooting.
Avgi led all scorers on the night with 20 points in 27 minutes. He fell a rebound shy a double-double. Avgi was 8-of-12 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.
SFU will look to have a stronger outing this Saturday when they return to the West Gym for a game against Concordia University (Oregon). Tip-off is 7PM.
Follow the SFU Clan men's basketball team on the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/SFU_MBB.
--@SFUClan--
