By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Emerging from its trip to Alaska last week with a pair of hard-fought Great Northwest Athletic Conference victories, the Western Washington men’s basketball team was named the GNAC Team of the Week on Monday.
 
The Vikings (14-7, 6-5 GNAC) took down Alaska Anchorage 76-73 last Thursday before handing Alaska Fairbanks an 89-84 defeat on Saturday. The strong performance extended the Vikings’ winning streak to six games and nudged them into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings. “Sports is about momentum, and the mental game is a big part of that,” said WWU head coach Tony Dominguez. “Our league is really good and every game feels like you’re playing the top team. We are blessed to have won the last six and hopefully we can keep it going.”
 
Now the hottest team in the conference, the league schedule didn’t start that way for the Vikings who were 0-5 in GNAC games after a 97-86 loss to Seattle Pacific on Jan. 9. The winless spell was perhaps deceptive – three of the losses were by four points or fewer. In a 75-74 loss to Northwest Nazarene on Dec. 5 the Vikings had a game-winning shot rattle out, and in a 79-76 loss to Central Washington on Dec. 7 it was a game-tying three at the buzzer that missed the mark. “There was definitely some frustration,” Dominguez said on the team’s slow start to its conference schedule. “Even going back to the Westminster game (on Nov. 21) – they hit a three-quarter court shot to beat us.”
 
The bounces started to go WWU’s way beginning with a convincing, 84-60 win at reigning league champion Montana State Billings on Jan. 11. Reigning GNAC Freshman of the Year Tijan Saine made a buzzer-beating layup on Jan. 16 for a 77-75 win over No. 17 Saint Martin’s, the Vikings out-raced Western Oregon 90-86 on Jan. 18 and Garrett Levesque drilled a triple ahead of the buzzer for a 79-77 triumph over Simon Fraser on Jan. 25. For as much heartbreak as the Vikings endured earlier in the year, the team has turned a corner and found a way to emerge on top in recent close contests. “We started out hot the beginning of the year, but with that we had a few major injuries,” Dominguez said. “We had three guys who we thought would be starters who weren’t playing. We have had a few guys return since then, there has been a sense of urgency, and guys have been coming together. The Billings game was a good kick-starter for us.”
 
WWU’s mettle was tested once again last week, starting on Thursday against the Seawolves. A hot first half had the Vikings out to a 42-33 lead at the break, but UAA battled back and took the lead with 2:19 to go. Levesque and Saine knocked down key free throws down the stretch however, and the WWU defense held the Seawolves to just one made field goal in the final two minutes to earn the three-point win. “When played them at home it was right after the (holiday) break and I thought we would have momentum in our favor,” Dominguez said referencing a 71-67 loss to the Seawolves on Jan. 4. “But we did not play well, and they did. On Thursday it was another close game, and we had a couple of key possessions towards the end to secure the win. Anchorage is very good, and it was just a tough win for us. Both of the games against them this year were tight, and we had a series of a few plays that went our way up there.”
 
Saturday required the Vikings to out-gun a fast-paced Alaska Nanook offense, as its 89 points scored in the win were second most in a conference game this season. This time the Vikings had to overcome a significant deficit that stood at 42-35 after the first half and peaked at 11 points early in the second. A red-hot shooting mark of 57.1% overall including a line of 7-for-13 (53.9%) from long range propelled the Vikings to a 54-point second half and the come-from-behind win. “They are a well-coached, good team and they did a good job against us here,” said Dominguez after the Nanooks won 88-73 in Bellingham on Jan. 2. “Up there we were determined, but we didn’t start well again. We picked away at it, and at the end we were able to pull ahead. Garrett was huge defensively there, had some great rebounds, key blocked shots and was a catalyst in that game. We felt like his performance was a difference-maker in that game.”
 
Preseason all-conference selection Will Wilson leads the team in scoring with 16.6 points per game while chipping in 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and shooting 49.4% from the floor. Grant Kepley leads the team with 4.4 assists per game and contributes 14.3 points offensively, and Saine is close behind at 13.9 points per game. Other double-figure scorers include Louis Grante-Halliday (10.3 ppg) and Trevor White (10.2 ppg), with the former ranking second on the squad with 4.8 rebounds per game. Levesque leads the team on the glass with 5.2 boards per game, and averages 6.7 points.
 
Now in his 12th season leading the team, Dominguez has accumulated a career record of 228-122 (.651) and a league record of 135-83 (.637), with his 135 conference victories being third most all-time by a GNAC coach. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for WWU this week, as they face a pair of teams in MSU Billings (15-9, 6-5) and Seattle Pacific (11-11, 7-4) that each have four-game winning streaks of their own. “Every game is going to be so big from here on out,” Dominguez said. “Billings was our league champion last year and Seattle Pacific is riding a wave of success. We are hoping we can just go one game at a time and we are just focused on playing Billings on Thursday. Every game is a dogfight, and we are just trying to work on our mental game and be as tough as we can.”