Men's Basketball: No. 6 'Jacks Rally to Defeat Western Oregon, 89-82

The Wolves will now get about 10 days off, next taking on Corban College in a non-conference contest on Dec. 5th.

Photo: Humboldt State Athletics

CHICO, Calif. - Western Oregon made its upset plans known early, leading by as many as 17 points in the first half, but No. 6 nationally ranked Humboldt State gathered themselves in the second half and held on for a 89-82 men's basketball win over the Wolves at Acker Gymnasium at Chico State.

The win improved HSU's record to 3-0 on the year, while Western Oregon fell to 0-2.

The Wolves also lost on Friday night to host Chico State (82-54) at the Mack Martin Classic.

Humboldt State, a former member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, fell behind 13-0 in the opening minutes of the game as WOU came out red hot.

The Lumberjacks didn't get on the board until five and a half minutes had ticked off the clock, and then fell behind even further when the Wolves led by 17 (26-9) with 10:30 to go in the half.

HSU then woke up, scoring the next 15 points to close to within two points.

WOU answered though, and went into the locker room with a 45-38 lead at the break.

The Wolves still led through the early part of the second half, until the Lumberjacks took its first lead of the game on a bucket by Jeremiah Ward (56-55) with 14:34 left.

The teams then traded buckets until the 'Jacks took the lead for good with 6:20 left (70-68).

Ward led the Lumberjacks with 22 points and Kevin Johnson added 20 points and nine rebounds.

WOU's Jacob Mitchell led all scorers with 28 points, and he also had seven rebounds.

Ryan Schmidt had 23 points for the Wolves, hitting five of six three-pointers, and he also had 10 rebounds and six assists.

Brad Krichevsky added 12 points, hitting four three-pointers, and Travis Kuhns contributed 13 points and seven rebounds.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports