ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Saturday, November 20th, the Sonoma State men's basketball team faced off against Western Oregon University in the finale of the Ron Logsdon Basketball Challenge presented by Cambria Hotel Sonoma Wine Country. The Seawolves came into the contest looking for their first win of the season as SSU dropped a tough game the night prior to Alaska Fairbanks. The Seawolves shot the ball well from three in the second half against UAF and outscored the Nanooks 45-38 in the second half as they looked to ride some of that momentum into Saturday's matchup. 

After a back and forth start, SSU found some rhythm from the three point line as first year Seawolves Jordan Montgomery and Jackie Luong each traded threes to give their team an early six point lead. Tough layups from senior Wesley Gilbert and freshman Jaylen Wells added to the Seawolves score towards the end of the first half. However, the shooting struggles that were present in San Francisco the week prior struck again as the Seawolves would only convert one bucket in the final six minutes of the first half. 

The Wolves of Western Oregon would control the pace of the game for the remainder of the half as they got to the line on two different occasions knocking down both sets of free throws and added a pair of jump shots to give themselves a 29-24 lead at the half. Head coach Rich Shayewitz had some early positives as the Seawolves got off to a much better start than they did the night prior. Freshman Jaylen Wells got his first career start as a Seawolf after a massive 25-point game the night prior. He led the way at the half with 8 points for SSU. The shooting struggles did continue from beyond the arc, however, as SSU made only two first half three pointers compared to Western Oregon's five. 

A 7-3 scoring run from the Wolves would force an early timeout from Shayewitz as he saw his team's deficit grow to nine in the early stages of the second half. After a pair of split free throws from WOU, back -to-back buckets from SSU veterans Jeremy Lillis and Nick Klarman would bring the lead back down to six. It was at that moment that Western Oregon would go on a tear from the three point line as they converted three unanswered three pointers to force another timeout from SSU and extend the lead to it's largest of the game thus far at 14 points. The bleeding would worsen for Sonoma State as Western Oregon hit another three in transition out of the timeout. 

The Wolves simply torched the Seawolves from downtown as they went on to make 11 threes in the second half alone. They closed the game with 16 total threes in the game and shot a staggering 55% from beyond the arc in the second half. The Seawolves would knock down a couple late threes and get some stops to cut into the lead but the game would finish 77-56 in favor of the Wolves. Shooting guard Kenny Olsem would notch a season high with 13 points in the loss. 9 of his 13 would come in the second half as he finished 4 of 5 from the field and was able to knock down all 5 of his free throws. 

Jaylen Wells would follow with 11 points on the night. Junior transfer Preston Blakely would make his presence felt as well for the Seawolves as he got his first career start in an SSU uniform and was able to record 7 points on 3-6 shooting. Sonoma State will forget about this one and look ahead to the weekend as they travel down to Oakland to take on Fresno Pacific in a neutral site matchup next weekend. For live stat links, live stream links, and additional game information, head to sonomaseawolves.com. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. @SonomaSeawolves #NomaNation