BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University senior forward Deandre Dickson celebrated Senior Day with a 16-point, 6-rebound performance to help lead the Vikings to a 70-60 victory over Alaska Fairbanks Saturday afternoon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play on WECU Court in Carver Gym.

The Vikings won their fifth consecutive game to improve to 20-6 overall and maintain sole possession of second place in the GNAC with a 15-3 record. The Nanooks drop to 10-14 overall and 8-10 in league play.

“I thought we did a good job of being mentally focused in the first half,” said head coach Tony Dominguez, who has led the Vikings to at least 20 wins in five of his six seasons at the helm of the program. “I am very excited about our defense. That is not where we were at a few weeks ago. We’ve worked hard on defense and need to continue to work on the defensive end while remaining mentally focused.”

Sophomore forward Daulton Hommes (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian) led all players with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting, and sophomore guard Trevor Jasinsky (Camas, WA) was perfect from the floor going 4-for-4 for 14 points, including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.

WWU’s defense once again had a standout performance, holding its opponent to a sub 70-point performance for the fourth consecutive game. The Vikings shot 47.2% from the field (25-for-53), while holding UAF to a 40.0% mark (24-for-60).

“We were focused on finishing our home schedule on a strong note and felt like we did that,” said Hommes on the postgame show on VikingsTV. “We are excited for what we have in front of us with the road trip to Oregon and then to Anchorage for the GNAC Tournament. When the regional rankings came out and we were not in them, it made us really hungry.”

Dickson (Easton, CA/Bakersfield College) was 7-for-13 from the floor, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first half, and also tallied a game-high 3 blocked shots. Junior point guard Trey Drechsel (Woodinville, WA/Cedar Park Christian) had his string of 10 consecutive games scoring in double-digits snapped, but scored 7 points with a game-high 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Nanooks were led by 14 points each from junior forward Alex Baham (5-for-8 FG) and sophomore guard Jalon McCullough (6-for-10 FG).

The Vikings took a 16-point lead into halftime at 38-22, ending the period on a 17-5 run over the final 8:07 of the half. Dickson led the led all players with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting (2-for-3 3FG). Hommes added 9 points on 3-for-5 shooting, as the Vikings shot 48.1% in the half (13-for-27). McCullough led the Nanooks with 8 points on 3-for-6 shooting, with UAF held to 31.0% from the floor (9-for-29).

UAF out-scored the Vikings 38-32 in the second half, but the big halftime deficit proved too much to overcome. The Nanooks cut WWU’s lead to 10 points at 61-51 with 6:35 remaining in the game on a Baham 3-pointer, but WWU immediately went on a 9-0 run to take its largest lead of the game at 70-51. Hommes scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, while Baham led all players with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting in the final period.

The Vikings (20-6, 15-3) takes to the road during the final week of the regular season, playing at first-place Western Oregon on Thursday (7 pm) in Monmouth and then Concordia on Saturday (7 pm) in Portland. Both games can be followed via a live webcast and live stats at GNAC.tv. WWU will then head to the postseason for the 10th consecutive season competing in the GNAC Championships that will be held March 1-3 at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska.

Game Notes: WWU’s four seniors – Blake Fernandez, Brett Kingma, Brad Wallace, Deandre Dickson – were honored on Senior Day playing their last home game in Carver Gym…the 1987-88 men’s basketball team was honored before and during halftime in a 30th anniversary celebration of the season in which they reached the second round of the NAIA National Tournament…WWU has held its opponent to fewer than 70 points in each of the last 4 games (average of 61.25 points/game)…Daulton Hommes has scored in double-digits in 25 of WWU’s 26 games and leads the team averaging 17.9 points/game…the Vikings held a 35-31 advantage in rebounds, continuing a trend that has seen WWU out-rebound its opponent in 24 of 26 contests (+10.3 rebound margin)…WWU out-blocked UAF 5-0 and has not had a shot blocked in four consecutive games…WWU was 12-for-16 from the free throw line and is now shooting 77.6% from the charity stripe for the season (436-for-562)…Logan Schilder recorded one blocked shot to give him 94 in his career, 10th-most in WWU history and 20th-most in GNAC history.