January 29, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ore. –
Chris Banchero and
Rafael Moreira combined for 44 points Thursday, helping the Seattle Pacific men remain atop the Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball standings with a 96-70 victory at Western Oregon.
The Falcons improved to 5-1 in conference play and 12-5 overall. SPU defeated the Wolves for the eighth straight time and leads the series 29-12. Western Oregon dropped to 7-10 and 1-5 in GNAC games.
Banchero led all players with 24 points. That was the sixth 20-point performance of the season for the sophomore guard out of Seattle's O'Dea High School.
Moreira made all nine of his shot attempts to compile 20 points. The 6-foot-9 junior grabbed eight rebounds to spark a 44-31 SPU advantage in that category.
“They don't have a lot of size and when we were able to get the ball into Rafael we were able to score fairly easily. He had a nice game,” Falcons coach Jeff Hironaka described.
Along with a commanding effort on the boards, the Falcons controlled the inside offensively. SPU outscored the Wolves 60-34 in the paint.
Another area of domination for the Falcons was in points off turnovers. Western Oregon had just 14 miscues, but SPU cashed in on nearly all of them with 27 points off turnovers.
“We were able to get out and run on them a little bit,” Hironaka said. “We got some steals to get going the other way and change the momentum.”
The visitors had nine turnovers, which the Wolves parlayed into only three points.
The Falcons converted eight of their first nine shots to race out to a 17-8 margin four minutes into the game. The lead expanded to 46-23 on a Banchero layup with 3:13 left in the first half.
By the time halftime arrived, SPU had compiled its highest first-half point total of the season en route to a 52-33 lead. The previous best first-half total for the Falcons was a 50-point output against Saint Martin's on Jan. 8.
“Offensively we executed pretty well early. They were in a man defense and we were able to get some easy looks,” Hironaka explained. “On the defensive side of it we were able to take them a little bit out of their offense.
“We got up on them and they zoned the rest of the half. We continued to try to attack the zone and we had 52 points at the half.”
The differential grew to 25 points three minutes into the second half before the Wolves outscored SPU 21-8 over the next six minutes to draw within 70-58.
The Falcons responded with a run of their own, closing the game with a 26-12 surge.
“They got to the basket a little bit, hit some open threes and had some easy transition buckets to get themselves back into the game,” said Hironaka. “Fortunately we were able to hold them at bay and get ourselves going again.”
SPU shot 52 percent for the game, making 37-of-71 shots from the field despite a 4-of-13 effort behind the 3-point line. WOU was limited to 42-percent shooting (26-of-62) and just 3-of-15 on treys.
Rob Diederichs contributed 17 points for SPU and
Casey Reed added 10.
Travis Kuhns tallied 20 points to pace the Wolves, who also got 15 from Sam Kelly and 12 apiece from Mike McLaughlin and Stanley Ratcliff.
The Falcons return home to Brougham Pavilion, Saturday, Jan. 31 to play Central Washington at 3:30 p.m. That is the nightcap of the annual Homecoming doubleheader that tips off at 1:30 p.m. with the 14th-ranked SPU women hosting Montana State Billings.
Seattle Pacific vs. Western Oregon
Jan. 29, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
At NPE Building (Monmouth, Ore.)
SEATTLE PACIFIC 96, WESTERN OREGON 70
SEATTLE PACIFIC (12-5, 5-1 GNAC)
Banchero 10-18 3-4 24; Moreira 9-9 2-3 20; Diederichs 6-8 5-7 17; Reed 4-11 2-2 10; Larrieu 4-9 0-0 9; Downs 1-5 2-2 5; Anderson 1-2 2-2 4; Wardell 1-3 2-4 4; Vranes 1-1 0-0 3; Hope 0-2 0-0 0; Johnson 0-3 0-0 0; Campanaro 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-71 18-24 96.
WESTERN OREGON (7-10, 1-5 GNAC)
Kuhns 6-13 7-8 20; Kelly 6-10 3-4 15; McLaughlin 4-9 4-4 12; Ratcliff 6-11 0-0 12; Long 1-6 1-2 4; Schmidt 1-2 0-0 3; Wheadon 1-8 0-0 2; Blok, 1-1 0-0 2; Bourne 0-0 0-0 0; Thrash 0-1 0-0 0; Harris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-62 15-18 70.
Seattle Pacific............... 52 44 - 96
Western Oregon................ 33 37 - 70
3-point goals-Seattle Pacific 4-13 (Downs 1-4; Larrieu 1-2; Banchero 1-3; Vranes 1-1; Anderson 0-1; Reed 0-1; Diederichs 0-1), Western Oregon 3-15 (Schmidt 1-1; Long 1-4; Kuhns 1-3; Wheadon 0-4; Harris 0-1; Kelly 0-2). Fouled out--Seattle Pacific-None, Western Oregon-McLaughlin.
Rebounds-Seattle Pacific 44 (Moreira 8), Western Oregon 31 (Kuhns 8). Assists-Seattle Pacific 14 (Diederichs 3), Western Oregon 13 (Kuhns 4; Kelly 4). Total fouls-Seattle Pacific 16, Western Oregon 18. A-183
