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BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Fresher Falcons won it at the end.

The 12th-ranked Seattle Pacific men used their normal substitution patterns Thursday while No. 15 Western Washington used its starters for nearly the entire second half.

SPU's better-rested players outscored their Vikings' counterparts 16-4 inside the final five minutes and tallied the game's last seven points en route to a 73-66 basketball victory at Carver Gymnasium.

WWU's five starters remained in the game for the majority of the second half. The Vikings did not make a second-half substitution until 18:15 had expired.

“We tried to do a great job of managing who we had in the game the entire first half knowing that in big games this year Western has played people like Morris Anderson for 40 minutes,” said first-year SPU coach Ryan Looney. “We tried to keep our guys fresh to the best of our ability, knowing that that we would need them at the end.”

Anderson was in for all 40 minutes and teammate Derrick Webb also played the entire second half. The three other WWU starters were out of the game for just one minute after intermission.

SPU starting junior point guard Chris Banchero also played the whole second half, but that came after foul trouble limited him to just 12 first-half minutes. The other four starters got quality second-half rest before the late-game spree.

The first-place Falcons (13-2) remained undefeated in four Great Northwest Athletic Conference contests. Defending league champion WWU (16-3) dropped to 3-2 in GNAC play.

“This was a big one for us on the road, playing another team that is going to be at the top of our conference at the end of the year,” said Looney, who was glad the game wasn't being judged on style points.

“Both teams did a great job defensively of taking each other out of what we were trying to do offensively. So, for a spectator it was probably a pretty ugly game to watch. But at the end of the day we just made a few more plays than they did, especially down the stretch.”

The Falcons were ahead from midway through the first half until the 10:55 mark of the second half when WWU used a 10-4 run to capture the lead. The Vikings pushed their margin to as many as five points, at 62-57, on a dunk by Zach Bruce with 5:08 remaining. They scored only four points the rest of the way.

Senior Brandon Larrieu started the 16-4 game-ending surge by driving into the lane, stopping and leaning back for a free-throw line jumper that put SPU ahead 68-66 with 1:12 remaining.

“Even on that play Western did a good job taking us out of what we were trying to run on that possession. Late in the shot clock Brandon broke his guy down off the dribble and hit a big pull-up jumper,” Looney described. “It was great for our team to make sure that he had the ball in his hands because he's one of the people that we need taking those type of shots.”

After WWU's  Anderson nailed two free throws at 1:32 to tie the score 66-66, the Falcons closed out the game with seven straight points.

Banchero poured in 12 of his 17 points in the second half. He converted 5 of 6 free throws over the final 35 seconds to complete the scoring.

Larrieu scored 12 of his team-high 18 points during the first half. He hit 7 of 12 shots from the field while contributing five assists and three steals.

Rafael Moreira and Jeff Downs each scored 14 points for SPU, which shot 56 percent from the field (27 of 48) while limiting the Vikings to 41-percent (26 of 64) accuracy.

Downs made 4 of 6 treys, leading the Falcons to a 7-of-15 performance from 3-point range. WWU made just 3 of 20 treys.

Anderson finished with 22 points to pace the Vikings, who also got 13 from Bruce, 11 from Webb and 10 from Andrew Ready.

The Vikings scored the game's first four points and led 14-13 before SPU went on a 13-5 run, ignited by five straight points from Downs. He hit a jumper and a 3-point basket to start the surge that netted the Falcons a 26-19 lead with 7:20 left in the first half.

SPU lead the rest of the half. WWU drew within 31-30 on a Richard Woodward layup at 1:45. SPU tallied the final five points, including Downs' long 3-pointer at the buzzer to claim a 36-30 halftime advantage.

The Falcons won for the ninth time in their last 10 meetings with Western to extend their series lead to 73-45. It was their fifth straight victory at Carver Gym, including an 82-77 win on Mar. 13 that knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Division II Tournament.

The SPU men return home for their upcoming three games, and six of their next seven, beginning Saturday against Montana State Billings. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Brougham Pavilion.

“We are looking at a bigger picture,” said Looney of the Falcons' bid for their third GNAC title in the last five seasons. “We play six of seven at home now so we're going to make a huge emphasis on taking care of the home court.”