• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- The result was good. The way they accomplished it wasn't.

Chris Banchero scored 14 of his game-high 25 points during the first half Friday as Seattle Pacific surged ahead early and held off Notre Dame de Namur for an 82-76 victory on the first day of the Dominican Classic men's basketball tournament at the Conlan Center.

“Obviously we're happy wining a game away from home, but we thought our overall performance as a team probably wasn't as good as it needs to be,” said second-year SPU coach Ryan Looney.

“We're not too far away from playing conference games and we don't have too many opportunities to get better. So I think we're a little bit disappointed in regards to our lack of execution on offense and then, especially down the stretch, our attention to detail defensively wasn't very good.”

The Falcons (5-2) got two free throws each from Banchero and sophomore Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) inside the opening minute and went wire-to-wire for the win. They outscored NDNU 26-16 from the line on 10 more attempts (32 to 22).

Banchero's layup five minutes into the contest put SPU ahead 11-3. His 3-pointer with 8:46 left in the first half provided the largest lead of the night at 22-10.

The Argonauts (1-7) responded with a 13-3 run to trim the deficit to 25-23 at 5:02. SPU extended its advantage to 34-28 at halftime, capped by two more free throws from Banchero.

A point guard from Seattle's O'Dea High School, Banchero hit 4 of 8 shots from the field in the opening half, including 2 of 4 treys, and converted all four of his first-period free throws. He made just 1 of 4 shots in the second half, tallying nine points from the line.

Poling picked up the scoring slack, scoring 18 of his 22 points after intermission. The 7-foot transfer from Gonzaga, who shot 8 of 13 from the field, reached the 20-point plateau for the second straight game.

“In regards to how Notre Dame was playing us, we probably should have been giving it to Andy the entire time,” Looney explained. “We talked a lot at halftime about playing a little bit less selfish and doing a better job getting it to the bigs because in all reality that's what they were giving us. Our team did a better job recognizing that in the second half and Andy was the benefactor.”

Senior Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) added 15 points for SPU, including 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range.

Arron Mollet paced the Argonauts with 19 points. Tyler Fricke and Jeff Ford scored 18 and 16 points, respectively.

NDNU netted the first two baskets in the second half, drawing within 34-32 with 18:27 left to play.

Poling answered with a layup and Banchero followed with an easy basket, putting the Falcons in control the rest of the way. After SPU went up by 12 points, at 58-46 with 10:09 remaining, the Argonauts never got closer than five points.

Seattle Pacific brings a four-game winning streak into Saturday night's 7:30 p.m. tournament game against host Dominican, which lost 88-62 to Saint Martin's in Friday's nightcap. That is the final non-league game for the Falcons, who start Great Northwest Athletic Conference play at home on Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. against Western Oregon.

SPU was impressive in its previous outings, beating 23rd-ranked Chaminade (79-65) and Grand Canyon (71-52) at home on consecutive days. But that was nearly two weeks ago, on Dec. 3 and 4. The Falcons didn't compete last week during final exams.

The lengthy layoff showed Friday as SPU wasn't as sharp, shooting just 44 percent (25 of 57) from the field while allowing NDNU to hit 48-percent of his attempts (28 of 58).

“Like I told our guys after the game, we have to congratulate ourselves for winning a game away from home,” Looney said. “In all reality, if you are ever going to win any kind of championship you have to find ways to win ones like tonight. At the same time we know that we need to do a better job in the future.”


NCAA Men's Basketball
Dominican Classic
Friday, Dec. 17, 2010
Conlan Center/San Rafael, Calif.

SEATTLE PACIFIC 82, NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR 76

NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR (1-7)
Mollet 6-13 6-10 19; Fricke 7-10 2-2 18; Ford 5-15 5-6 16; Storment 3-6 0-1 6; Pettit 1-2 2-2 4; Hightower 2-3 0-0 4; Lishman 1-1 1-1 3; Lee 1-5 0-0 2; Malloy 1-1 0-0 2; Pyrol 1-1 0-0 2; Hartvigson 0-0 0-0 0; Kelley 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 16-22 76.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (5-2)
Banchero 5-12 13-15 25; Poling 8-13 6-8 22; J. Downs 4-9 4-4 15; Dorman 2-5 0-1 5; Sweet 2-4 1-2 5; Moll 2-2 0-0 4; Niang 1-1 0-0 2; Anderson 1-6 0-0 2; D. Downs 0-3 2-2 2; Morse 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-57 26-32 82.

Halftime – SPU 34, NDNU 28

3-point goals--NDNU 4-12 (Fricke 2-4; Ford 1-4; Mollet 1-3; Lee 0-1), SPU 6-12 (J. Downs 3-5; Banchero 2-4; Dorman 1-2; Anderson 0-1). Fouled out--NDNU-Pettit; Ford, SPU-None. Rebounds--NDNU 32 (Ford 11), SPU 34 (Sweet 7). Assists--NDNU 12 (Pettit 4), SPU 14 (Banchero 4). Total fouls--NDNU 20, SPU 16. Technical fouls--NDNU-None, SPU-None. Att.-127.