• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Senior Chris Banchero scored over half of Seattle Pacific's points Saturday, pouring in a career-high 42 to lead the Falcons to an 81-68 win over the host school in the final game of the Dominican Classic men's basketball tournament at the Conlan Center.

Banchero scored seven points during the final 3:44, fueling the Falcons' 14-1 game-closing surge. His 42-point total is the fourth-highest in school history and the most points since Dustin Bremerman amassed 43 on Dec. 2, 2006. The SPU single-game record of 54 points was established in 1958 by Loren Anderson.

A product of Seattle's O'Dea High School, Banchero's previous best collegiate output was 34 points on two occasions. He made 11 of 17 shots from the field Saturday.

“He did an unbelievable job carrying us tonight. Dominican played extremely hard and we had a tough time matching that on the road right before Christmas break,” said SPU coach Ryan Looney.

“At the end of the day in a close game Chris was able to make a ton of plays, a lot of them in the second half.”

The Falcons (6-2) battled from behind to win their fifth consecutive game. They trailed by as many as seven points against Dominican (0-7).

SPU led 17-12 before Dominican reeled off six straight points. That started an 18-6 run that put the Penguins ahead 30-23. They maintained that lead the rest of the period, settling on a 38-37 halftime edge as SPU's Banchero hit a pair of free throws with 16 seconds on the clock.

The second half featured six ties before Banchero hit a turnaround jumper in the lane with 3:44 left to play to give the Falcons the lead for good at 69-67. Senior Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) followed with a 3-pointer with 2:20 remaining and then SPU scored its final nine points from the free throw line.

Sophomore Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) produced his second double-double as a Falcon with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The 7-footer is a transfer from Gonzaga in his first season at SPU.

Adam Chavis scored 22 points to lead the Penguins, who also got 14 from Leon Hart and 12 from Ian Collins.

SPU shot 51 percent from the floor (23 of 45), while limiting the Penguins to 44 percent (25 of 57). The Falcons registered a 17-point scoring advantage from the free throw line, hitting 32 of 43 shots while Dominican was 15 of 22.

Banchero headed the Falcons' effort from the line, converting 19 of his 21 free throws. He attempted one fewer charity shot than the entire Dominican team.

“Chris has a lot of upper body strength and his foot speed is a lot faster than people that are guarding him,” Looney described. “He does a good job of using both of those to get into people's bodies and get himself to the line.”

Banchero raised his season scoring average to 25.5 points. He presaged a high-scoring regular season with prolific production during the exhibition campaign. Banchero surpassed the 30-point barrier in all three preseason outings, two of them against NCAA Division I opponents. He tallied 38 points in an 87-82 victory at Eastern Washington on Nov. 2, and 33 in an 84-81 win at Nevada on Nov. 6.

The SPU men, who defeated Notre Dame de Namur 82-76 on Friday in the opening round of the Dominican Classic, concluded their non-conference campaign with a 6-2 record.

The Falcons begin Great Northwest Athletic Conference play at home on Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. against Western Oregon.

“We're excited. It's like starting a whole new season,” said Looney.

“We feel good about where we are at. We've played a lot of in-region games and we're 6-1 in those games. At the same time we need to find a way to play a little bit more inspired than we did this past weekend.”


NCAA Men's Basketball
Dominican Classic
Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010
Conlan Center/San Rafael, Calif.

SEATTLE PACIFIC 81, DOMINICAN (CA) 68

SEATTLE PACIFIC (6-2)
Banchero 11-17 19-21 42; Poling 8-13 1-4 17; J. Downs 2-7 3-4 9; Morse 1-1 4-4 6; Sweet 0-1 3-4 3; Niang 0-1 2-5 2; Moll 1-1 0-0 2; Anderson 0-2 0-1 0; Dorman 0-2 0-0 0; Carel 0-0 0-0 0; D. Downs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-45 32-43 81.

DOMINICAN (CA) (0-7)
Chavis 7-12 8-11 22; Hart 6-9 2-3 14; Collins 5-10 2-4 12; Muldrow 2-2 2-2 7; Haysbert 2-7 0-0 4; Holmes 1-5 0-0 3; Carrillo 1-5 0-0 3; Lewis 1-5 0-0 2; Larson 0-1 1-2 1; Cheledinas 0-1 0-0 0; McKinnon 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-57 15-22 68.

Halftime – DU 38, SPU 37.

3-point goals--SPU 3-11 (J. Downs 2-6; Banchero 1-4; Dorman 0-1), DU 3-9 (Muldrow 1-1; Holmes 1-5; Carrillo 1-2; Cheledinas 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, DU-Muldro; Collins. Rebounds--SPU 41 (Poling 10), DU 22 (Collins 5). Assists--SPU 6 (Banchero 2), DU 13 (Collins 3). Total fouls--SPU 21, DU 32. Technical fouls--SPU-None, DU-None. Att.-173.