• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

SEATTLE – A timeout midway through Saturday's sluggish first half was the turning point for the Falcons.

Chris Banchero poured in 23 points and Andy Poling scored a career-high 21 – including Seattle Pacific's first nine of the second half – as the Falcons overcame a slow start to rout Grand Canyon 71-52 in the final game of the SPU Invitational men's basketball tournament at Brougham Pavilion.

Seattle Pacific (4-2) hit just two of its first 12 shots and was down 15-6 with 10:29 left in the first half when Coach Ryan Looney signaled for a timeout.

"We needed to wake up a little bit. We just came out flat," said Poling (Portland, Ore.). "It wasn't going on offense and it was affecting our defense, which we can't let happen. So coach just woke us up a little bit and ever since that point we kind of turned it on."

Looney agreed the timeout was more motivational than tactical.

"Grand Canyon does a great job in regards to defense. They took us out of out of our stuff, especially early in the game," he described. "Rather than tinkering with what we were doing, we talked a lot about defending well ourselves and I think our guys responded the right way."

The re-focused Falcons found their shooting touch after the timeout. They scored the next eight points to ignite a 25-6 run that netted a 31-21 lead near the end of the half.

Grand Canyon (2-5) cut the SPU lead to six by halftime at 31-25, and was still within striking range at 44-37 with 14:54 to play.

But the Falcons ran off the next nine points -- with Banchero scoring six of them and making the pass that led to a 3-pointer by Downs – to expand their advantage to 53-37, and never led by less than double-digits the rest of the way.



Senior guard Banchero (Seattle/O'Dea HS) was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Senior wing Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS), who had 11 points on Saturday after tying his career high with 23 in Friday's 79-65 victory against 23rd-ranked Chaminade, joined Banchero on the all-tournament team.

The 21 points by Poling (Portland, Ore.) easily beat his previous career high of 13, which set in the season-opener against Cal State East Bay on Nov. 19 and tied on Friday against Chaminade.

"I got my timing down a little bit tonight. Guys were definitely looking for me a little more once they saw that I was starting to get it going a little bit," said Poling.

The sophomore center, a transfer from Gonzaga, averaged 17 points and eight rebounds during the Invitational.

"We were struggling on offense and their big kid got in a little bit of foul trouble. We made an emphasis at halftime to start getting Andy the ball," Looney said. "Not only was he finishing plays, but their starting five man ended up leaving early."

GCU's 6-foot-7 starting center Gaby Ngoundjo fouled out with 6:14 to play after scoring just two points.

The two-game sweep was the first for the Falcons in three non-conference tournaments this season.

Banchero's output pushed him past the 1,200-point mark for his four-year SPU career. He now has 1,218 points to rank 11th on the school's career scoring list, moving ahead of Scott Rolfness (1,211) and Craig Kispert (1,210). Banchero needs 15 points to move into the top-10 and surpass Orville Anderson, who compiled 1,232 points from 1955-59.

On Saturday, Banchero hit 7 of 14 from the field and 9 of 10 from the foul line. He also amassed eight assists, six rebounds and four steals.

For the season, Banchero is averaging 6.5 assists per game.



Saturday was SPU's second victory against Grand Canyon in a week's time. The Falcons beat the Antelopes 79-68 the previous Saturday (Nov. 27) in the final game of the GCU Thanksgiving Classic on the Antelopes' home court in Phoenix.

Grand Canyon was led by the 13 points of Kyle Speed. Brad Carroll added 10.

After a subpar 36-percent (9 of 25) shooting performance during the first half, SPU shot 54 percent after halftime (15 of 28) to finish at 45 percent for the game (24 of 53). The Falcons limited Grand Canyon to 39 percent shooting for the game (20 of 52).

Senior post player Ryan Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./Whatcom CC) grabbed eight of the Falcons' 41 rebounds. Poling and junior wing Jake Anderson (Burlington, Wash./Burlington-Edison HS) had six apiece. Grand Canyon collected just 26 boards.

With final exams this week, the Falcons take a break from competition until Dec. 17 when the meet Notre Dame de Namur at the Dominican Invitational in San Rafael, Calif. They face host Dominican the following night and return home on Dec. 30 to host Western Oregon at 2 p.m. in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener.

"In my seventh year being a head coach now, my teams have always had a little bit of a lull during finals week. So we didn't even schedule a game this time," Looney said.

"The schedule that we've had so far, it's been pretty tough. We'll be able to give our guys a day off at some point this week, kind of regroup and get our batteries recharged. We've got two more non-conference games before we start league play."

Grand Canyon's Carroll, Jamar Berry of Central Washington and Steven Bennett of Chaminade also made the all-tournament team.

In the first game of the evening, 24th-ranked Central Washington completed a two-game sweep by downing No. 23 Chaminade, 92-81. The Wildcats defeated Grand Canyon 56-52 in their opener on Friday.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
SPU Invitational
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

Seattle Pacific 71, Grand Canyon 52

GRAND CANYON (2-5)
Speed, Kyle 5-9 2-2 13; Carroll, Brad 3-7 2-2 10; Johnson, Chris 3-7 2-3 8;
Witherill, Nick 3-5 0-1 7; Pickrel, Braylon 1-4 0-0 3; Morin, Steve 1-5 0-0
3; Robbins, Barret 1-4 0-0 2; Wesolowski, Justin 1-4 0-2 2; Ngoundjo, Gaby
1-2 0-0 2; Tchatchoua, Rony 1-2 0-2 2; Currier, Travis 0-0 0-0 0; Nelson,
Cooper 0-0 0-0 0; Wynn, Fletcher 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 6-12 52.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (4-2)
Banchero, Chris 7-14 9-10 23; Poling, Andy 9-13 3-4 21; Downs, Jeff 4-7 0-0
11; Anderson, Jake 2-4 2-2 6; Sweet, Ryan 1-5 3-4 5; Downs, David 1-3 1-2 4;
Hope, Grant 0-0 1-2 1; Niang, Modou 0-1 0-0 0; Morse, Scott 0-1 0-0 0; Moll,
Kellan 0-1 0-0 0; Dorman, Jeff 0-4 0-0 0; Carel, Riley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
24-53 19-24 71.

Grand Canyon.................... 25 27 - 52
Seattle Pacific................... 31 40 - 71

3-point goals--Grand Canyon 6-18 (Carroll, Brad 2-4; Morin, Steve 1-5;
Witherill, Nick 1-2; Speed, Kyle 1-2; Pickrel, Braylon 1-3; Wynn, Fletcher
0-1; Wesolowski, Justin 0-1), Seattle Pacific 4-17 (Downs, Jeff 3-5; Downs,
David 1-3; Anderson, Jake 0-1; Sweet, Ryan 0-2; Dorman, Jeff 0-3; Banchero,
Chris 0-3). Fouled out--Grand Canyon-Ngoundjo, Gaby, Seattle Pacific-None.
Rebounds--Grand Canyon 26 (Wesolowski, Justin 9), Seattle Pacific 41 (Sweet,
Ryan 8). Assists--Grand Canyon 14 (Wesolowski, Justin 4), Seattle Pacific 13
(Banchero, Chris 8). Total fouls--Grand Canyon 22, Seattle Pacific 13.
Technical fouls--Grand Canyon-TEAM, Seattle Pacific-None. A-431.