• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

SEATTLE – The Falcons solid effort wasn't quite good enough Thursday against the 17th-ranked men's basketball team in NCAA Division II.

Jody Johnson scored 15 points, including two free throws with 1.3 seconds remaining that sealed Central Washington's 72-68 win over short-handed Seattle Pacific in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference clash at Brougham Pavilion.

Central (12-2) improved to 5-1 in conference games. The defending league champion Falcons (8-5) fell to 2-3 in GNAC play.

"I was excited with the way our guys battled tonight and executed our game plan too," SPU Coach Ryan Looney said. "We thought that if we could keep the score in the 70s against a team that likes to play at a fast pace, we'd have a chance."

The Wildcats were held more than 12 points below the 84.5-point average they carried into Thursday's contest.

SPU never led and trailed by as many as nine points in the second half before drawing within 70-68 on two free throws by Ryan Sweet with 1.9 seconds left to play. The Wildcats inbounded to Johnson, who was immediately fouled and sank both subsequent free throws to cap the scoring.



The Falcons were playing their second game without senior All-America point guard Chris Banchero (Seattle, Wash./O'Dea HS), whose collegiate career was ended by a knee injury suffered last Thursday at Alaska Fairbanks. Banchero, the 2010 GNAC Player of the Year, was averaging 24.0 points and 5.6 assists per game.

SPU was also without the services of its fifth-leading scorer (7.1 ppg), junior Jake Anderson (Burlington, Wash./Burlington-Edison HS), who got a mild concussion after a collision in practice Wednesday.

"We've all of a sudden turned into a different type of a team. We talked to our team in the locker room about not making excuses for ourselves because we are down a couple guys," Looney said. "In all reality, if we limit the mental mistakes we made in the game it might have been a little bit of a different outcome."

Jamar Berry tied for team-high honors with 15 points for CWU, which also got 12 from Chris Sprinker and 11 from Drew Harris.

Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS) paced the Falcons with 15 points. Gonzaga transfer Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) contributed 14 points and Jeff Downs added 11.

Freshman David Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) started the last two games in place of the sidelined Banchero. He followed up Saturday's 12-point, 7-assist, no-turnover effort at Alaska Anchorage with 14 points, seven assists and three turnovers against CWU.

Those are outstanding numbers, especially for a first-year collegian. But Downs will not be able to replace Banchero by himself.

"I don't think he can go in there and expect to be Chris, especially at this point in his career because in all honesty they are different players," Looney described. "Dave's going to get way more experience than he probably thought he was going to get this year. Here real quick he's got to turn into a sophomore. We can't let him be a freshman the rest of the year."

The Falcons lost despite shooting 56 percent (24 of 43) from the field, including a 5-of-10 performance from 3-point range.

Central, which shot 51 percent (28 of 55), parlayed 19 SPU turnovers into 20 points.

"Our problem was that we turned it over way too many times," said Looney. "We shot a high percentage from the floor and from the line, probably as good as we can expect to do. We just didn't get to shoot it enough."

After Central took an early lead, SPU evened the score at 15-15 on a layup by Jeff Downs with 13:03 left in the first half. The Wildcats answered with a 14-8 run, getting points from five different players, to capture the lead for good at 29-23 with 7:57 on the clock.

SPU again closed the gap, scoring six straight points to move within 35-31. Central scored the final four points of the period, on a Harris layup and two Berry free throws, to claim a 39-33 halftime advantage.

The Falcons continue their five-game homestand on Saturday when Northwest Nazarene comes to Brougham Pavilion for a 7 p.m. conference game.


NCAA Men's Basketball
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON 72, SEATTLE PACIFIC 68

CENTRAL WASHINGTON (12-2, 5-1 GNAC)
Berry 5-11 2-2 15, Johnson 6-10 3-4 15, Sprinker 5-7 2-3 12, Harris 5-8 1-2 11, Scott 3-4 1-2 8, Perez 2-8 3-4 7, Gibler 2-6 0-0 4, Clyde 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-55 12-17 72.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (8-5, 2-3 GNAC)
Sweet 5-7 4-4 15, Poling 7-12 0-0 14, D. Downs 4-8 4-5 14, J. Downs 4-5 1-1 11, Niang 1-2 4-4 6, Dorman 2-4 0-0 4, Morse 1-3 2-2 4, Moll 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-43 15-16 68.

Halftime -- CWU 39, SPU 33.

3-point goals--CWU 4-10 (Berry 3-4, Scott 1-2, Harris 0-1, Perez 0-3), SPU 5-10 (J. Downs 2-2, D. Downs 2-3, Sweet 1-2, Dorman 0-1, Morse 0-1, Moll 0-1). Fouled out--CWU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--CWU 26 (Johnson 7), SPU 22 (Poling 5). Assists--CWU 13 (Perez 5), SPU 18 (D. Downs 7). Total fouls--CWU 20, SPU 16. Technical fouls--CWU-None, SPU-None. Att.-631.