Box score, play-by-play

SEATTLE – The 75th all-time victory over an old rival helped the Seattle Pacific men hit a new millennium on Wednesday night.

Andy Poling pumped in 20 points, and Ryan Sweet added 14 – including four at the free throw line in the final 16 seconds – as the Falcons hung on to beat Western Washington 69-61 in a basketball game televised regionally by FSN Northwest from Brougham Pavilion.

The victory was the 1,000th in Seattle Pacific men's basketball history. The Falcons compiled a 1,000-674 all-time record since starting the program in the 1943-44 season.

SPU has a 75-45 advantage in the all-time series with WWU. The Falcons continued their recent domination of the series against their Northwest rival, winning for the 11th time in the last 12 meetings.

The win gave SPU (12-5, 6-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) sole possession of third place in the conference standings ahead of Western (10-7, 5-4).

A transfer from Gonzaga, the 6-foot-11 Poling made 9 of 16 shots from the field. He contributed two blocked shots and a steal after halftime.

"He was good in a big-time game when we needed him," Coach Ryan Looney said of his first-year Falcons post man. "Sometimes people forget he's only a sophomore. He'll be a really good player for us the rest of this year and years to come."



Poling deflected the credit to his teammates.

"All in all it was a just a great team effort," he said. "We talked all week about playing inside-out and they were really looking for me tonight."

Senior wing Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) chipped in 15 points for the Falcons.

Western was led by the 17 points of sophomore guard John Allen, who got all of them during the first half on 7 of 8 shooting before missing all six of his second-half shots.

Some tactical adjustments at halftime paid off for SPU, which trailed 36-31 at intermission.

"We gave up too many second-chance opportunities in the first half and too much transition-type play from John Allen their point guard," Looney explained. "We went in at halftime and talked about corralling the ball in transition and trying to get it out of his hands. That was probably the most telling story. He had 17 points in the first half and zero in the second."

Seattle Pacific trailed for almost the entire first half and through the first 7½ minutes of the second half. Then, down 48-45 with 14:45 to play, the Falcons scored the next six points. A short turnaround shot by junior post player Modou Niang (Richard-Toll, Senegal) put them up 49-48 with 12:26 left, and they never trailed again.

The Falcons firmed up their grip on the momentum with 7:50 left when Niang rebounded a missed David Downs lay-up, and went back up for a putback dunk, making it 57-52, bringing the crowd of 1,329 to its feet and forcing the Vikings to call a timeout.

SPU was up four at 63-59 when Western's Chris Mitchell was fouled on a 3-point try with 17.8 seconds left. He hit his first two free throws, but missed the third.

Senior post player Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS) hauled down the rebound, and was fouled immediately. He swished both ends of the one-and-one for a 65-61 lead at the 16.6-second mark. Allen then took the ball coast-to-coast and went for a lay-in that was blocked by Niang.

Sweet grabbed that rebound, was fouled, and again hit both of his free throws, pushing it to 67-61 with 9.5 seconds remaining. The Vikings never got off another shot, as Jeff Downs stole the ball, went back to the other end and laid it in with four-tenths of a second left.

After shooting just 40.6 percent during the first half, the Falcons warmed up to 55.6 percent (15 of 27) during the second half for a final shooting mark of 47.5 percent (28 of 59). They had assists on 22 of those 28 baskets, with David Downs (nine) and Sweet (seven) racking up career-high totals.

Sweet and Poling pulled down nine rebounds apiece.

Rory Blanche tallied 16 points for the Vikings, who got a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double from Zach Henifin.

Western Washington was limited to 40 percent shooting (24 of 60), including just 9 of 27 (33 percent) during the second half. The Vikings did not hit a field goal for the final 6:43 of the game. The Vikings scored 25 fewer points than their GNAC-leading 86.1 average.

The Falcons won their fourth consecutive game in the wake of a two-game losing streak that immediately followed the loss of leading scorer and playmaker Chris Banchero. The senior point guard suffered a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 6 at Alaska Fairbanks. He was the 2010 GNAC Player of the Year and was averaging 22.4 points and 5.6 assists this season.

"I'm really proud of our guys. They've had some adversity here this year and we kind of had to change the way we play," Looney said of alterations since Banchero was sidelined.

"We've had to be a little bit more feisty defensively and try to hold people down on that end and have much more balance on offense. To be where we are at right now considering everything that's happened, I'm extremely excited about our situation."

The SPU men begin their second swing through the GNAC schedule on Saturday at Western Oregon at 7:30 p.m. They play seven of their final nine games on the road.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

Seattle Pacific 69, Western Washington 61

WESTERN WASHINGTON (10-7, 5-4 GNAC)
Allen, 7-14 0-0 17; Blanche, 7-12 2-2 16; Henifin, 4-9 1-2 10; Duty, 3-12 2-2 8; Dickerson, 1-2 0-0 3; Thorpe, 1-3 0-0 3; Nelson, 1-4 0-0 2; Mitchell, 0-3 2-3 2; Young, 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 7-9 61.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (12-5, 6-3 GNAC)
Poling, 9-16 2-5 20; J. Downs 6-13 0-1 15; Sweet, 4-8 4-4 14; D. Downs, 3-9 0-0 7; Niang, 3-5 0-0 6; Anderson, 2-3 0-0 5; Morse, 1-3 0-0 2; Dorman, 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-59 6-10 69.

Western Washington............ 36 25 - 61
Seattle Pacific....................... 31 38 - 69

3-point goals--Western Washington 6-14 (Allen, 3-4; Henifin 1-1; Thorpe, 1-1; Dickerson, 1-2; Mitchell, 0-1; Nelson,0-3; Duty, 0-2), Seattle Pacific 7-21 (J. Downs 3-7; Sweet, 2-5; D. Downs 1-5; Anderson, 1-2; Dorman, 0-1; Morse, 0-1). Fouled out--Western Washington-None, Seattle Pacific-None. Rebounds--Western Washington 36 (Henifin 10), Seattle Pacific 34(Sweet, 9; Poling, 9). Assists--Western Washington 8 (Nelson, 2; Duty, 2; Blanche, 2), Seattle Pacific 22 (Downs, David 9). Total fouls--Western Washington 14, Seattle Pacific 11. Technical fouls--Western Washington-None, Seattle Pacific-None. Att.-1329.

Records –
Seattle Pacific 12-6, 6-3 GNAC
Western Washington 10-7, 5-4 GNAC

Next game –
Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon
Saturday, 7:30 p.m.