• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

LACEY, Wash. – Ryan Sweet was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Monday morning. He spent Monday night staking his claim for next week's award.

Sweet's 24-point, 11-rebound double-double helped the Seattle Pacific men extend their winning streak to a season-best six games with a 77-68 victory at Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball clash at Marcus Pavilion.

“Obviously to win on the road is exciting. We feel pretty good about how things are going right now,” said Coach Ryan Looney. “To have to fight through some adversity, playing with yet another guy down and win on the road is pretty exciting for us.”

The Falcons were without the services of 6-foot-6 junior Jake Anderson (Burlington, Wash./Burlington-Edison HS), who injured his knee on Saturday. His status will be determined later his week. They had already lost All-America point guard Chris Banchero for the season.

Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS) came within one of the career-high 25-point performance he had in Saturday's win at Western Oregon. The 6-foot-6 senior post player was outstanding in both SPU wins last week.

He started the current week off well, hitting 8 of 12 shots from the field and 7 of 8 free throws.

“With injuries now, we've asked everybody to step up and give a little bit more than they have in the past. Ryan's been a guy that's been able to do that for us,” Looney said. “His teammates did a good job of finding him around the basket within offense.”

The third-place Falcons (14-5) improved to 8-3 in conference play. They moved within one-half game of second-place Alaska Anchorage (8-2), which visits SPU's Brougham Pavilion on Thursday at 7 p.m.

SPU swept the season series and defeated Saint Martin's for the 23rd time in the last 25 encounters. The Saints (11-10) dropped to 4-7 in league play.

Neither team led by more than five during the tightly contested first half. The Saints tallied the opening five points and led for much of the period. Their final lead, at 26-25, came on a free throw by Brok Pendleton with 3:26 remaining until halftime.

The Falcons gained control with an 8-2 run inside the final three minutes of the first half. The surge was capped by arguably the play of the night, stretching a likely three-point lead into five.

Sweet was directly under the basket when he rebounded a missed 3-point attempt by teammate David Downs and quickly laid it in at the buzzer to provide SPU a 33-28 advantage at intermission.

“That was really big. We came out of a timeout after drawing up a play and didn't execute exactly what we wanted to,” Looney described. “That's one of the things that we've been talking about, having a high motor and playing until the whistle or playing until the horn goes off. Saint Martin's didn't block him out on that play and he kept going the whole entire time.”

The halftime lead grew to as many as 13 points for the Falcons, who tallied their final 12 points on free throws. They converted 12 of 15 charity shots during the final 2:24 to seal the victory.

Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) scored 16 points for SPU. Sophomore Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.), a 6-foot-11 transfer from Gonzaga, added 14 points. He shot 7 of 8 from the field, pacing the team's 57-percent accuracy (26 of 46).

Blake Poole led the Saints with 22 points while Roger O'Neill chipped in 15. SMU shot 47 percent (27 of 58) from the field.

The Falcons registered a 33-21 rebounding advantage. They limited Poole to just six rebounds, nearly half of his league-leading average of 11.7.

The SPU men play their final two regular-season home games this week, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 3 against Anchorage. The Seawolves won the first meeting 78-61 on Jan. 8 in Alaska in the Falcons' first full game without Banchero, who suffered a season-ending knee injury two nights earlier.

On Saturday, Feb. 5 Alaska Fairbanks visits for Seattle Pacific's Senior Night at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion.

The Falcons then conclude their schedule with five consecutive road games.


NCAA Men's Basketball
Monday, January 31, 2011
Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash.

SEATTLE PACIFIC 77, SAINT MARTIN'S 68

SEATTLE PACIFIC (14-5, GNAC 8-3)
Sweet 8-12 7-8 24, J. Downs 4-8 7-8 16, Poling 7-8 0-1 14, Niang 3-4 2-4 8, Morse 2-4 4-4 8, D. Downs 1-7 2-4 5, Moll 1-1 0-0 2, Dorman 0-1 0-0 0, Carel 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-46 22-29 77.

SAINT MARTIN'S (11-10, GNAC 4-7)
Poole 9-13 3-4 22, O'Neill 6-10 2-2 15, Squiers 4-11 0-0 9, Green 3-10 2-3 8, Taylor 2-4 1-1 6, Russo 2-4 0-0 5, Pendleton 1-6 1-2 3, Votaw 0-0 0-0 0, Bomber 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-58 9-12 68.

Halftime – Seattle Pacific 33, Saint Martin's 28.

3-point goals--Seattle Pacific 3-11 (D. Downs 1-4, J. Downs 1-5, Sweet 1-1, Dorman 0-1), Saint Martin's 5-11 (Squiers 1-4, Russo 1-1, Taylor 1-2, O'Neill 1-2, Poole 1-1, Green 0-1). Fouled out--Seattle Pacific-None, Saint Martin's-None. Rebounds--Seattle Pacific 33 (Sweet 11), Saint Martin's 21 (Poole 6). Assists--Seattle Pacific 14 (D. Downs 9), Saint Martin's 15 (Bomber 4, Squiers 4). Total fouls--Seattle Pacific 13, Saint Martin's 21. Technical fouls--Seattle Pacific-None, Saint Martin's-None. A-567.