• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Taylor Rohde led five double-figure scorers with 18 points on Saturday as Alaska Anchorage won its 11th straight game with a 78-61 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball win over Seattle Pacific at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

SPU (8-4) had its GNAC record evened at 2-2 while the Seawolves (12-3) remained perfect in league play at 4-0.

The Seawolves shot 14 of 25 from 3-point range and made 49 percent of their shots overall (28 of 57).

“We caught them on the wrong night. They shot it extremely well, maybe as good as any team has against us in my time coaching,” said SPU coach Ryan Looney. “We also had some lapses defensively too and without Chris Banchero in the lineup our margin for error is not quite the same as it used to be.”

The Falcons were without the services of Banchero, their leading scorer who injured his knee early in Thursday's 84-61 win at Alaska Fairbanks. His availability will be determined after undergoing a medical examination early next week.

A senior point guard from Seattle's O'Dea High School, Banchero leads SPU with 22.4 points and 5.6 assists per game. He was honored as an All-American last season along with receiving the 2010 conference and West Region Player of the Year awards.

SPU never led Saturday, but stayed close early, tying the game 6-6 on a Jeff Downs 3-pointer with 13:07 left in the first half. Drew Robinson answered with a trey to put the Seawolves ahead for good.

UAA claimed control of the game with a first-half run of 13 unanswered points that put them ahead 27-12 with 5:59 on the clock. Steve White scored five of his 10 points during the surge.

Travis Thompson tallied 13 points for Anchorage, which also got 12 from Mario Gill and 11 from Brandon Walker.

Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) finished with 18 points and his brother, freshman David Downs, was the only other Falcon in double figures with 12 points and seven assists.

The Seawolves limited the visitors to 18 points in the first half as SPU shot just 30 percent (7 of 23) before halftime, including 1 of 7 on 3-pointers.

Anchorage hit 6 of 10 treys en route to a 31-18 halftime advantage.

In the second half the Seawolves led by as many as 17 points. They went ahead 45-28 on a trey by Walker with 14:57 left to play.

SPU rallied with a 12-2 run, powered completely by 3-pointers. Jeff Downs hit two, David Downs had one and Ryan Sweet nailed a trey with 13:06 remaining that drew the Falcons within 47-40.

They would not get any closer and Anchorage later secured the win with a 14-point surge that provided its largest lead of the game at 70-47 with 6:08 to play. Thompson and Gill each had a pair of 3-pointers to fuel the run.

A 50-percent second-half shooting performance (15 of 30), that included 6 of 12 treys, brought the Falcons field goal percentage up to 42 percent (22 of 53) for the game.

The SPU men return home to begin a five-game homestand on Thursday, Jan. 13 against Central Washington. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Brougham Pavilion.


NCAA Men's Basketball
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Wells Fargo Sports Complex/Anchorage, Alaska

ALASKA ANCHORAGE 78, SEATTLE PACIFIC 61

SEATTLE PACIFIC (8-4, 2-2 GNAC)
J. Downs 7-15 1-1 18, D. Downs 3-7 4-5 12, Dorman 4-6 0-0 9, Anderson 3-6 2-2 8, Sweet 3-6 0-0 7, Morse 1-2 2-2 4, Poling 1-9 1-2 3, Niang 0-0 0-0 0, Moll 0-1 0-0 0, Carel 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-53 10-12 61.

ALASKA ANCHORAGE (12-3, 4-0 GNAC)
Rohde 7-11 4-5 18, Thompson 4-5 2-2 13, Gill 4-8 0-0 12, Walker 4-10 0-0 11, White 4-5 0-0 10, Robinson 3-8 0-0 8, Ridgeway 2-6 2-2 6, Peterson 0-2 0-0 0, Gibcus 0-1 0-0 0, Fossman 0-0 0-1 0, Robinson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-57 8-10 78.

Halftime – UAA 31, SPU 18.

3-point goals--SPU 7-19 (J. Downs 3-7, D. Downs 2-4, Dorman 1-2, Sweet 1-2, Morse 0-1, Anderson 0-3), UAA 14-25 (Gill 4-7, Walker 3-5, Thompson 3-4, Robinson 2-7, White 2-2). Fouled out--SPU-None, UAA-None. Rebounds--SPU 29 (Sweet 5), UAA 31 (Gill 9). Assists--SPU 16 (D. Downs 7), UAA 24 (White 8). Total fouls--SPU 15, UAA 14. Technical fouls--SPU-None, UAA-None. Att.-855.