• Final Stats
      • VIDEO: David  Downs

SEATTLE -- David Downs has a new running mate this year. And while the two teammates are not related, they've collaborated extremely well.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Downs led all scorers with 24 points for the 22nd-ranked Seattle Pacific men, who defeated No. 3 BYU-Hawaii 76-65 on Saturday in the final basketball game of the Sodexo GNAC/PacWest Challenge at Brougham Pavilion.

The Falcons (4-0) won both of their games in the tournament, including Friday's 70-52 victory over Hawaii Pacific that featured 20 points from Downs. He made 14 of 21 shots during the tournament, including 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range.

SPU's point guard was the 2011 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year. He thrived while starting alongside his brother, Jeff Downs who was the Falcons finest long-distance shooter as a senior last season. The both played prep basketball for their father, Mike a former SPU player (1974-77) who now coaches at Bellevue Christian High School.

Instead of teaming with his brother, David now forms a terrific tandem with junior transfer Jobi Wall, who came from Colorado Christian University. They combined for 79 points in this weekend's two games.

"He was really good on the offensive end for us," Coach Ryan Looney said of Downs. "He just continued to make plays on that end. He carried us with Jobi in the first night's game making shots and he did tonight again."

Wall (Arvada, Colo.) finished with 12 points Saturday and joined Downs on the all-tournament team.

Jet Chang was named to the team for BYU-Hawaii, and Jody Johnson and Kevin Davis took the final two spots for Central Washington.



SPU led 36-34 at halftime before the Seasiders scored the opening six points of the second half. That was part of a 13-4 surge that gave the visitors a 47-40 advantage.

The Falcons answered with a 16-0 run sparked by six points from Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.), to take the lead for good at 56-47 with 12:12 left to play.

"I thought the last 15 minutes tonight we were as good as we've been all year," Looney exclaimed.

Momentum firmly on SPU's side, the Seasiders never again got closer than three.

Poling notched his second double-double of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

As a team, the Falcons shot 59 percent from the field (31-for-53) while limiting their opponent to 46 percent (25 of 54).

BYU-Hawaii (0-3) has had a tough trip to the mainland. The 2011 NCAA Division II national runner-up sustained a season-opening loss at Brigham Young. The Seasiders then lost 78-77 in the opening round to Central Washington, which capped a 2-0 effort in the Sodexo tournament with Saturday's 75-61 win against Hawaii Pacific.

Bracken Funk led BYU with 17 points against SPU while teammates Brady Hurst and Okesene Ale each had 14.

The Falcons limited All-American Jet Chang to just seven points, none of them in the second half.

Chang, who erupted for 35 points in last year's national championship game, tallied 21 in Friday's game versus CWU.

Looney singled out freshman Riley Stockton (Spokane, Wash./Ferris HS) for his defensive performance against Chang.

"You can look at the stats and see that Andy had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Dave had 24 and Jobi had a nice game. Offensively those guys did what they do for us. But Riley Stockton impacted that game more than anybody out there.

"We challenged him to guard the preseason Division II Player of the Year and if you look at the boxscore Jet Chang was 3 of 12 from the floor with seven points and had zero after halftime. Riley did an unbelievable job during that stretch where our other guys were scoring to not only make it hard for Jet Chang, but also later in possessions to not even allow him to touch it."

Both teams came out with good energy in the first half, with neither able to establish a commanding lead.  With just over 10 minutes to play in the first half, the Falcons held a slim 18-17 edge before Downs nailed a jumper to extend SPU's lead to three.  

The teams continued to trade buckets, with nine lead changes in the first period.  With just over five minutes to play, the Falcons took a five-point lead, 28-23.  

Okesene Ale hit a bucket to close the gap to two, but Poling responded with a two of his own, again giving  five-point advantage with 3:45 to play.  Moments later, the Falcons opened up a seven-point lead off a basket by Corey Hutson.  The two teams continued to battle, with BYU-Hawaii closing the gap to 36-34 as the half ended.

The Falcons shot a red-hot 67 percent from the field (16-for-24) for the half.

The Seattle Pacific men return to action next weekend in Phoenix, Ariz. at the GCU Thanksgiving Classic. They clash with host Grand Canyon on Friday at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Time before playing Academy of Art on Saturday at 12:15 p.m.

"Grand Canyon is going to be really good," said Looney. "They have a lot of people back from last year, so we feel like we're going to have to be prepared play our fifth good team, on the road."


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Sodexo GNAC/PacWest Challenge
Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

(#22) SEATTLE PACIFIC 76, (#3) BYU-HAWAII 65

BYU-HAWAII (0-3)
Hurst 5-7 4-4 14, Funk 6-12 3-4 17, Ale 5-8 0-0 14, Chang 3-12 1-2 7, Dastrup 3-9 0-0 7, Coro 1-3 0-0 2, Satterwite 0-0 0-0 0, Lawrence 0-1 0-0 0, Covey 0-0 0-0 0, Ngawaka 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 25-54 8-10 65.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (4-0)
Wall 4-8 2-2 12, Anderson 2-4 0-0 6, Poling 11-18 0-3 22, Downs 8-13 6-6 24, Stockton 0-2 0-0 0, Carel 0-0 0-0 0, Dorman 1-1 0-0 2, Morse 1-2 0-0 2, Hutsen 3-4 0-1 6, Niang 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 31-53 8-12 76.

BYU-Hawaii...........    34  31 – 65
Seattle Pacific.......   36  40 – 76

3-point goals—BYU-Hawaii 7-18 (Funk 2-4, Ale 4-6, Chang 0-3, Dastrup 1-3, Coro 0-2), Seattle Pacific 6-15 (Wall 2-5, Anderson 2-3, Downs 2-4, Stockton 0-2, Morse 0-1). Fouled out–BYU-Hawaii-None, Seattle Pacific-None. Reobunds – BYU-Hawaii 24 (Hurst 7), Seattle Pacific 32 (Poling 10). Assists–BYU-Hawaii 16 (Ale 5), Seattle Pacific 20 (Stockton 7). Total fouls–BYU-Hawaii 16, Seattle Pacific 10. Technical fouls – BYU-Hawaii – Hurst, Seattle Pacific–None. A–658.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
MVP -- David Downs, Seattle Pacific
Jobi Wall, Seattle Pacific
Jody Johnson, Central Washington
Kevin Davis, Central Washington
Jet Chang, BYU-Hawaii