• Final Stats

LAIE, Hawaii – If Coach Ryan Looney followed other people's advice, his men's basketball team would never have traveled to Hawaii. Instead, Seattle Pacific leaves the Aloha State with two significant victories.

David Downs scored 18 of his career-high 33 points from behind the 3-point line late Saturday night, leading Seattle Pacific to an 89-76 victory over BYU-Hawaii in a non-conference game at the Cannon Activities Center.

The Falcons (8-2) completed a sweep of their two-game Hawaiian trip. They defeated Chaminade 61-57 on Friday.

“Everyone told me not to do this trip, but I wanted to do it because we needed as many in-region games as possible,” Looney explained. “But to get out of here with two wins is pretty big.”

A trip to the islands is fraught with distractions for jet-lagged teams that spend too much time admiring the beaches and tropical beauty of the 50th state. And the Hawaiian schools have talented teams. Just ask top-ranked Virginia, which was upset by Chaminade in 1982, or Oklahoma, which left Hawaii a loser last season.

“I'm proud of our team. Not a lot of teams are able to come here and get two wins,” said Looney. “We had to play through a lot of stuff to make it happen, including obviously the travel.”

SPU swept the season series with the Seasiders, who lost 76-65 on Nov. 19 in Seattle. BYU-Hawaii (2-6) was the NCAA Division II national runner-up last season.

Downs made 6 of 9 treys as part of his 9-for-13 shooting performance from the field. He converted 9 of 11 free throws and distributed six assists.

“He did an unbelievable job shooting it from the 3-point line. But he also did a better job than he has in recent games running the team too,” Looney said about Downs.

The Falcons were credited with 25 assists on their 29 baskets, led by eight from freshman Riley Stockton.

“We did a better job sharing the ball and playing within our system than we have in the past,” said Looney. “This should be a learning lesson for us that if we're able to stick to what we do and share the ball, we're still able to get the ball to the right people and get better shots because of it too.”

Andy Poling and Jobi Wall each scored 17 points for SPU and red-shirt freshman Cory Hutsen pitched in a career-high 14.

BYUH was led by the 15 points of Jet Chang, who was listed as the National Player of the Year in preseason projections. Junior Ale scored 14 points, Jake Dastrup had 11 and Bracken Funk 10.

The Falcons were on fire in the first half, hitting 64 percent of their shots from the field (16 of 25), including 9 of 11 accuracy from 3-point range.

The SPU men steadily pulled away in the first half, despite never putting together more than two consecutive baskets until the final two minutes. They closed the opening period with eight straight points.

Downs did not miss a shot in five first-half tries, including three treys. He beat the buzzer with a shot from just inside the midcourt line to give SPU a 48-34 halftime advantage.

Downs scored 15 points in the first half and Wall had 14 with 4 of 5 shooting on 3-pointers.

The Falcons cooled slightly in the second half as Downs and Wall each missed their first shot, both of them trey attempts. But SPU still finished at 59 percent for the game (29 of 49) and made 12 of 22 treys.

Seattle Pacific outscored BYUH 19-6 from the free throw line and missed just five charity shots.

The Seasiders shot 51 percent (29 of 57) from the field and were an outstanding 12 of 18 on 3-pointers. They made 7 of 9 treys in the second half, including three early long-range baskets that helped cut the deficit to three points.

BYU used an 18-5 run early in the second half, capped by a 3-pointer from Ale that brought his team within 55-52 with 13:48 left to play.

Downs drained a 3-pointer at 13:18 to turn back the rally and start SPU on an 18-7 spree that put the game out of reach.

Looney singled out Hutsen for praise.

“Cory Hutsen had the best game of his career. There was a stretch in the second half where Andy was in foul trouble, Modou (Niang) went out with an injury and we needed to play Cory at the five.

“He played a lot of minutes and ended up 5 of 5 from the floor and made four free throws with 14 points. That gave us a big boost on offense and it's probably one of the reasons that we were better on that end tonight because those were 14 points that we haven't necessarily had in the past.”

Seattle Pacific returns home to host Dominican (Calif.) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Cannon Activities Center/Laie, Hawaii

Seattle Pacific 89, at BYU-Hawaii 76

SEATTLE PACIFIC  (8-2)
Wall 6-10 1-1 17, Anderson 1-2 0-0 3, Poling 6-8 5-5 17, Downs 9-13 9-11 33, Stockton 0-2 0-0 0, Carel 0-0 0-0 0, Todd 0-0 0-0, 0 Dorman 1-4 0-0 3, Moll 0-0 0-2 0, Morse 1-4 0-0 2, Hutsen 5-5 4-5 14, Niang 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-49 19-24 89.

BYU-HAWAII (2-6)
Hurst 3-6 1-2 7, Funk 2-4 0-0 10, Ale 5-8 0-0 14, Chang 6-17 2-2 15, Dastrup 4-5 0-0 11, Coro 2-4 0-0 6, Satterwhite 2-3 2-2 7, Lawrence 2-3 0-0 4, Tanaka 0-0 0-0 0, Covey 0-1 0-0 0, Stewart 1-1 0-0 2, Ngawaka 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-57 6-11 76.

Seattle Pacific........   48   41  -  89
BYU-Hawaii.............   34   42  -  76

3-point goals –SPU 12-22 (Downs 6-9, Wall 4-7, Anderson 1-2, Dorman 1-2, Stockton 0-1, Morse 0-1), BYUH 12-18 (Ale 4-6, Dastrup 3-4, Coro 2-4, Chang 1-2, Funk 1-1, Satterwhite 1-1). Fouled out—SPU-None, BYUH-Dastrup, Hurst. Rebounds—SPU 23 (Poling 5), BYUH 30 (Hurst 8). Assists—SPU 25 (Stockton 8), BYUH 20 (Chang 6). Total fouls—SPU 10, BYUH 16. Technical fouls--SPU-None, BYUH-None. A-520.


Next game
Dominican (Calif.) at Seattle Pacific
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion; Seattle, Wash.