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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29 --
Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon, 7:00 p.m. PST
New PE Building (2,473)/Monmouth, Ore.
• Webcast: www.pennatlantic.com  
• LiveStats: http://athletics.wou.edu/live/xlive.htm

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31 --
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's, 2:00 p.m. PST
Marcus Pavilion (4,300)/Lacey, Wash.
• Webcast: www.pennatlantic.com  
• No LiveStats available

The non-conference schedule is completed and Christmas break is over. Now, the Seattle Pacific men (9-2, 1-1 GNAC) fix their focus completely on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball slate. The Falcons close out the calendar year with two road games, beginning on Thursday, Dec. 29 at Western Oregon (9-2, 2-0). Tip-off is 7 p.m. at the New PE Building in Monmouth, Ore. SPU won 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Wolves. The Falcons visits Lacey, Wash. on Saturday, Dec. 31 for a 2 p.m. game against Saint Martins (5-6, 1-1) at Marcus Pavilion. SPU won its last four games versus the Saints.

GNAC Race
The Falcons are seeking to win the GNAC championship for the fourth time in seven years. They captured the 2010 and 2006 league titles outright and shared the 2007 crown with Seattle University. SPU was projected to finish second in this year's GNAC standings by the annual coaches poll, receiving four of 10 first-place votes en route to a 94-point total. Alaska Anchorage also got four first-place votes and was picked first by one point over the Falcons. Western Washington was selected third, garnering the two remaining first-place votes, and defending champion Central Washington was fourth. SPU is aiming for its fifth GNAC title since the league was formed in 2001-02.

Dynamic Defense
SPU is surrendering just 56.9 points per game, nearly five points fewer than the school-record figure of 61.8 points opponents were limited to in 1962-63. Academy of Art lost 63-33 to SPU on Nov. 26, the lowest opponent point total allowed since 1951 when Saint Martin's was held to 31. The Falcons have a 6-0 record when keeping opponents under 60 points. SPU is holding opponents to 39-percent shooting.



Recent Recap
The Falcons won their last three games to close out the non-conference slate with an 8-1 record. In the last game, red-shirt freshman Cory Hutsen scored a career-high 14 points to lead SPU to a 68-43 win over Dominican on Dec. 13 in Seattle.

Early GNAC Recap
SPU won its conference opener 68-57 over Simon Fraser (Dec. 1) at home behind the 19 points of Jobi Wall and 14 from Scott Morse. The Falcons lost a 79-71 home decision to Western Washington (Dec. 3) despite the season-high 31 points of Andy Poling. They led 35-30 at halftime before surrendering 49 second-half points to the Vikings.

Big Men on Campus
In their second season at SPU, Division I transfers Andy Poling (6-11, Gonzaga) and Modou Niang (6-10, Utah State) are the tallest tandem in SPU history. Poling is a Sporting News honorable mention preseason All-American.

Next Week
The Falcons return home to host a pair of GNAC games. They entertain Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 5 and Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 7. Both games tip-off at 7p.m.

Scouting Western Oregon (9-2, 2-0 GNAC)
> The Wolves had a nine-game winning streak snapped in their last outing with a 66-42 loss at Washington State on Dec. 18.

> WOU's Blair Wheadon leads WOU with a 14.6-point average. His 1,367 career points rank No. 21 among all-time GNAC career scorers.

> Seattle Pacific leads the all-time series 34-13, winning 13 of the last 14 meetings.

> The Falcons won two of three meetings last season, including a 69-65 decision on Feb. 28 in Seattle during the first round of the GNAC Tournament. The Wolves won 88-85 on Dec. 30 in Seattle and SPU won 77-59 on Jan. 29 in Monmouth, Ore.

> The Falcons won at Western Oregon in dramatic fashion on Jan. 14, 2010. Jake Anderson threw a length-of-the-court inbounds pass to Chris Banchero, who hit a layup at the buzzer for a 79-77 Falcons win in Monmouth, Ore.

> Brady Bergeson is in his first year as head coach of the Wolves after serving the previous three seasons as an assistant at Sacramento State.

> Third-year SPU coach Ryan Looney has a 4-1 record against WOU. He competed against the Wolves during his playing career at Eastern Oregon.

Scouting Saint Martin's (5-6, 1-1 GNAC)
> The Saints won three of their last four games, including a 78-69 win over the same Grand Canyon team that defeated SPU 67-58 on Nov. 25 in Phoenix.

> Saints senior forward Jeremy Green ranks fourth among GNAC scorers (17.7 ppg) and 10th in rebounding (7.2 rpg).

> The Falcons boast an 89-33 lead in all-time matchups, including four straight wins. SPU was victorious in 23 of the last 25 meetings with both losses coming on the road in Lacey, Wash. (2008 & 2009).

> Eighth-year Saints coach Keith Cooper served as an assistant on the SPU staff in 2002-03. He has a 2-15 record against the Falcons. Cooper is married to the former Linda Johnson, a basketball standout who is an SPU Hall of Fame inductee.

> Third-year SPU coach Ryan Looney has a 4-0 record against the Saints.

Terrific Transfer
The Falcons frontline is bolstered by the addition of transfer Jobi Wall, a 6-foot-6 junior who led all scorers with 24 points in the win at Arizona (Oct. 27). He averaged 16.6 points and 7.7 rebounds and shot 44 percent on 3-pointers in 2010 at Colorado Christian. Wall used an injury red-shirt season last year at CCU. SPU got a first-hand look at Wall on Dec. 30, 2009 at Brougham Pavilion. He amassed 28 points and 13 rebounds, hitting 5 of 9 treys in a 73-69 Colorado Christian win over the Falcons. As a prep pitcher at Faith Christian High School, Wall tossed a perfect game and hit for the cycle in a five-inning contest during the 2008 Colorado state Class 3A playoffs.

Exhibition Recap
Jobi Wall scored 24 points, including the go-ahead basket on a layup with 2:20 left in SPU's 69-68 upset at No. 16 Arizona on Oct. 27 in Tucson. The Falcons led 37-29 at halftime. The Wildcats staged an 18-6 run and led by two before SPU scored six straight to take the lead for good. A potential game-winning trey by UA's Nick Johnson missed at the buzzer. On Nov. 4, C.J. Wilcox led four double-figure scorers for Washington with 19 points in a 77-60 win over SPU. Andy Poling's 12 points and seven rebounds paced the Falcons, who made just 10 of 23 free throws against the crosstown Huskies.

Tropical Tour
The Seattle Pacific men got an early jump on the basketball season with a six-day trip to Nassau, Bahamas from Sept. 10-16. The Falcons swept three professional teams from the New Providence Basketball Association (NPBA). They won 96-63 over the two-time defending league champion Commonwealth Giants, defeated the league runner-up Real Deal Shockers 75-52 and beat the Mailboat Cybots 93-51. Andy Poling averaged a double-double on the trip, with 19.3 points and 11.3 rebounds.

2012 Preview
Third-year coach Ryan Looney returns three starters from last year's 20-10 squad that made its seventh straight playoff appearance. Heading the list of returnees is 6-foot-11 junior post Andy Poling, a Sporting News honorable mention All-American. The Gonzaga transfer averaged 14.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in his first year as a Falcon. Also returning is 2010 GNAC Freshman of the Year David Downs. He assumed the starting point guard duties midway through the season, after an injury sidelined All-American Chris Banchero, and averaged 6.9 points and 4.3 assists per game. The impressive list of newcomers features Jobi Wall, a 6-6 transfer who averaged 16.6 points and 7.7 rebounds in 2010 at Colorado Christian. Freshman Riley Stockton is the nephew of Hall of Famer John Stockton, the NBA's all-time assist leader. The SPU men were ranked No. 22 nationally among NCAA Division II teams in preseason coaches poll.

Looney's Ledger
Ryan Looney begins his third season after directing Seattle Pacific to postseason berths in each of his first two campaigns. His SPU record is 51-18 (.739). The Falcons were 20-10 last year and upset fifth-ranked Central Washington in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Looney led SPU to a 22-6 record in 2010 and became the first coach to direct the Falcons to a league title in his inaugural season. He was voted the 2010 GNAC Coach of the Year. Looney, who led alma mater Eastern Oregon University to the quarterfinals of the 2009 NAIA Division II Tournament, was hired May 26, 2009 as the coach at SPU. He won his opening nine games on the SPU sidelines, the first coach to win more than his first three for the Falcons. Looney, 36, has a 146-73 (.667) career record, including a 95-55 record in five seasons with Eastern Oregon. He directed EOU to back-to-back NAIA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.

Giant Killers
Seattle Pacific is an NCAA Division II competitor that won three of its last four games against Division I opponents, all of them road exhibitions. The Falcons, who were 69-68 victors at Arizona on Oct. 27, defeated Eastern Washington (87-82) and Nevada (84-81) on the road in last season's exhibition contests. SPU lost 77-60 at Washington on Nov. 4. This year's two encounters increase to 18 the number of Division I foes the Falcons have faced during the last eight seasons.

Seven-Year Surge
The Falcons posted a 146-59 record over the previous seven seasons, 12 more victories than any Great Northwest Athletic Conference team during that span. SPU compiled a 20-9 record in 2005, 26-6 in 2006, 18-10 in 2007, 21-8 in 2008, 19-10 in 2009, 22-6 in 2010 and 20-10 last season. The 146 combined wins are the second-highest seven-year total in school history, topped only by a 154-win run from 1996 to 2002. The Falcons competed in seven straight NCAA Division II Tournaments (2005-10), advancing to the national semifinals in 2006.

2011 Review
Seattle Pacific compiled a 20-10 record in 2011 en route to its seventh straight NCAA Division II Tournament berth. The Falcons placed third in the GNAC (12-6) and were the league's last team standing in the 2011 playoffs after upsetting fifth-ranked Central Washington 76-63 during a first-round game in Ellensburg. The Falcons will look to replace two starters, leading 3-point shooter Jeff Downs (95 treys) and top rebounder Ryan Sweet (7.2 rpg). Also departed is Chris Banchero, the 2010 West Region Player of the Year who missed the final 19 games last season due to a knee injury. He amassed 22.4 points and 5.6 assists per game before being sidelined.