• Final Stats

LACEY, Wash. – Andy Poling led all scorers with 21 points Saturday afternoon and the stifling Seattle Pacific defense limited Saint Martin's to 28-percent shooting en route to a 56-41 men's basketball victory at Marcus Pavilion.

SPU (10-3) evened its Great Northwest Athletic Conference record at 2-2. The Saint (5-8) dropped to 1-3 with its third straight league loss.

Poling, a 6-foot-11 post player from Portland, Ore., completed his fourth double-double of the season with 13 rebounds. He helped SPU dominate the boards 47-22. Eleven of Poling's points came from the free throw line where he got 16 attempts.

“He was big on both ends,” said Falcons coach Ryan Looney. “They weren't getting very many second-chance opportunities because Andy was in the middle of our zone and was able to pull down a bunch of defensive rebounds.

“And then they had trouble guarding him on the block. He didn't necessarily make a lot of baskets, but he got all of their big kids in foul trouble and shot a ton of free throws.”

The Falcons outscored SMU 23-11 from the free throw line to offset their own outside shooting struggles. David Downs' 3-pointer with 15:15 left in the game was SPU's only trey in nine attempts.

The Saints led just once, at 2-1 on a Brok Pendleton jumper 2:30 into the game. SPU then went on an 8-1 run, with points from four different players, to take the lead for good.

SMU shot just 15 percent (4 of 26) in the first half and missed all seven of its 3-point tries.

The Falcons capitalized on that poor shooting to build a 26-15 halftime advantage. They held an opponent under 20 points in the first half for the fourth time this season. SPU limited Dixie State to 14 first-period points in a 58-42 victory on Nov. 11.

Looney implemented a zone defense Saturday, a change from the man-to-man defense the Falcons usually prefer.

“We zoned and pressed a little for 40 straight minutes. Saint Martin's traditionally has run a bunch of sets to get their big people the ball. Rather than have to guard all of it, we just decided that we were going to zone and not let them run the stuff that they normally do.”

Ryan Votaw opened the second half with a 3-pointer to narrow the gap to 26-18, but that was as close at the Saints would come. SPU stretched its lead to as many as 23 points.

Sophomore point guard Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) was the only other Falcon in double figures with 11 points. SPU converted 41 percent (16 of 39) of its shots from the floor.

Jeremy Green tallied 19 points to pace Saint Martin's, which shot 40 percent (10 of 25) in the second half to finish with 14 field goals in 51 attempts for the game.

SPU won despite committing 22 turnovers, eight of them coming off steals by Votaw who tied a record for GNAC games in the process.

The Saints had only nine turnovers.

The 41 points were the second-fewest surrendered this season by the Falcons, who defeated Academy of Art 63-33 on Nov. 26. Their dynamic defense is yielding just 56.2 points per game. The school single-season record average of 61.8 points allowed was established in 1962-63.

“We've gone a lot of games now where we haven't particularly shot it all that well. Defense is what's carried us over the course of the season,” Looney said. “We did turn it over a lot, but the thing I was most impressed with is that we were able to overcome that with the rebound margin of plus-25 on the glass.”

The Seattle Pacific men return home next week to host Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday and Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. Tip-off for both games is 7 p.m. at Brougham Pavilion on the SPU campus.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash.

Seattle Pacific 56, at Saint Martin's 41

SEATTLE PACIFIC  (10-3, 2-2 GNAC)
Anderson 1-1 1-2 3, Wall 1-7 0-2 2, Poling 5-11 11-16 21, Downs 3-6 4-5 11, Dorman 3-8 2-2 8, Hutsen 2-3 1-1 5, Carel 0-0 4-4 4, Stockton 1-1 0-0 2, Niang 0-1 0-0 0, Morse 0-1 0-0 0, Todd 0-0 0-0 0, Washburn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-39 23-32 56.

SAINT MARTIN'S (5-8, 1-3 GNAC)
O'Neill 1-6 0-0 2, Green 5-13 9-12 19, Pendleton 2-9 0-0 4, Bomber 1-5 2-2 4, Votaw 2-10 0-2 5, Karnofski 1-1 0-0 3, Bond 1-4 0-0 2, Dodson 1-3 0-0 2, Norman 0-0 0-0 0, Stoney 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-51 11-16 41.

Seattle Pacific........   26   30  -  56
Saint Martin's.........   15   26  -  41

3-point goals--SPU 1-9 (Downs 1-2, Dorman 0-4, Wall 0-3), SMU 2-17 (Votaw 1-6, Karnofski 1-1, Pendleton 0-1, Bond 0-1, O'Neill 0-2, Bomber 0-4, Green 0-2). Fouled out--SPU-None, SMU-None. Rebounds--SPU 47 (Poling 13), SMU 22 (Green 7). Assists--SPU 6 (Downs 3), SMU 7 (Bomber 3). Total fouls--SPU 19, SMU 26. Technical fouls--SPU-None, SMU-None. A-610.


Next game
Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Jan. 5, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion; Seattle, Wash.