• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

BURNABY, B.C. – Andy Poling, Jeff Downs and Ryan Sweet combined to match Simon Fraser's entire scoring output of 58 points as Seattle Pacific gained control early Thursday en route to a 77-58 men's basketball victory at West Gym in the final regular-season game for both teams.

The defending champion Falcons (18-8) improved to 12-6 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play to finish third in the final regular-season standings. They enter the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed and will host No. 6 Western Oregon (8-10 GNAC) in a first-round game on Monday at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. Those teams split their two regular-season meetings, each winning on the other's home court.

Simon Fraser (3-21) concluded its first season in the GNAC with a 2-16 league ledger. SPU swept the season series. The Clan, in their inaugural season as the NCAA's first Canadian competitor, lost 81-57 on Jan. 20 in Seattle.

The leading scorers took turns sparking SPU for a half. Poling (Portland, Ore.) tallied 18 of his 22 points in the first half and Downs had 14 of his 18 during the final 20 minutes. Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS) netted nine in each half for his 18 points.

A 6-foot-4 senior wing, Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) increased his career total to 1,011 points to become the 31st 1,000-point scorer in SPU history. Downs made four 3-pointers, giving him 209 for his career to rank No. 3 among all-time Falcons.

SPU junior Modou Niang (Richard-Toll, Senegal) equaled the career-high 11-point total he established against Simon Fraser at home on Jan. 20.

Freshman point guard Riley Carel (Enumclaw, Wash./Enumclaw) came off the bench to provide quality minutes in relief of starter David Downs, who was saddled with three first-half fouls. In a season-high 26 minutes, Carel contributed five points, four assists, two rebounds and two steals.

Justin Brown paced four double-figures scorers for the Clan with 15 points. Ricky Berry, who burned SPU for 29 points in the first meeting, was limited to 10 points on 4 of 16 shooting. Berry is the league's second-leading scorer, entering the game with a 23.5-point average.

The Falcons extended an early one-point lead with five unanswered baskets to go ahead 23-12 with 9:27 left in the first half.

Poling accounted for eight of SPU's 10 points during the surge that he capped with three straight hook shots. All three baskets came over the top of Simon Fraser's 7-foot-2 center Kene Obi, a transfer from DePaul. The 6-foot-11 Poling is also an NCAA Division I transfer, coming to SPU from Gonzaga.

The Falcons opened the second-half with a 9-2 run and never led by less than 17 for the remainder of the game.

SPU shot 54 percent (30 of 56) while limiting the Clan to 39 percent (21 of 54) from the field.

Two Falcons registered double-doubles as Sweet grabbed 11 rebounds and Poling had 10 to fuel their team's 38-24 advantage on the boards.

BROUGHAM HOSTS GNAC TOURNAMENT MONDAY
Seattle Pacific will host a combined men's and women's basketball doubleheader at Brougham Pavilion on Monday, Feb. 28 for the opening round of the inaugural GNAC Tournament.

Both teams will play Western Oregon with the women's game starting at 5:15 p.m. followed by the men's nightcap at 7:30 p.m.

Doubleheader tickets for the first-round games at SPU are currently available for advance purchase and can also be obtained at Brougham Pavilion on game day. Tickets allow entry for both games Monday and are priced at $20 for reserved seats and $15 for general admission. Student and senior citizen tickets for the general admission area are priced at $6. SPU students will be admitted free.

There will be no group or team discounts for the GNAC Tournament. For more information please contact the SPU Athletics Ticket Office at 206-281-2085.

The men's GNAC Tournament winner receives the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Eight teams compete in the conference tournament with the top-four from the final standings hosting single games.

The other men's pairings include No. 8 Montana State Billings at GNAC regular-season champion Central Washington, No. 7 Saint Martin's at No. 2 Alaska Anchorage and No. 5 Northwest Nazarene at No. 4 Western Washington.

The brackets will be re-seeded before the second round with the two highest surviving seeds hosting semifinal contests on Mar. 2. Should the Falcons advance past the first round, venue and ticket information for Wednesday's semifinal games will be announced after all opening-round games are completed.

The highest seed remaining in the men's tournament hosts the GNAC Championship on Friday, Mar. 4 at 5 p.m. in a game that will be televised live throughout the region on FSN Northwest.


NCAA Men's Basketball
Thursday, February 24, 2011
West Gym/Burnaby, B.C.

SEATTLE PACIFIC 77, SIMON FRASER 58

SEATTLE PACIFIC (18-8, 12-6 GNAC)
Poling 8-16 6-9 22, Sweet 8-14 2-3 18, J. Downs 7-12 0-0 18, Niang 4-6 3-4 11, Carel 2-2 0-0 5, D. Downs 1-3 0-0 2, Dorman 0-2 1-2 1, Morse 0-0 0-0 0, Hope 0-1 0-0 0, Moll 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-56 12-18 77.

SIMON FRASER (3-21, 2-16 GNAC)
Brown 4-11 7-12 15, Paredes 5-10 0-0 12, Obi 4-4 3-3 11, Berry 4-16 1-2 10, Appiah 2-4 0-0 5, Frehlick 1-5 0-0 3, Lewis 1-4 0-0 2, Boateng 0-0 0-0 0, Ricketts 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-54 11-17 58.

Halftime – SPU 36-19.

3-point goals--SPU 5-13 (J. Downs 4-8, Carel 1-1, D. Downs 0-1, Dorman 0-1, Sweet 0-2), SF 5-19 (Paredes 2-4, Appiah 1-2, Berry 1-4, Frehlick 1-5, Lewis 0-3, Brown 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, SF-Obi. Rebounds--SPU 38 (Sweet 11), SF 24 (Brown 6). Assists--SPU 14 (Carel 4), SF 10 (Brown 4). Total fouls--SPU 14, SF 18. Technical fouls--SPU-None, SF-None. A-125.