Box score, play-by-play

SEATTLE – With the game, and perhaps the season, on the line the Falcons turned to their senior sharpshooter. Like Jeff Downs had done 212 times previously, he delivered a 3-pointer.

Downs scored 18 points, and hit a game-clinching trey from 23 feet away with 10.7 seconds left on Monday night, as the Seattle Pacific men hung on to beat Western Oregon 69-65 in the first round of the inaugural Great Northwest Athletic Conference postseason basketball tournament.

Senior wing Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) took a pass from freshman brother David Downs and launched one that barely rippled the net as it went through.

"That shot kind of epitomizes who he is," Coach Ryan Looney said of Jeff Downs. "We were intentionally trying to run the shot clock as far down as we possibly could. To his credit, he got an open one late in the clock and buried it for the game."

The decisive shot came on the league-leading 88th 3-pointer of the season for Jeff Downs and the 213th of his career, a figure that ranks No. 3 among all-time SPU shooters. He increased his career total to 1,029 points, climbing to No. 26 on the school's career-scoring chart.

The Falcons (19-8) advance to the semifinals on Wednesday, Mar. 2 against No. 2 seeded Alaska Anchorage, an 80-70 winner at home over Saint Martin's.

The SPU men will travel to Anchorage for a doubleheader with the women's team, which also defeated Western Oregon to move into the second round. The Falcons women play the Seawolves at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Time (5:15 Alaska Time) followed by the men's game at 8:30 p.m. PST (7:30 AST).



"At this point, anybody we play is going to be really good," Looney said. "It's going to have to be high effort, high energy, high execution from everyone involved in our program to get it done now."

The season for Western Oregon (13-16) came to an end.

This was the second time this season the Falcons and Wolves played a close one at Brougham Pavilion. Western Oregon stunned defending GNAC champion SPU in the conference season opener, 88-85 on Dec. 30. The Falcons won the rematch at Monmouth, 77-59 on Jan. 29.

Sophomore post player Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) also had 18 points for Seattle Pacific, and completed his eighth double-double with 10 rebounds. Senior post player Ryan Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS) had 17 points and nine rebounds.

Kolton Nelson led Western Oregon with 19 points. Tarance Glynn added 18 and Blair Wheadon had 13.

The Falcons had a 64-55 lead on a tip-in by Poling with 3:55 left. But Western Oregon ran off the next seven points, cutting it to 64-62 with 59.4 seconds remaining on a steal and emphatic dunk by Jordan Freelander.

David Downs went coast-to-coast, driving for a lay-in at the 47-second mark for a 66-62 SPU lead. But Nelson answered for Western Oregon with a 3-point try from beyond the top of the key that banked off the backboard and swirled around the rim, then fell through to make it 66-65 with 38 seconds to go.

The Falcons went down court, and the ball was knocked out of bounds with 33.7 seconds left on the game clock and 31 on the shot clock. They needed two timeouts to get it inbounds, but finally did. SPU ran the clock down, then Jeff Downs broke into the clear to the left of the lane, and David Downs found him for the dagger shot.

That was Downs' fourth trey of the night in nine attempts. He hit 7 of 13 overall for the game. Sweet drained 8 of 12 from the floor, and Poling was 8 of 14.



Seattle Pacific had a 34-27 halftime lead and pushed it to double-digits at 60-49 with just less than six minutes to play.

The Falcons matched their season low with just five turnovers while forcing 10 WOU miscues. They outrebounded the Wolves by a 29-21 count.

SPU shot 50 percent for the game (30 of 60). Western Oregon was even hotter at 56.5 percent (26 of 46), including 60.9 percent (14 of 23) after halftime. It marked the first time in five games this season that the Falcons won a game despite being outshot by their opposition.

Wednesday's semifinal winner clinches a berth in the GNAC championship game on Friday, Mar. 4 that will be televised live at 5 p.m. on FSN Northwest. They will meet the winner of the game between No. 5 seed Northwest Nazarene and No. 1 Central Washington. If CWU wins its semifinal, the title tilt will be played in Ellensburg. If the Wildcats lose, the SPU-UAA winner will serve as championship host.

Central defeated No. 8 seed Saint Martin's 79-59 at home and NNU won 77-75 at No. 4 Western Washington in the lone upset of the opening round.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
GNAC Tournament – 1st Round
Monday, February 28, 2011
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

Seattle Pacific 69, Western Oregon 65

WESTERN OREGON (13-16)
Glynn 7-13 3-3 18, Nelson 7-10 1-1 19, Wheadon 5-10 1-2 13, Freelander 4-6 0-0 8, Long 2-5 1-2 5, D. Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Veal 0-0 0-0 0, White 1-2 0-0 2, Z. Davis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-46 6-8 65.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (19-8)
Morse 1-3 0-0 3, Poling 8-14 2-3 18, D. Downs 3-7 0-0 7, Sweet 8-12 1-2 17, J. Downs 7-13 0-0 18, Carel 0-2 0-0 0, Dorman 0-1 0-0 0, Niang 3-8 0-0 6. Totals 30-60 3-5 69.

Western Oregon………….. 27     38 -- 65
Seattle Pacific…………….. 34     35 -- 69

3-point goals – Western Oregon 7-14 (Glynn 1-3, Nelson 4-5, Worse 1-2, D. Downs 1-4, Sweet 0-2, J. Downs 4-9, Dorman 0-1). Fouled out – None. Rebounds – Western Oregon 21 (Nelson 6), Seattle Pacific 29 (Poling 10). Assists – Western Oregon 9 (Wheadon 4), Seattle Pacific 14 (D. Downs 4). Technical fouls – None. Attendance – 617.