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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 --
GNAC Tournament Semifinals
(#3) Seattle Pacific at (#2) Alaska Anchorage, 8:30 p.m. PST (7:30 AST)
Wells Fargo Sports Complex / Anchorage, Alaska
• For Webcast and LiveStats go to www.goseawolves.com and click on the “calendar” tab

(#5) Northwest Nazarene at (#1) Central Washington, 7:00 p.m. PST

FRIDAY, MARCH 4 --
GNAC Tournament Championship, 5:00 p.m. (FSN Northwest TV)
At home site of highest remaining seed

The Seattle Pacific men's basketball team (19-8) embarks on a trip to Alaska in pursuit of the inaugural Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament championship. The third-seeded Falcons visit No. 2 Alaska Anchorage (22-8) for a semifinal matchup on Wednesday, Mar. 2. Tip-off is 8:30 p.m. Pacific Time (7:30 Alaska Time) at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex following a 6:15 p.m. PST game between the SPU and UAA women. Anchorage has been an unfriendly environment for the Falcons men, who lost in their last four visits. Wednesday's semifinal winner secures 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 other semifinal 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.

GNAC Tournament Format
For the first time, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference is sponsoring a postseason tournament with the winner receiving the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Eight teams competed Monday in the first round of the conference tournament. Top-seed Central Washington (beat Montana State Billings 79-59), No. 2 Alaska Anchorage (beat Saint Martin's 80-70), No. 3 Seattle Pacific (beat Western Oregon 69-65) and No. 5 Northwest Nazarene (won 77-75 at No. 4 Western Washington) all advanced to the semifinals with opening round wins. The highest seed remaining after Wednesday's semifinal games will host the GNAC Championship on Mar. 4 at 5 p.m. in a game that will be televised live throughout the region on FSN Northwest.

First-Round Recap
Jeff Downs scored 18 points, and hit a game-clinching 3-pointer with 10 seconds left Monday as Seattle Pacific hung on to beat Western Oregon 69-65 in the first round of the GNAC Tournament at Brougham Pavilion. Andy Poling also had 18 points for SPU and made it a double-double with 10 rebounds. Senior Ryan Sweet had 17 points and nine rebounds. The Falcons had a 34-27 halftime lead and pushed it to double-digits at 60-49 with just less than six minutes to play before WOU rallied to draw within 66-65 on a Kolton Nelson 3-pointer with 0:39 left to play.

1,000 & Counting
Seattle Pacific registered the 1,000th victory in its 68-year history with a 69-61 home win over Western Washington on Jan. 26 that was televised on FSN Northwest. SPU's all-time record is 1,007-677 (59.9%) since the program was founded in 1943-44.

Scouting Alaska Anchorage (22-8, 13-5 GNAC)
> Expect a defensive battle as UAA boasts the GNAC's stingiest defense, yielding just 67.2 points per game while the Falcons limit foes to 68.4 points to rank No. 3.

> The Seawolves lead the all-time series 32-25. The teams split the regular-season series with each winning at home. UAA was a 78-61 victor on Jan. 8 in Anchorage and the Falcons won the rematch 78-73 on Feb. 3 in Seattle.

> The Falcons beat UAA 68-66 on Feb. 19, 2009 in Seattle on a last-second, 35-foot banker by Casey Reed, who is now a graduate assistant on the Seawolves staff.

> The SPU men lost in their last four visits to Anchorage, last winning in 2007.

> In his second season at SPU, Ryan Looney has a 2-2 record against the Seawolves.

Frosh of the Year
SPU point guard David Downs was voted the Freshman of the Year and his brother, senior Jeff Downs, was named to the All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference second team on Feb. 25. SPU sophomore Andy Poling and senior Ryan Sweet received honorable mention recognition on the All-GNAC squad. David Downs is averaging 5.7 points and 4.2 assists per game. He increased those numbers to 7.9 points with 6.0 assists during the last 15 games after taking over the starting playmaker duties. David Downs, who shared the GNAC Freshman of the Year award with Paul Egwuonwu of Northwest Nazarene, produced the 38th 100-assist season in SPU history and his 114 assists rank No. 25 among the school's single-season leaders.

Downs Up the Charts
Senior Jeff Downs scored 18 points on Feb. 24 at Simon Fraser to become SPU's 31st 1,000-point scorer. His 1,029 career points rank No. 26 among all-time Falcons. A second-team All-GNAC performer, Downs is SPU's top scorer among active players at 16.1 points per game. He has a league-leading 88 treys, giving him 213 for his career to rank No. 3 among all-time Falcon 3-pointer shooters.

My Three Sons
The Downs family has a legacy with the SPU men's basketball program that began with father Mike who was a four-year Falcons letterman from 1974-77. He is the head boy's basketball coach at Bellevue (Wash.) Christian High School. His three sons are part of the current SPU squad. Jeff is a senior starter in the backcourt who averages 16.1 points while leading the conference with 88 treys. Younger brother, David, is a freshman point guard. Jeff has started all 27 games this season and David assumed the starting point guard role for the last 16 outings. Oldest brother, Dan, joined the staff this season as an assistant coach. All three Downs brothers hail from Kirkland, Wash. and played for their father at Bellevue Christian.

Home Sweet Brougham
The Falcons have an 11-3 record this season at Brougham Pavilion where they won 42 of their last 49 games. SPU was 14-1 last year at home. Brougham Pavilion seats 2,650 spectators. It was built in 1953 and renovated in 1992.

Postseason Pursuit
Seattle Pacific is in pursuit of its seventh straight NCAA Division II Tournament berth. The Falcons were postseason participants every year since 2005, the longest consecutive playoff streak in school history. The new regional rankings will be released Wednesday and SPU should climb from the No. 8 spot it occupied after winning three games since those ratings were compiled. The Falcons advanced to the national semifinals in both 2000 and 2006.

Region Rankings
The SPU men were listed eighth in last week's NCAA Division II West Region rankings. The conference champions from the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Pacific West Conference and GNAC earn automatic postseason berths with the next five highest seeds filling out the West Region playoff field. Here are the Feb. 23 West Region Rankings: 1-Central Washington, 2-Humboldt State, 3-Cal State Dominguez Hills, 4-Chaminade, 5-Dixie State, 6-BYU-Hawaii, 7-Alaska Anchorage, 8-Seattle Pacific, 9-San Francisco State, 10-Western Washington.

Notable
Sophomore Andy Poling, a 6-foot-11 transfer from Gonzaga, leads SPU with eight double-doubles. He erupted for 35 points at Northwest Nazarene (Feb. 12) ... The Falcons have had four 30-point scoring games by individuals and surrendered just one 30-point game to an opponent (Michael Duty, WWU) ... After having two returning starters (Chris Banchero & Jake Anderson) suffer season-ending knee injuries, the Falcons have implemented the same starting lineup for the last 16 games ... SPU leads all GNAC teams in rebounding margin (+7.2) and has an 18-4 record when outrebounding opponents.

Sweet Senior
Stat sheet stuffer Ryan Sweet was honored as an All-GNAC honorable mention pick. The 6-foot-6 senior leads SPU in field goal percentage (57.7%). Included in that stellar shooting is 38-percent accuracy (17 of 45) from 3-point range. He ranks second on the team in rebounds (7.0 rpg), assists (69) and steals (23) and is fourth in blocked shots (8). A second-year Falcon who transferred from Whatcom (Wash.) Community College, Sweet has 11 career double-doubles, four of them coming this season.

Banchero Sidelined
All-American Chris Banchero's brilliant collegiate career was cut short by a knee injury suffered with 12:52 left in the first half of an 84-61 win at Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 6. The senior point guard sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee. The 2010 GNAC and West Region Player of the Year, Banchero garnered All-America accolades after his 19.6 points per game led the Falcons to a 22-6 record. SPU won the GNAC title and made its sixth straight NCAA Division II playoff appearance. Entering the game in which he was injured, Banchero was scoring at a 24.0-point clip, including a career-high 42-point performance at Dominican (Dec. 18).

Exhibition Recap
Senior Chris Banchero reached the 30-point plateau in all three games, leading SPU to a 3-0 exhibition record. The Falcons registered a pair of victories over NCAA Division I opponents. They won 87-82 at Eastern Washington (Nov. 2) led by Banchero's 38 points and nine assists. He led SPU to an 84-81 win with 33 points at Nevada (Nov. 6). Banchero scored 30 and Andy Poling added 20 points and 16 rebounds in an 88-76 home win over Northwest University (Nov. 9).

Looney's Ledger
Ryan Looney led Seattle Pacific to a 22-6 record in 2010 and became the first coach to direct the Falcons to a conference championship in his inaugural season. Looney, who led his 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, 35, has a 136-69 (.663) career record, including a 41-14 mark (74.5%) at SPU. He was voted the 2010 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Looney compiled a 95-55 record in five seasons with Eastern Oregon and directed EOU to back-to-back NAIA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.

Six-Year Run
The Falcons posted a 126-49 record over the previous six seasons, 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 and 22-6 last season. The 126 combined wins are the second-highest six-year total in school history, topped only by a 131-win run from 1997 to 2002. The Falcons competed in six straight NCAA Division II Tournaments (2005-10), advancing to the national semifinals in 2006.