• Final Statistics

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – John Allen scored seven of his 18 points early in the second half Thursday, helping 14th-ranked Western Washington turn back a rally by No. 24 Seattle Pacific in a 72-70 men's basketball victory at Carver Gym.

Turnovers proved to be the difference as the Vikings committed just six while utilizing 12 steals to force 17 SPU miscues. The last one was the biggest as the Falcons had a chance to tie or win the game, but David Downs lost the ball dribbling around a screen and WWU's Rico Wilkins pounced on it with two seconds left to play to guarantee the win.

During the timeout with 12 seconds to play, Coach Ryan Looney designed a play for SPU to move the ball inside.

“They were trapping ball screens, so we were trying to get them in one and then we were going to throw it back into Andy (Poling) in the block and try to tie the game. Their pressure defense made it hard to even get the ball inbounds and then once we did, it made it tough to get into offense.”

The Vikings (24-4) clinched at least a tie for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, improving their league record to 15-2. They secured the No. 1 seed, and a first-round bye, for next week's GNAC Tournament at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash.

Third-place SPU (20-6) dropped to 12-5 in conference action and will play a quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

Western led by as many as 12 points in the first half en route to a 38-30 halftime advantage. The Falcons tallied the first eight points of the second half to tie the score.

“At halftime, we talked about our effort not being good enough in a big game and about some of the things we could change on offense,” Looney explained. “I thought our team responded the right way.”

Allen halted that streak with a steal and fastbreak layup. Downs then followed his own 3-pointer with a layup to push SPU into a brief 43-40 lead.

The Vikings reclaimed the upper-hand for good with a 10-1 run that featured five points from Allen and netted a 50-44 margin with 12:53 remaining.

WWU's lead was 72-68 after a 3-pointer by Chris Mitchell with 1:04 on the clock. Rory Blanche set up the decisive trey with an offensive rebound of a missed trey try by Zach Henifin.

Two free throws at 0:49 by Scott Morse drew the visitors within 72-70 and his teammate Modou Niang rebounded a missed 3-point attempt by Allen with 22 seconds left to set up the SPU's unsuccessful final possession.

The Falcons missed just seven second-half attempts to shoot 63 percent (12 of 19) after halftime, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. They finished the game at 49 percent (24 of 49), while limiting Western to 39 percent (24 of 62).

WWU made 13 of 31 shots from the field for 42-percent second-half accuracy.

“There were two things that made the difference tonight,” said Looney. “In the second half we shot 63 percent from the floor, but we turned it over too many times.

“And late in the game they got three huge offensive rebounds. The last one they got, they kicked it out and hit a three on us. You look at those field goal percentages in the second half, and they were negated because Western shot it 12 more times than we did.”

Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) scored 19 points to pace SPU, which also got 16 from Jobi Wall and 11 from Andy Poling.

Henifin had 15 points for the Vikings and Wilkins added 11.

In the first half, after WWU's Henifin nailed a 3-pointer 47 seconds into the game, the Falcons scored seven straight points, capped by a trey from Wall with 16:10 left in the first half.

The Vikings responded with their own run, reeling off 10 consecutive points to claim a 13-7 advantage with 12:06 until halftime. Allen scored five points to spark the surge.

Western's lead grew to a high of 12 points, at 28-16, with 5:30 to play in the opening period.

Looney took time after Thursday's setback to make sure his young Falcons learned from their shortcomings.

“We just went into the locker room and specifically talked about things that we need to continue to do better. We talked about giving up those three offensive rebounds late in the game. We talked about what we should have done to be able to get the ball inbounds that last possession a little bit easier than we did.

“We need to realize that our team is still extremely young. We've got 12 returning players next year off this team so we need to use every moment we have as a teachable one.”

The Seattle Pacific men close out their regular-season slate at Simon Fraser on Saturday at 7 p.m.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Carver Gymnasium/Bellingham, Wash.

at (#14) Western Washington 72, (#24) Seattle Pacific 70

SEATTLE PACIFIC  (20-6, 12-5 GNAC)
Wall 5-8 2-2 16, Niang 4-6 1-5 9, Poling 4-11 3-4 11, Downs 6-13 5-5 19, Stockton 1-1 0-0 3, Hutsen 3-5 0-1 6, Morse 0-1 3-4 3, Carel 1-1 0-0 3, Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, Dorman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-49 14-21 70.

WESTERN WASHINGTON (24-4,15-2 GNAC)
Blanche 2-6 0-0 4, Henifin 5-11 3-4 15, Mitchell 2-5 3-4 9, Woodworth 2-6 4-4 8, Allen 7-16 1-1 18, Wilkins 3-13 4-6 11, Jones 2-3 1-1 5, Thorpe 1-1 0-1 2, Young 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-62 16-21 72.

Seattle Pacific...........   30   40  -  70
Western Washington........   38   34  -  72

3-point goals--SPU 8-17 (Wall 4-6, Downs 2-5, Stockton 1-1, Carel 1-1, Morse 0-1, Anderson 0-2, Dorman 0-1), WWU 8-23 (Allen 3-6, Mitchell 2-3, Henifin 2-4, Wilkins 1-6, Blanche 0-1, Jones 0-1, Woodworth 0-2). Fouled out--SPU-None, WWU-Henifin. Rebounds--SPU 40 (Niang 10), WWU 30 (Mitchell 8). Assists--SPU 10 (Carel 4), WWU 8 (Woodworth, Blanche 2). Total fouls--SPU 18, WWU 19. Technical fouls--SPU-None, WWU-None. A-1,449.


Next Game
(#24) Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser
Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:00 p.m. PST
West Gym/Burnaby, B.C.