• Boxscore & Play-by-Play

BURNABY, B.C. – If they were ever going to look ahead to the next game, this would have been the night. Instead, the focused Falcons won in impressive fashion.
 
David Downs and Jobi Wall combined for 40 points Thursday, making 15 of 18 shots between them, to lead the Seattle Pacific men to a 90-56 road rout of Simon Fraser in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball game at West Gym.
 
The Falcons (16-2) posted their seventh straight win and the 12th in their last 13 outings. They remain in second place, improving to 9-1 in league play.
 
The game of the year in the GNAC is slated for Saturday when SPU visits Bellingham for a showdown between two of the nation's best NCAA Division II teams. The fourth-ranked Falcons clash with No. 2 Western Washington, the defending national champion, at 7:30 p.m. in Carver Gym.
 
The Vikings dealt SPU its lone league loss, a 66-56 decision on Jan. 3 in Seattle.
 
Coach Ryan Looney was pleased that his Falcons didn't overlook Simon Fraser with such a monumental matchup on the horizon.
 
“I'm extremely satisfied. The message we've tried to deliver is that every game is just as important as the next. It doesn't matter if you're playing somebody that's in the upper half of the league or the bottom half of the league. At the end of the year, they're all going to mean just as much.”
 
SPU's high-scoring duo teamed up to shoot 8 of 11 from 3-point range, spearheading the team's 12-for-20 performance behind the arc. The visitors shot 62 percent overall on 34 of 55 accuracy from the field while limiting the Clan to 39 percent (20 of 51).
 
Wall (Arvada, Colo.) poured in 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting. During one stretch in the second half he tallied 12 consecutive points for the Falcons, all of them on 3-pointers. He finished with 5 treys on 7 tries.
 
Monday's GNAC Player of the Week award recipient, Wall nailed 18 of 26 treys during the last three games. He averaged 21.3 points during that span.
 
Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian) scored 19 points and missed only one shot in eight attempts. He made a trio of 3-pointers in four tries. Downs also distributed 10 assists for his second double-double of the season.
 
“He was really good and he did it just taking advantage of what the defense gave him,” Looney described. “I don't think there were any times where he forced anything. He got some open shots and knocked down a high percentage of them and did a really good job of finding his teammates too.”
 
Cory Hutsen added 14 points for SPU and Patrick Simon had 12.
 
All 13 eligible players saw time and 11 of them made it into the scoring column for the Falcons.
 
“It was a great team effort and a night that was really good morale for our team,” Looney said. “Everybody who got in there had a chance to make a positive contribution.”
 
Elijah Matthews and Anto Olah were the only double-figure scorers for the Clan, each registering 14 points.
 
The Falcons led from wire-to-wire after scoring the game's first six points. They went ahead 24-16 on a Wall trey with 8:38 left in the first half before SFU went on a 9-2 run. Taylor Dunn had five points to fuel the surge that he capped with a 3-pointer at 6:24, drawing the Clan within 26-25.
 
SPU responded by closing the period with a 13-5 run that netted a 39-30 halftime advantage.
 
Wall drained a pair of early jumpers for the Falcons, who scored the opening six points of the second half and steadily pulled away. They completed the game with an 18-4 spree over the last 7:23. The final margin of 34 points was the game's largest.
 
Having dispatched the Clan, SPU can now set it sights solely on Western Washington.
 
“We're playing as well together as we have all year. But we also know that Western is extremely good,” Looney said.
 
“They are obviously the best team that we have on our schedule. Playing at their place we're going to need a big-time effort from our group collectively.”
 
Saturday's game is a rematch of the 2012 NCAA West Regional championship game that the Vikings won 56-50 at Carver Gym.

 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013
West Gym/Burnaby, B.C.
 
(#4) Seattle Pacific 90, at Simon Fraser 56
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (16-2, 9-1 GNAC)
Wall 8-10 0-0 21, Simon 5-7 0-0 12, Poling 4-6 1-2 9, Downs 7-8 2-2 19, Stockton 1-4 2-4 5, Hutsen 6-8 2-2 14, Reid 1-3 0-0 3, Carroll 0-2 2-2 2, Penner 1-2 0-0 2, Jordan 1-2 0-0 2, Todd 0-0 1-2 1, Morse 0-3 0-0 0, Weber-Brader 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-55 10-14 90.
 
SIMON FRASER (6-12, 1-9 GNAC)
Dunn 3-11 0-0 7, Appiah 2-5 4-4 8, Dunlop 1-4 2-2 4, Raivio 2-3 0-0 5, Matthews 5-10 0-0 14, Olah 6-8 1-2 14, Staudacher 1-1 0-0 2, Hamilton 0-2 2-2 2, Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Bantock 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 9-10 56.
 
Seattle Pacific........  39   51  -  90
Simon Fraser...........  30   26  -  56

3-point goals--SPU 12-20 (Wall 5-7; Downs 3-4; Simon 2-3; Stockton 1-3; Reid 1-1; Morse 0-1; Carroll 0-1), SF 7-21 (Matthews 4-8; Dunn 1-3; Olah 1-2; Raivio 1-2; Hamilton 0-2; Evans 0-1; Bantock 0-2; Appiah 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, SF-None. Rebounds--SPU 35 (Stockton 7), SF 19 (Olah 4). Assists--SPU 23 (Downs 10), SF 12 (Staudacher 4). Total fouls--SPU 14, SF 12. Technical fouls--SPU-None, SF-None. Att-415.
 
 
Next Men's Basketball Game
(#4) Seattle Pacific at (#2) Western Washington
Saturday, Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Carver Gym/Bellingham, Wash.