Box Score               • Final Stats     |     • VIDEO: David Downs

SEATTLE – David Downs was nursing an injured ankle. You would never know it after witnessing Saturday's prolific performance.
 
The senior point guard amassed 26 points in just 24 minutes to lead the 16th-ranked Seattle Pacific men, who completed a sweep of their Great Northwest Athletic Conference opening basketball series with an 80-67 victory over Central Washington at Brougham Pavilion.
 
The Falcons (9-2) improved to 2-0 in league play, including Thursday's 73-54 home win over Northwest Nazarene. They don't play another conference contest until they visit Western Oregon on Jan. 2.
 


The Preseason Player of the Year in the GNAC, Downs drew a scoring standoff against CWU's Mark McLaughlin, who entered the game with a league-leading 26.6-point average. The Wildcats senior finished with 26 points on 9 of 19 shooting from the field in 37 minutes.
 
Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) matched that scoring total in 13 fewer minutes. He converted 8 of 13 shots form the field and 4 of 6 on 3-pointers.
 
"David was very good tonight," said SPU coach Ryan Looney. "He hurt his ankle in the Chico State game (last Saturday) and we tried to limit his reps in practice all week. We were able to in tonight's game as well and cut his minutes down to 24."
 
Looney credited the solid effort of backup point guard Will Parker for enabling him to limit Downs' playing time.  A red-shirt freshman, Parker (Sammamish, Wash./Skyline HS) played 16 minutes after seeing just three total minutes of collegiate action entering the game.
 
Parker scored just two points, but had only one turnover while directing the offense.
 
"We decided to give Will Parker a shot tonight and he did a great job running the team when he was in there," Looney said. "In all reality we were able to play David less because of what Will was able to provide the team."
 
Junior center Cory Hutsen chipped in 19 points for SPU and Brendan Carroll added 11. Patrick Simon scored nine points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Falcons' 33-25 advantage on the boards.
 
JB Pillard contributed 19 points for Central.
 
The Falcons steadily stretched a nine-point halftime lead, increasing it to as many as 22 points during the second half.
 
The Wildcats (3-4) dropped to 0-2 in GNAC games. They narrowed the final margin with an 11-2 game-closing run during the final 3:31 powered by eight points from McLaughlin.
 
SPU shot 61 percent for the game (31 of 51), while limiting CWU to 48 percent (26 of 54) accuracy from the field.
 
After trailing by as many as five points early in the game, Central rallied with seven straight points to go ahead 16-14 on a 3-pointer by Jeff Budinich with 12:08 left in the first half.
 
The Wildcats had a 20-19 edge before SPU tallied six consecutive points, taking the lead for good at 25-20. Simon completed the surge on a basket with 7:15 to go before intermission.
 
The Falcons advantage grew to 39-30 by halftime when Carroll made a breakaway layup at the buzzer.
 
SPU outscored the Wildcats 9-2 over the final 2:15 of the opening half.
 
"That was very important stretch for us," Looney said. "Up to this point this year we've had trouble extending our lead on teams. We've let people hang around maybe longer than they probably should. So to just build a little bit of momentum before going into the half was big for us."
 
The SPU men take a break for final exams before returning to action at home on Dec. 17 against Northwest Christian. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Brougham Pavilion where they entertain Walla Walla University on Dec. 21 at 5 p.m.
 
Looney is looking forward to the break from competition. He plans to utilize the practice time to fine-tune his Falcons.
 
"The thing that the average person doesn't understand is that our schedule this year was way harder and way more rigorous than it has been in previous years. In exactly the last 30 days we've played 11 games and seven of them have been on the road.
 
"So we haven't really had time to have a long stretch of practices where we can really focus on the areas where we need to get better. And now with the 10-day gap there, we're finally to that point."
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
at (#16) Seattle Pacific 80, Central Washington 67
 
CENTRAL WASHINGTON (3-4, 0-2 GNAC)
Pillard 7-10 5-6 19, Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Roppo 1-5 1-2 3, Lord 3-7 0-2 6, McLaughlin 9-19 7-9 26, Vaughn 3-3 0-2 6, Budinich 1-4 0-0 3, Rodgers 1-1 0-0 2, Radliff 0-0 0-0 0, Peake 0-2 0-0 0, Dawn 0-0 0-0 0, Russell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 13-21 67.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (9-2, 2-0 GNAC)
Borton 0-1 0-0 0, Simon 4-7 0-2 9, Hutsen 9-13 1-4 19, Downs 8-13 6-8 26, Stockton 0-3 3-5 3, Carroll 4-7 1-1 11, Penner 4-4 0-0 8, Ehlers 1-1 0-0 2, Parker 1-1 0-1 2, Hamlin 0-0 0-0 0, Reid 0-0 0-0 0, Rasmussen 0-0 0-0 0, Todd 0-1 0-1 0, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-51 11-22 80.
 
Central Washington............   30   37  -   67
Seattle Pacific...............   39   41  -   80

3-point goals--CWU 2-11 (McLaughlin 1-3, Budinich 1-1, Lord 0-1, Roppo 0-2, Peake 0-2, Russell 0-1, Pillard 0-1), SPU 7-18 (Downs 4-6, Carroll 2-4, Simon 1-3, Stockton 0-2, Borton 0-1, Hutsen 0-2). Fouled out--CWU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--CWU 25 (Pillard 6), SPU 33 (Simon 10). Assists--CWU 5 (McLaughlin, Rodgers, Russell, Roppo 1), SPU 14 (Stockton 5). Total fouls--CWU 17, SPU 15. Technical fouls--CWU-None, SPU-None. Att.-463.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Northwest Christian at Seattle Pacific
Tuesday, Dec. 17, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.