• Final Stats
     • VIDEO: Brendan Carroll
 
SEATTLE – In the ebb and flow of this college basketball season, David Downs is riding a recent scoring wave.
 
Downs tallied 13 of his 17 points after halftime Saturday night, helping fifth-ranked Seattle Pacific turn away Northwest Nazarene 63-52 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball game at Brougham Pavilion.
 
The 6-foot-2 junior point guard led all SPU scorers for the fourth consecutive game, averaging 22.3 points during that span. That is nearly 10 higher than the 12.7-point clip he had prior to the current scoring surge.
 
“For the first two-thirds of the season teams did a really good job trying to make things difficult on Dave. And during that stretch he did a great job playing point guard and getting his teammate involved,” SPU coach Ryan Looney described.
 
“Now teams are finally figuring out that they might need to not let Jobi (Wall) and Pat (Simon) shoot as many open threes. We've needed a little bit more scoring from Dave because of it, and he's made the adjustment there.”
 
Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) leads all GNAC playmakers with 5.5 assists per game. He distributed four more assists Saturday for the Falcons (19-3), who solidified their second-place position by improving their league record to 12-2.
 


The visiting Crusaders trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half before chipping away at the deficit. They drew within 49-44 on a 3-pointer by Grayson Moore with 5:54 left in the game.
 
Downs answered with a trey on the Falcons next possession to repel the rally. That basket was part of six straight points he scored for SPU, which built its lead back to double digits.
 
SPU converted 9 of 10 free throws in the final 4:06, including 6-for-6 accuracy from Downs, to secure the victory.
 
Andy Poling was the Falcons only other double-figure scorer with 15 points.
 
“Andy played really well for us,” said Looney. “I hope that we can consistently get that from him down the stretch, and I think that we can.”
 
Kevin Rima scored 11 points to pace NNU, which also got 10 apiece from Kenny Jones and Michal Kurimsky.
 
Northwest Nazarene played a deliberate offense, often running the shot clock down to low single digits before making an attempt at the hoop.
 
“Every time we play NNU they try to make it a low possession game. I was proud of our guys that we didn't necessarily get lulled to sleep,” Looney said. “I didn't want them to force us to play differently than we normally do.
 
“The message that we tried to send all night was just to get the lead to 10, because that's like a 20-point game at a pace like this.”
 
Saturday's game was drastically different than the offensive free-for-all that took place at Brougham Pavilion on Thursday. SPU had its highest-scoring game in seven seasons en route to its largest margin of victory ever against Central Washington, a 113-75 triumph.
 
In the first half Saturday, the Falcons made just one of their first six shots, but NNU was unable to capitalize and managed only a pair of two-point leads. When Patrick Simon registered SPU's second basket, on a jumper 5:40 into the game, the score was tied at 6-6.
 
Seattle Pacific trailed 16-14 before scoring the next seven points to take the lead for good at 21-16 with 6:06 left in the first half.
 
After Downs made a layup at 4:12, neither team scored until Cory Hutsen converted a layup that gave the hosts a 29-21 halftime advantage, their largest of the contest to that point.
 
The Falcons won despite struggling from 3-point range where they normally shoot 42 percent. They shot half that, making just 21 percent of their treys (3 of 14).
 
“We didn't knock down some open threes in the first half. We were 1 of 9 at halftime and continued to shoot them,” Looney said. “Our big message at halftime was that on a night where it's not going down from outside, we have to start to get the ball inside. In the second half we did and we shot a ton of free throws.”
 
The SPU men hit the road for two games next week, beginning on Thursday in Lacey, Wash. with a 7 p.m. encounter against Saint Martin's. They play at Western Oregon on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
 
at (#5) Seattle Pacific 63, Northwest Nazarene 52
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (10-13, 4-11 GNAC)
Rima 4-9 3-5 11, Moore 2-7 0-0 6, Nicholes 3-7 0-0 6, Jones 4-12 2-4 10, Hawkins 0-2 0-0 0, Kurimsky 5-6 0-0 10, Hering 2-4 0-0 6, Perryman 1-1 0-0 3, White 0-1 0-0 0, Zidzik 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 5-9 52.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (19-3, 12-2 GNAC)
Wall 3-7 0-0 7, Simon 3-6 2-2 8, Poling 5-11 5-10 15, Downs 4-8 7-8 17, Stockton 1-7 0-0 2, Hutsen 3-5 2-2 8, Morse 1-1 0-0 2, Carroll 1-1 0-0 2, Weber-Brader 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 21-46 18-24 63.
 
Northwest Nazarene........  21   32   -  52
Seattle Pacific...........  29   34   -  63

3-point goals--NNU 5-18 (Moore 2-7, Hering 2-4, Perryman 1-1, Hawkins 0-1, White 0-1, Jones 0-4), SPU 3-14 (Downs 2-5, Wall 1-4, Simon 0-3, Stockton 0-2). Fouled out--NNU-Rima, SPU-None. Rebounds--NNU 23 (Rima, Moore 4), SPU 34 (Stockton 8). Assists--NNU 12 (Jones 4), SPU 13 (Downs, Carroll 4). Total fouls--NNU 16, SPU 13. Technical fouls--NNU-None, SPU-None. Att.-517.


Next Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Thursday, Feb. 21, 7:00 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash.