Box Score      • Final Stats

LACEY, Wash. –- His uncle became famous for distributing the basketball. Riley Stockton is making a name for himself by retrieving the ball.
 
Stockton's career-high 15 rebounds led a dominating performance on the boards Thursday for the fifth-ranked Seattle Pacific men in a 60-46 Great Northwest Athletic Conference road victory over Saint Martin's at Marcus Pavilion.
 
The Falcons (20-3) secured their fourth consecutive 20-win season and the 21st overall in school history.
 
 “We're excited to have gotten over the 20-win plateau,” exclaimed fourth-year head coach Ryan Looney. “That's kind of a benchmark that great programs try to consistently get to every single year.”
 
SPU teams strung together four 20-victory seasons just once before, from 1999 to 2002.
 
Seattle Pacific's second-place conference record improved to 13-2, just one game in the loss column behind league-leading Western Washington. The second-ranked Vikings lost 77-73 at Alaska Fairbanks, moving their GNAC record to 15-1.
  A 6-foot-4 sophomore guard, Stockton (Spokane, Wash./Ferris HS) helped SPU compile a 48-23 rebounding advantage, increasing his team-high average to 7.3 boards per game. He was the team's top rebounder in 16 of this season's 23 games, including a 10-board effort on Nov. 10 against Azusa Pacific that was his previous career high.
 
“The thing that's funny is that in shoot-around earlier today I was joking around with Riley and telling him that we needed great effort from him tonight and that I wasn't going to think we got the best of him unless he got 11 rebounds,” Looney recalled. “He took that to heart and surpassed what I had to say.
 
“We have a lot of really good players on the team. To be successful, guys have to be accepting of different roles. Riley knows that on a team with a bunch of guys who can score it, he can really impact it with his defense and rebounding. He's done a great job focusing on those two things.”
 
Why is a perimeter play so effective as a rebounder? Looney explained it in one word.
 
“Instinct,” he said before elaborating. “There are some players, regardless of position, that just have a knack to be where the ball is. Riley is one of those guys.”
 
That basketball instinct may have been passed along through Stockton's genes. He is the nephew of NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton, who passed for a record 15,806 assists during his 19-year career with the Utah Jazz from 1984-2003.
 
Junior point guard David Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) continued his recent scoring streak, pouring in 20 points to lead all Falcons scorers for the fifth straight game. He also chipped in seven rebounds.
 
Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) tallied all 12 of his points in the first half and his SPU senior classmate Jobi Wall (Arvada, Colo.) had 11 points and nine rebounds.
 
Roger O'Neill paced Saint Martin's with 13 points, but only one of them came after halftime. Will Bond added 10 points.
 
SPU started slow, missing four of its first five shots and turning the ball over three times during its opening six possessions.
 
The Saints were just the opposite, starting 4-for-5 from the field. They claimed a 10-4 lead when Evan Coulter nailed a 3-pointer 4:20 into the game.
 
“Early in the game we gave them too many early looks from the 3-point line,” said Looney. “After a series of timeouts, having the ability to talk about that, our guys did a good job taking that away.”
 
SMU's lead was 20-13 before the Falcons scored eight straight points and took a brief 21-20 edge when Poling banked in a short jumper with 6:46 left in the first half.
 
O'Neill answered with a 3-pointer at 6:30, but those were the Saints final points of the period. SPU scored the next 12 points, six of them from Downs, to register a 33-23 halftime advantage.
 
Saints starting center Rei Jensen was limited to four first-half minutes after drawing two quick fouls. He netted the first four points of the second half on a jumper 17 seconds in and two free throws at 18:59.
 
Wall responded with a 3-pointer for the Falcons, who then steadily pulled away. They led by as many as 23 points and were ahead 55-33 with 6:54 left to play before SMU closed the gap with a 10-point run.
 
Bond scored the final five points of the surge that drew the Saints within 55-43 with 3:06 remaining. But that is as close as they would come.
 
“We hang our hat on our defense and rebounding,” Looney summarized. “If you look at it, we held them to 46 points and outrebounded them by 25. That was the difference.”
 
Saint Martin's (8-15), which lost its eighth straight meeting versus SPU, fell to 4-11 in GNAC play.
 
The Falcons play their final regular-season road game on Saturday at 2 p.m. They visit Monmouth, Ore. to play Western Oregon.
 
The SPU men have a pair of home games next week, both of them at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. They host Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 28 and Alaska Fairbanks on Mar. 2.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013
Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash.
 
(#5) Seattle Pacific 60, at Saint Martin's 46
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (20-3, 13-2 GNAC)
Wall 3-9 3-3 11, Simon 3-5 1-1 7, Poling 3-5 6-9 12, Downs 6-14 7-9 20, Stockton 2-6 0-0 4, Hutsen 2-5 0-4 4, Weber-Brader 0-4 1-2 1, Morse 0-0 1-2 1, Penner 0-0 0-0 0, Reid 0-0 0-0 0, Carroll 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 19-30 60.
 
SAINT MARTIN'S (8-15, 4-11 GNAC)
O'Neill 5-13 1-2 13, Jensen 1-4 3-4 5, Bond 4-10 0-0 10, Coulter 3-7 0-0 8, Bomber 0-3 0-0 0, Shannon 3-7 0-0 6, Taylor 1-6 0-0 3, Stoney 0-0 1-2 1, Norman 0-1 0-0 0, Karnofski 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-51 5-8 46.
 
Seattle Pacific...........  33   27   -  60
Saint Martin's............  23   23   -  46

3-point goals--SPU 3-11 (Wall 2-6, Downs 1-4, Simon 0-1), SMU 7-18 (Coulter 2-4, Bond 2-5, O'Neill 2-4, Taylor 1-3, Norman 0-1, Bomber 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, SMU-Shannon. Rebounds--SPU 48 (Stockton 15), SMU 23 (Jensen 9). Assists--SPU 6 (Simon, Downs 2), SMU 10 (Bomber 7). Total fouls--SPU 9, SMU 21. Technical fouls--SPU-None, SMU-None. Att.-652.

 
NEXT MEN'S BASKETBALL GAME
Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2:00 p.m.
New P.E. Building/Monmouth, Ore.