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SEATTLE –- In 70 seasons of men's basketball at Seattle Pacific, no team has registered better regular-season results than the current squad.
 
Senior Jobi Wall poured in 25 points in his final home game at Brougham Pavilion on Saturday, lifting fourth-ranked SPU to a 73-65 victory over Alaska Fairbanks that secured the best regular-season winning percentage in school history.
 
The Falcons 23-3 record gives them an 88.5 winning percentage at the completion of the regular season. That eclipsed the previous school-record of 85.2 percent posted by the 2002 team that had a 23-4 record.
 
“I'm excited for our guys,” fourth-year coach Ryan Looney exclaimed. “You look back at it as a whole now, they were able to accomplish something that nobody before them has been able to. So that's something pretty special.”
 
The SPU men finished in second place in the final Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 16-2 mark. They will begin postseason play on Friday at 5:15 p.m. in the semifinal round of the GNAC Tournament at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash.
 
League champion Western Washington and second-seeded SPU have first-round byes for the six-team conference tournament that begins on Thursday. They will square off against the two quarterfinal victors.
 
The Falcons will meet the winner of Thursday's 5:15 p.m. game between No. 3 seed Alaska Anchorage and No. 6 Central Washington.
 
The GNAC men's championship game is slated for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised live on ROOT SPORTS.
 


Looking past the conference tournament, SPU was listed third in this week's West rankings and will certainly receive one of the region's eight invitations to the NCAA Tournament. That would extend its consecutive playoff stretch to nine years, the longest current streak among the nation's Division II men's basketball teams.
 
On Saturday, the Falcons had a seemingly comfortable 50-41 lead before Pat Voeut fueled an 18-9 UAF surge with 13 points. His 3-pointer with 5:17 left to play tied the score 59-59.
 
SPU responded with 11 unanswered points to re-gain control. David Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian) was scoreless until he started the spree with a driving layup and 3-pointer. He concluded the run with a trey at 1:29 that provided a 70-59 advantage.
 
“UAF is a really good team this year. When you look at their season boxscore, virtually every game they've played in, win or lose, has been close,” Looney said. “For our guys to kind of gut it out and win a reasonably close one down the stretch, that will only help us in the postseason.”
 
Andy Poling (Portland, Ore.) finished with 11 points for the Falcons. Sophomore Riley Stockton (Spokane, Wash./Ferris HS) recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. That was the third double-figure rebound effort in the last four games for the 6-foot-4 guard. Stockton sparked SPU's 37-26 rebounding edge.
 
Stockton also distributed six assists. He is the nephew of NBA Hall of Fame guard John Stockton.
 
Voeut finished with 22 points to pace the Nanooks, who also got 10 apiece from Zach Ngawaka and Andrew Kelly.
 
Fairbanks (15-11) fell to 10-8 in GNAC play and finished in fourth place.
 
Wall (Arvada, Colo.) scored 12 points during the opening 4:36. He netted four straight baskets for his team, all of them on 3-pointers. Wall finished the game having made 8 of 14 shots from the field, including 7-for-10 accuracy from 3-point range.
 
The Falcons led by as many as nine points in the first half. They scored the final four points, capped by another Wall 3-pointer, to claim a 37-32 halftime lead.
 
Wall, Poling and Scott Morse (Central Point, Ore.) were honored in a Senior Night ceremony before the game. Morse was the lone four-year player in the group and SPU compiled an 88-27 record during his collegiate career.
 
“In our program, establishing what we think is the right type of culture was really, really important,” Looney said. “We think that in the fourth year we're finally right where we need to be in regards to that and those three seniors have a large part to do with it.”
 


 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Mar. 2, 2013
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
 
at (#4) Seattle Pacific 73, Alaska Fairbanks 65
 
ALASKA FAIRBANKS (15-11, 10-8 GNAC)
Ngawaka 4-4 0-0 10, Pucar 2-8 0-0 5, Brinson 2-6 0-0 4, Baker 1-5 0-0 3, Voeut 5-8 10-10 22, Kelly 5-6 0-0 10, Bills 3-7 2-3 8, Tica 1-6 1-1 3, Pierson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 13-14 65.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (23-3, 16-2 GNAC)
Wall 8-14 2-2 25, Morse 2-2 0-0 5, Poling 5-11 1-4 11, Downs 3-8 1-2 8, Stockton 3-6 5-5 11, Simon 3-9 3-5 9, Hutsen 2-5 0-1 4, Weber-Brader 0-2 0-0 0, Todd 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 12-19 73.
 
Alaska Fairbanks..........  32   33   -  65
Seattle Pacific...........  37   36   -  73

3-point goals--UAF 6-17 (Ngawaka 2-2, Voeut 2-3, Pucar 1-5, Baker 1-2, Tica 0-4, Brinson 0-1), SPU 9-21 (Wall 7-10, Downs 1-3, Morse 1-1, Simon 0-4, Stockton 0-3). Fouled out--UAF-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--UAF 26 (Brinson 6), SPU 37 (Stockton 11). Assists--UAF 13 (Voeut 7), SPU 15 (Stockton 6). Total fouls--UAF 17, SPU 12. Technical fouls--UAF-None, SPU-None. Att.-487.

 
NEXT MEN'S BASKETBALL GAME
Seattle Pacific at GNAC Tournament Semifinals
Friday, March 8, 5:15 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash.