Box Score • Final Stats | • VIDEO: Mitch Penner
SEATTLE – Seven days after hitting a low point, Coach
Ryan Looney feels a lot better about his Seattle Pacific men's basketball team.
Mitch Penner scored 14 of his 17 points during the opening half Saturday as SPU built an early lead and held on for an 81-74 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory over Alaska Anchorage at Brougham Pavilion.
The Falcons (13-4) kept UAA 16 points under its league-leading 90.4-point scoring average. They are in second place in the conference standings with a 4-2 record with a clash at first-place Western Washington slated for Wednesday.
Last week SPU sustained a pair of four-point road setbacks, losing at Western Oregon and Saint Martin's. Those were the program's first back-to-back losses since 2011.
The Falcons began this week with an impressive 66-46 rout of Alaska Fairbanks before completing the homestand sweep with Saturday's triumph.
"It's the best week we've had so far this year," Looney exclaimed. "We had to improve in some pretty important areas and I thought we were able to do it both games this weekend."
Anchorage (9-6) dropped to 2-3 in GNAC play.
SPU led by as many as 16 points, at 47-31, with 16:23 left in the game. The Seawolves steadily chipped away at that margin and drew within 63-59 on Christian Leckband's 3-pointer with 4:30 on the clock.
Patrick Simon answered with a layup for SPU and
David Downs amassed 12 points in the final 4:09 to repel the visitor's rally.
A senior point guard, Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) registered his fifth consecutive 20-point performance. Over half of his 21 points came via 12-for-14 shooting from the free throw line, including 10 during the closing stretch.
Penner (Seattle, Wash./Kennedy HS) hit 9 of 10 shots from the field and grabbed six rebounds.
"Mitch had great energy off the bench," Looney said. "He was active on the boards with five offensive rebounds and we needed it because both our four and five were in foul trouble the whole night."
Junior Center
Cory Hutsen fouled out with 5:59 left in the game, followed by
Matt Borton at the 2:43 mark. Simon (Ephrata, Wash./Ephrata HS/WSU) finished with 13 points. The senior forward wasn't disqualified, but played with four fouls for most of the second half.
Looney praised the work of his reserves for helping overcome the foul difficulties.
"We had guys who stepped up. Mitch played very well and something that we probably don't do enough, we used
Josh Jordan off the bench and he gave us seven quality minutes. A lot of stuff he did doesn't necessarily show up in a boxscore, but he went out there and guarded and didn't mess up on offense."
SPU's bench players outscored their Anchorage counterparts 27-11.
Teancum Stafford topped four UAA double-figure scorers with 18 points. Kyle Fossman added 17 while Brian McGill and Travis Thompson each had 13.
The Falcons opened leads of 13-6 and 18-9 midway through the first half. They stretched a five-point margin to 32-18 with a run of nine unanswered points.
Brendan Carroll capped the surge on a 3-pointer with 4:32 left until intermission.
Penner tallied the next seven points for SPU, which took a 41-28 advantage into halftime.
"Our entire game plan was to limit the amount of threes they attempted and try to make them beat us with twos," Looney explained. "That's exactly what happened. They average 13 made threes a game and tonight they only had six."
The Seawolves shot 6 of 20 from 3-point range and SPU countered with 5-for-18 accuracy.
The Falcons hit the road for their next three games, beginning on Wednesday at 20th-ranked Western Washington. The game in Bellingham will be televised live on ROOT Sports at 7 p.m.
"It will be fun," Looney said. "This is why you play and coach, for opportunities to compete in big games."
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
at Seattle Pacific 81, Alaska Anchorage 74
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (9-7, 2-3 GNAC)
Mears 1-6 0-0 2, McGill 6-13 1-3 13, Thompson 2-10 9-9 13, Stafford 4-11 7-10 18, Fossman 6-8 3-4 17, Leckband 2-2 0-2 5, Lauwers 1-5 2-2 4, McTier 1-1 0-0 2, Blossom 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-56 22-30 74.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (13-4, 4-2 GNAC)
Borton 3-6 1-2 7, Simon 3-9 7-8 13, Hutsen 3-7 2-6 8, Downs 4-9 12-14 21, Stockton 2-6 0-0 5, Penner 6-10 4-6 17, Carroll 2-4 2-2 8, Todd 1-1 0-0 2, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 28-38 81.
Alaska Anchorage.............. 28 46 - 74
Seattle Pacific............... 41 40 - 81
3-point goals--UAA 6-20 (Stafford 3-8, Fossman 2-4, Leckband 1-1, Lauwers 0-3, Thompson 0-4), SPU 5-18 (Carroll 2-4, Stockton 1-4, Downs 1-5, Penner 1-3, Borton 0-1, Simon 0-1).
Fouled out--UAA-Thompson, SPU-Hutsen, Borton.
Rebounds--UAA 31 (Fossman 6, Stafford 6), SPU 37 (Carroll 9).
Assists--UAA 7 (Thompson, Blossom 2), SPU 11 (Downs 4).
Total fouls--UAA 29, SPU 23.
Technical fouls--UAA-None, SPU-None.
Att.-581.
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Western Washington
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7:00 p.m.
Carver Gymnasium / Bellingham, Wash.
