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Box score, play-by-play |
• VIDEO: Patrick Simon
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Ending Western Washington's 36-game homecourt winning streak was a fantastic by-product of the Falcons victory. But it wasn't a motivating factor.
Patrick Simon scored 29 points, getting 20 of those during the first half, as Seattle Pacific dealt Western its first home loss in over two years with a 76-60 triumph on Wednesday night.
The 19th-ranked Vikings (10-4, 4-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) hadn't lost in Carver Gymnasium since Jan. 7, 2012, when Western Oregon prevailed, 83-73. That streak included 19 in a row against GNAC opponents, one short of their own conference record.
"To be honest when the game was over our players had no idea about Western's long streak of home wins. It's something that we never mentioned," said SPU coach
Ryan Looney.
SPU's last win against Western Washington in Bellingham was 84-70 on Feb. 22, 2011. Looney said that preventing scoring streaks by WWU was the key to a win this time around.
"We were able to stretch a lead. There have been times in past games where they've been able to make runs on us. We kind of weathered their runs tonight and didn't have to rely on the free throw line down the stretch."
Senior guard
David Downs (Kirkland, Wash. / Bellevue Christian HS) and junior center
Cory Hutsen (Sammamish, Wash. / Skyline HS) added 18 points apiece for the Falcons (14-4, 5-2 GNAC), who leapfrogged Western to take over first place in the conference standings.
Anye Turner had 15 points for Western, and Austin Bragg added 14.
Seattle Pacific owned a 13-point lead at halftime and kept it in double digits throughout the second half. The closest the Vikings came was 41-30 after getting the initial basket of the half. The Falcons were at least 13 points up the rest of the way and extended it to as many as 19 late in the game.
Simon (Ephrata, Wash. / Ephrata HS) came within four points of his career high of 33 set earlier this season against San Francisco State. He hit 10 of 13 from the field, including 5 of 6 from behind the 3-point line. Simon also grabbed seven rebounds. Wednesday's scoring output was more than double his season average of 12.8 points per game.
"Pat was unbelievably good tonight," Looney exclaimed. "You look at the stat sheet and the scoreboard showing that he had 29 points. But he did so many other things. He set great screens and had seven rebounds.
"Western has two of the best offensive rebounders in the league. We challenged Patrick and
Cory Hutsen to do a great job on their blockouts. Their two bigs combined for only two offensive rebounds tonight."
The Falcons outboarded the hosts 28-21 and had an 8-7 edge in offensive rebounds.
Hutsen hit 9 of 13 from the floor as SPU shot 56.8 percent (25 of 44). They shot a blistering 63 percent (17 of 27) in the first half.
The Falcons connected on their last eight shots in a row through the final 7 minutes, 12 seconds of the first half to stretch a 23-19 lead to 41-28 by the intermission.
Coming out of a media timeout, Simon hit a turnaround 3-footer from the left of the hoop,
Brendan Carroll laid one in on a fast break, and Downs drove for a lay-in – his first points of the night – and a 29-19 SPU lead at the 5:36 mark.
Also part of that stretch of eight straight makes was a thunderous dunk by Simon for two of his 20 first-half points, that coming off a back-door feed by
Riley Stockton. Simon also had a putback of a missed free throw by Carroll for SPU's biggest lead of the half, 39-26.
Downs returned it to a 13-point margin at 41-28 when he put in a 5-footer from the right of the hoop just two seconds before the buzzer.
Simon hit eight of his nine shots through the first 20 minutes, including 4 of 4 from behind the 3-point arc.
Seattle Pacific led for all but the opening moments of the game when Western went in front, 2-0 and 4-3. From there, the Falcons went on an 8-0 run, with Hutsen tallying six of those points, to take an 11-4 advantage. The Vikings never came closer than four points after that.
Looney credited Hutsen's early offensive production for altering the Vikings defense.
"Cory made them have to defend differently. In the past they've always switched all those ball screens and our bigs haven't been able to convert enough against the little guy in the post. Tonight he did early and it made them have to change."
The middle game of SPU's three-game road swing is Saturday at 7 p.m. in Canada against Simon Fraser.
"We have a mature group and they understand we need to get ready for the next game," Looney said. "The first thing I said to them when we got in the locker room tonight is 'Tonight only stays special if we can take care of Saturday too.'"
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014
Carver Gymnasium / Bellingham, Wash.
Seattle Pacific 76, at (#19) Western Washington 60
SEATTLE PACIFIC (14-4, 5-2 GNAC)
Borton 0-5 2-2 2, Simon 10-13 4-6 29, Hutsen 9-13 0-4 18, Downs 4-8 9-10 18, Stockton 0-1 0-0 0, Carroll 1-1 0-1 2, Todd 0-0 0-0 0, Penner 1-3 5-6 7. Totals 25-44 20-29 76.
WESTERN WASHINGTON (10-4, 4-2 GNAC)
Turner 7-13 1-4 15, Parker 2-3 0-0 6, Bragg 5-9 3-5 14, Harris 1-5 2-2 4, Woodworth 2-7 0-0 4, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Thorpe 2-3 2-2 6, Abe 2-6 1-2 5, Oliver 0-0 0-0 0, Mitchell 2-3 2-2 6. Totals 23-49 11-17 60.
Seattle Pacific............... 41 35 - 76
Western Washington............ 28 32 - 60
3-point goals--SPU 6-14 (Simon 5-6, Downs 1-4, Borton 0-3, Stockton 0-1), WWU 3-8 (Parker 2-3, Bragg 1-3, Woodworth 0-1, Thorpe 0-1).
Fouled out--SPU-Hutsen, WWU-Woodworth.
Rebounds--SPU 28 (Borton, Simon 7), WWU 21 (Bragg, Turner 5).
Assists--SPU 11 (Downs 4), WWU 13 (Woodworth 4).
Total fouls--SPU 17, WWU 22.
Technical fouls--SPU-None, WWU-None.
A-1948.
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser
Saturday, Jan. 18, 7:00 p.m.
West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.
