Box Score            • Final Stats     |     • VIDEO: David Downs

SEATTLE – Despite a 10th consecutive victory that has Seattle Pacific atop the standings, Coach Ryan Looney was not completely satisfied on Thursday.
 
David Downs compiled 17 of his 28 points during the first half as the 15th-ranked SPU men surged ahead early en route to an 89-79 Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball victory over Simon Fraser at Brougham Pavilion.
 
The first place Falcons (21-4) improved to 12-2 in conference play. They increased their league lead as second-place Western Washington fell to 10-3 after losing 102-101 in overtime at Montana State Billings. The No. 24 Vikings visit SPU on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
 


"I was a little discouraged with us tonight," Looney admitted. "We probably didn't perform at the level we have over the last month, which isn't good. You want your habits to be great 100 percent of the time, especially this time of year."
 
The Falcons shot 58 percent from the floor (32 of 55) and hit 12 of 22 treys. But they allowed SFU to shoot 55 percent and make 12 of 22 shots from 3-point range.
 
"Simon Fraser was much improved from the first time that we played them," Looney said, referring to SPU's 73-49 rout in Burnaby, B.C. on Jan. 18. "Their effort was great and they shot it a lot better this time too.
 
"We were fine offensively and did a good job sharing the ball. We shot a high percentage like we normally do. But our attention to detail with our scouting report defensively was nowhere near good enough."
 
Simon Fraser (9-12), which lost all 12 meetings in its all-time series with SPU, dropped to 2-11 in GNAC play.
 
Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) drained 4 of 5 shots from 3-point range during the first half. Three of those treys came inside the opening five minutes, the third providing a 15-8 lead.
 
That margin steadily increased and grew to 46-28 when Downs capped a 9-0 run on his fourth 3-pointer with 39 seconds showing on the clock.
 
Sango Niang scored on a driving layup with 3.3 seconds left for the Clan, who trailed 46-30 at halftime.
 
The Falcons shot a torrid 63 percent (19 of 30) in the first half while SFU was also hot at 54-percent (13 of 24).
 
For the game, Downs made 9 of 14 attempts from the field, including 6-of-8 accuracy on 3-pointers. The senior point guard became the fourth player in Falcons history to surpass the 1,600-point plateau. Downs has 1,614 points, just 41 shy of SPU's No. 3 all-time scorer Jeff McBroom who amassed 1,655 points from 1996-99.
 
Loren Anderson (1955-58) is the school's scoring leader with 1,948 points and Dustin Bremmerman (2003-07) ranks No. 2 with 1,797.
 
 
Brendan Carroll and Mitch Penner each contributed 13 points for the Falcons and Cory Hutsen added 12.
 
"Matt Borton, Mitch Penner and Brendan Carroll have consistently gotten a lot better over the course of the season," Looney said. "That has a lot to do with us winning 10 straight games now. Early in the year we weren't getting some of the stuff that we're getting from those three now."
 
Niang scored 26 points to pace the Clan, who also got 18 David Gebru, all of them in the second half. Justin Cole added 15 points and Taylor Dunn 11.
 
Simon Fraser hit 9 of its first 10 second-half shots, drawing within 64-51 on a layup by Niang with 12 minutes left to play.
 
SPU netted the next nine points to stretch the lead to 73-51 with 9:43 remaining. Patrick Simon started the surge with back-to-back 3-pointers.
 
The Clan staged a 20-6 run in the final six minutes and cut the margin to 88-79, but that is as close as they could come.
 
The Falcons can now turn their attention to Northwest rival Western Washington, a matchup their fan base has long anticipated. SPU won the GNAC Tournament title last season and WWU was the regular-season champion. They met in the NCAA Division II West Region championship game in each of the last two years.
 
"I feel good that it's finally here," Looney exclaimed. "All week everybody around campus has been looking forward to that game and it made it hard to focus on tonight's game in all reality."
 
SPU won this season's first matchup 76-60 on Jan. 15 in Bellingham. That victory stopped the Vikings school-record 36-game home winning streak at Carver Gymnasium.
 
Does Looney expect that loss to alter Western's game plan.
 
"I don't, to be honest. They have been really good over the years at what they do. If I were them, I wouldn't change."
 
The men's game on Saturday is the nightcap of a doubleheader with the SPU women, who play Northwest Nazarene at 5:15 p.m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
at (#15) Seattle Pacific 89, Simon Fraser 79
 
SIMON FRASER (9-12, 2-11 GNAC)
Appiah 1-4 0-0 2, Niang 11-15 2-2 26, Cole 6-10 0-0 15, Staudacher 1-1 0-0 3, Dunn 4-10 3-4 11, Gebru 6-12 6-9 18, Hamilton 1-3 2-2 4, Evans 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-55 13-17 79.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (21-4, 12-2 GNAC)
Borton 5-6 2-2 14, Simon 3-7 0-0 9, Hutsen 5-9 2-6 12, Downs 9-15 4-6 28, Stockton 0-3 0-2 0, Carroll 4-4 4-4 13, Penner 6-8 1-2 13, Hamlin 0-0 0-0 0, Ehlers 0-2 0-0 0, Todd 0-1 0-0 0, Parker 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-55 13-22 89.

Simon Fraser..................   30   49  -   79
Seattle Pacific...............   46   43  -   89

3-point goals--SF 6-13 (Cole 3-5, Niang 2-3, Staudacher 1-1, Hamilton 0-2, Appiah 0-1, Dunn 0-1), SPU 12-22 (Downs 6-9, Simon 3-4, Borton 2-3, Carroll 1-1, Ehlers 0-1, Stockton 0-2, Penner 0-2). Fouled out--SF-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--SF 23 (Gebru 7), SPU 31 (Borton 10). Assists--SF 7 (Niang, Gebru 2), SPU 16 (Stockton 7). Total fouls--SF 18, SPU 13. Technical fouls--SF-None, SPU-None. Att.-437.

Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
(#24) Western Washington at (#15) Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.