Box Score             • Final Stats
 
 
Senior Patrick Simon scored 16 of his 21 points during the first half Thursday for 20th-ranked Seattle Pacific, which defeated Central Washington 91-59 at Nicholson Pavilion to claim at least a share of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball regular-season championship.
 
The first-place Falcons (23-5) improved to 14-3 in league play, one game better than second-place Western Washington's 13-4 mark. If the SPU men win at Northwest Nazarene or WWU loses at Western Oregon in Saturday's regular-season enders, the outright conference title is theirs.
 
 
"Obviously, we want to win it outright. We're excited about playing for it on Saturday. It's just another challenge that we have in front of us."
 
This the fifth GNAC championship for the Falcons since the league was formed in 2002. They captured the 2010 and 2006 conference crowns outright and tied for the league title in 2007 and 2002.
 
The 2010 league championship was won in Looney's first year with the Falcons.
 
"All of them are special. Each group is able to kind of get it done in a little bit different way.
 
"I couldn't be more proud of our team because other than winning a national championship, the hardest thing to do is winning your own conference. And we've done that again this year."
 
Thursday's win gives SPU the No. 1 seed for next week's GNAC Tournament at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash. The Falcons will have first-round bye and play a semifinal matchup on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday's quarterfinal contest between No. 4 seed Alaska Anchorage and No. 5 Western Oregon.
 
Central (11-14) suffered its fifth straight setback, and dropped to 7-10 in GNAC play. The loss prevented the Wildcats from qualifying for the six-team conference tournament field.
 
SPU trailed 21-20 before outscoring their hosts 24-8 over the final 7:22 of the first half to take control of the game. The surge featured a run of 14 unanswered points during which the Wildcats were scoreless for a stretch of 4-minutes, 42-seconds.
 
"Throughout the game we were fine offensively," explained Looney. "Just during that stretch we did a great job getting stops and then following it up with scores on the other end."
 
 
The Wildcats got a jumper from Marc Rogers on their opening possession of the second half to draw within 44-31, but that is as close as they would come as SPU stretched the margin to as many as 32 points.
 
Simon, the nation's leader in 3-point accuracy at 53 percent, nailed 5 of 7 shots beyond the arc.
 
Downs finished with 16 points for the Falcons, who also got 13 from Riley Stockton, 11 from Cory Hutsen and 10 from Matt Borton.
 
Central's Mark McLaughlin, the NCAA Division II scoring leader, was held to 16 points. That is 11.3 below the average of 27.3 points he brought into the game.
 
Jordan Russell added 13 points for CWU and JB Pillard had 11.
 
In the first half, Simon made his first three shots, two of them 3-pointers, to provide an early 8-2 SPU lead. CWU responded with back-to-back treys, by Rogers and Joey Roppo, and a put-back by Kevin Davis to claim its first lead at 10-8.
 
"He was dialed in right from the start," Looney said of Simon. "He got a couple baskets early, which really got him going."
 
After a put-back by Simon, who scored his team's first 10 points, the Wildcats scored five straight to stake their largest margin, at 15-10, with 12:38 to play in the first half.
 
That lead was short-lived as the Falcons scored the next seven points, and the teams then traded baskets before SPU's spree closed the half.
 
SPU shot 58 percent for the game (32 of 55), including 13 of 19 accuracy from 3-point range. The Wildcats were limited to 43 percent shooting (23 of 53) and made just 7 of 18 treys.
 
The Falcons complete their regular-season schedule on Saturday in Nampa, Idaho. They clash with Northwest Nazarene at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
 
"We know that it's going to be tough at NNU," Looney projected. "They have a lot of guys who can shoot it and they run some stuff on offense that's difficult to guard. We're going to have to make sure that we have a plan and are disciplined with that."

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014
Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
#20 Seattle Pacific 91, at Central Washington 59
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (23-5, 14-3 GNAC)
Borton 4-6 1-2 10, Simon 7-12 2-2 21, Hutsen 5-8 1-2 11, Downs 5-12 4-4 16, Stockton 5-6 0-1 13, Carroll 3-5 1-2 9, Todd 1-2 2-2 4, Parker 1-2 0-0 2, Penner 0-1 2-2 2, Rasmussen 1-1 0-0 2, Hamlin 0-0 1-2 1, Ehlers 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-55 14-19 91.
 
CENTRAL WASHINGTON (11-14, 7-10 GNAC)
Pillard 4-8 2-4 11, McLaughlin 7-16 1-1 16, Davis 2-4 1-5 5, Roppo 1-3 0-0 3, Rodgers 3-5 0-2 7, Russell 5-11 1-2 13, Peake 1-2 0-0 3, Budinich 0-2 1-2 1, Dawn 0-0 0-0 0, Vaughn 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 6-16 59.
 
Seattle Pacific...............   44   47   --   91
Central Washington............   29   30   --   59
 
3-point goals--SPU 13-19 (Simon 5-7, Stockton 3-4, Downs 2-4, Carroll 2-2, Borton 1-1, Penner 0-1), CWU 7-18 (Russell 2-4, Roppo 1-1, McLaughlin 1-3, Rodgers 1-3, Pillard 1-2, Peake 1-2, Vaughn 0-1, Budinich 0-1, Davis 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-Penner, CWU-None. Rebounds--SPU 38 (Hutsen 7), CWU 24 (Davis 8). Assists--SPU 17 (Stockton 6), CWU 7 (Russell 2). Total fouls--SPU 20, CWU 20. Technical fouls--SPU-None, CWU-None. Att.-1,463.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene
Saturday, Mar. 1, 6:30 p.m. PST
Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho
 

2014 GNAC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
(seedings listed)
 
Quarterfinals
Wednesday, March 5
GAME 1: (6) Montana State Billings vs. (3) Alaska Fairbanks, 12:00 p.m.
GAME 2: (5) Western Oregon vs. (4) Alaska Anchorage, 2:15 p.m.
 
Semifinals
Thursday, March 6
GAME 3: Winner game 1 vs. (2) Western Washington, 5:15 p.m.
GAME 4: Winner game 2 vs. (1) Seattle Pacific, 7:30 p.m.
 
Championship
Saturday, March 8
GAME 5: Winner game 3 vs. Winner game 4, 5:15 p.m.