Box Score    |   Final Stats

SEATTLE – Ricardo Maxwell scored six of his 16 points during the decisive stretch midway through the first half of Western Washington's 82-72 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball win over Seattle Pacific on Thursday at Brougham Pavilion.
 
SPU (16-6) suffered back-to-back setbacks for the first time this season and dropped to 8-4 in league play. The lost a 94-84 double-overtime decision at 24th-ranked Western Oregon on Saturday in their last outing.
 
The Vikings (12-10) improved to 5-7 in GNAC games after completing a season sweep of SPU. They won the first meeting 68-66 on Jan. 10 in Bellingham on a buzzer-beating layup by Maxwell.
 
"One of the things that we've been concerned about all year is consistency," said SPU coach Ryan Looney. "I don't think we played up to our ability tonight."
 
The teams traded baskets for the opening seven minutes Thursday before Western broke a 10-10 tie with a run of 12 unanswered points. Maxwell fueled the surge with six straight points, all on layups, giving the guests a 22-10 lead with 8:34 left in the half.
 
The Vikings capitalized on a stretch of nine scoreless possessions for SPU, which missed seven shots and committed three turnovers during that five-minute span.

 

Shawn Reid stopped SPU's drought with a reverse layup at 7:34.
 
The Falcons drew within seven points on a 3-pointer by Will Parker with 9.3 seconds left in the half.
 
Mac Johnson answered with a layup just before the halftime buzzer to provide a 35-26 WWU advantage.
 
Looney pointed to a lack of inside production for his team's first-half struggles.
 
"The way Western guards us, the one place that they'll give us an opportunity to play one-on-one is in the post. If our big people don't deliver, it's going to make it hard for us on that end of the floor."
 
SPU got just six points from the center position in the opening 20 minutes, including two from starter Cory Hutsen, who is the team's leading scorer on the season.
 
Hutsen scored 12 second-half points and, along with Reid, led five Falcons double-figure scorers for the game. Brendan Carroll contributed 11 points while Mitch Penner and Riley Stockton each had 10.
 
Jeffrey Parker tied for team-high scoring honors with 16 points for Western. Johnson finished with 15 and Kyle Impero scored 14.
 
The Falcons cut the deficit to seven points on three occasions early in the second half before Western gradually started to pull away.
 
The Vikings converted six straight shots to increase their lead to a high of 20 points, at 68-48 with 5:29 remaining.
 
SPU netted the next seven points, but never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
 
The Falcons shot 44 percent (28 of 63) and made just 4 of 19 attempts from 3-point range.
 
The Vikings hit 68 percent of their field goals during the second half (15 of 22) to raise their full-game accuracy to 56 percent (29 of 52). They are only the third team to reach the 50-percent plateau this season against SPU, and the first conference opponent.
 
"Our struggles on offense also affected how hard we were willing to play on defense," Looney explained.
 
The SPU men remain at home to host high-scoring Simon Fraser on Saturday at 4 p.m. That is the nightcap of a doubleheader with the Falcons women, who play at 2 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion.
 
The Simon Fraser men lead the nation, scoring at a 110-point clip while the Falcons counter with one of the nation's stingiest defenses. They surrender just 63 opponents points per game.
 

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.

Western Washington 82, at Seattle Pacific 72

WESTERN WASHINGTON (12-10, 5-7 GNAC)
Turner 3-5 1-2 7, Parker 5-10 4-4 16, Johnson 7-10 1-5 15, Maxwell 6-11 4-4 16, Javier 1-1 5-6 7, Impero 4-9 6-10 14, Schreiber 3-6 0-0 7, Hopkins 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-52 21-31 82.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (16-6, 8-4 GNAC)
Borton 1-2 0-0 2, Penner 4-10 2-5 10, Hutsen 7-13 0-2 14, Stockton 3-4 3-4 10, Carroll 3-10 5-7 11, Reid 5-13 2-2 14, Rasmussen 3-6 0-0 6, Parker 2-5 0-0 5, Swanson 0-0 0-0 0, Leavitt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-63 12-20 72.

Western Washington.......   35   47  -   82
Seattle Pacific..........   26   46  -   72

3-point goals--WWU 3-12 (Parker 2-5, Schreiber 1-3, Impero 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Maxwell 0-2), SPU 4-19 (Reid 2-8, Parker 1-3, Stockton 1-1, Penner 0-1, Rasmussen 0-1, Borton 0-1, Carroll 0-4). Fouled out--WWU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--WWU 32 (Turner 9, Johnson 9), SPU 37 (Stockton 9). Assists--WWU 10 (Maxwell 3), SPU 7 (Carroll 3). Total fouls--WWU 19, SPU 22. Technical fouls--WWU-None, SPU-None. Att.-904.


Next Men's Basketball Game
Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Feb. 5, 4:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.