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SEATTLE – Seattle Pacific has been difficult to score on this season. That dynamic defense was definitely on display Tuesday.
 
Reserve center Joe Rasmussen scored eight of his 10 points midway through the first half, helping the SPU men gain control en route to a 65-46 Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball victory over Saint Martin's at Brougham Pavilion.
 
The Falcons (13-4) notched their fourth straight win and improved their league ledger to 6-3. The 46-point total was the lowest scoring output of the season for an opponent. The previous low mark came in SPU's 62-50 win at Chico State on Nov. 27.
 
"I'm proud of our effort defensively and as the game went on we got better and better with our rebounding," said SPU coach Ryan Looney. "Our assistant coaches have done a really good job with the scouting reports. In regards to defensive preparation, obviously our guys paid attention and held a team in the 40s."
 
SPU entered the game ranked 11th nationally in scoring defense, surrendering just 64.5 points per game. Tuesday's performance dropped that figure by more than a point, to 63.4.
 
Saint Martin's was the sixth foe to be held under 60 points by the Falcons, who had a season-high eight blocked shots. Three of those blocks came from 7-foot senior center Gilles Dierickx and two from Rasmussen.



A 6-foot-8 junior, Rasmussen (Mercer Island HS) was one of three double-figure scorers for SPU, which also got 13 points from Mitch Penner (Kennedy HS) and 12 from Dierickx (Ghent, Belgium).
 
Senior guard Bryce Leavitt (Kennewick HS) sparked a 38-27 Falcons edge on the boards with a game-high six rebounds. He distributed eight assists, two more than the entire SMU team output.
 
Fred Jorg tallied 14 points to top the Saints (7-10), who dropped to 1-8 in GNAC games. The 7-foot, 305-pound center made 7 of 12 shots.
 
"We thought their big guy, Jorg, would be very good for them," Looney said. "But we also thought that we could take advantage of him by ball-screening on offense and making him have to come out and play defense on the perimeter. Joe really helped us stretch the floor."
 
Rasmussen converted 2 of his 5 shots from 3-point range.
 
SMU scored the game's first five points on the way to an 8-1 lead.
 
"Early, they were simply just playing harder than we were and it took our guys a little while to get going. Once we did we were pretty good on defense," Looney described.

 

Rasmussen got the Falcons first basket four minutes into the contest, on a rebound and put-back shot. He later nailed a 3-pointer to ignite a seven-point run that eventually leveled the game 10-10 on Leavitt's length of the court drive for a layup with 11:53 left in the first half.
 
The Saints staked their final lead, at 17-16, on a 3-pointer by Trey Ingram 4:55 before halftime. That halted a stretch of nearly four minutes when neither team scored.
 
The Falcons responded with 11 unanswered points to go ahead for good, at 27-17 with 2:21 left in the period. They stymied the visitors on five straight possessions during that stretch, forcing two turnovers and three missed shots.
 
That Saints drought ended at 1:54 on a layup by Jorg, who followed that with a successful hook shot at 1:04.
 
Sam Simpson's 3-pointer with 28 seconds remaining forged a 30-21 Falcons halftime advantage. They shot 50 percent in the opening half (12 of 24), including 5-for-9 accuracy on treys.
 
SMU was limited to 29-percent first-half shooting (9 of 31) and 3 of 11 on 3-pointers.
 
The SPU lead steadily increased, stretching to as many as 22 points in the second half as the hosts produced consecutive points on five occasions while preventing the Saints from registering back-to-back baskets.
 
For the game, SPU shot 48 percent (24 of 50) while holding the Saints at 32 percent (19 of 60).
 
Looney was thrilled to find playing time for 14 different Falcons.
 
"The big thing is we were able to get a lot of guys in there and hopefully be able to keep them fresh for Thursday's game. We just have so many games here in a short amount of time. The more we could spread our minutes tonight the better."
 
Next up for the SPU men is a trip to Montana State Billings where they will play on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time. That will be their fourth game in eight days.
 
Thursday's game will be the first for the Yellowjackets since Jan. 14 at Alaska Fairbanks, giving them a week off from competition. SPU played two games during that span.
 
"Our guys need to understand that we are playing a team that might be a little bit more fresh than we are, so our attention to detail on both ends of the floor is probably going to have to be at an all-time high," Looney projected.


NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.

at Seattle Pacific 65, Saint Martin's 46

SAINT MARTIN'S (7-10, 1-8 GNAC)
Kitchen 4-13 0-2 8, Jorg 7-12 0-0 14, Preston 0-5 0-0 0, Baerlocher 1-6 2-2 5, Copp 3-7 1-1 8, Ingram 2-9 0-0 5, Ieronymides 1-2 0-0 3, Painter 1-4 0-0 2, Kenilvort 0-1 1-2 1, Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Little 0-0 0-0 0, Bianchini 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-60 4-7 46.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (13-4, 6-3 GNAC)
Penner 4-10 4-5 13, Swanson 2-3 0-0 5, Dierickx 5-8 2-3 12, Leavitt 2-5 0-0 4, Carroll 2-5 0-0 5, Rasmussen 4-7 0-0 10, Wooten 3-4 0-0 7, Parker 1-1 2-2 5, Simpson 1-5 0-0 3, Streufert 0-0 1-2 1, Betu 0-0 0-0 0, Poulsen 0-0 0-0 0, Colosimo 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 9-12 65.

3-point goals--SMU 4-14 (Ieronymides 1-1, Ingram 1-3, Baerlocher 1-3, Copp 1-3, Preston 0-1, Painter 0-1, Kitchen 0-2), SPU 8-17 (Rasmussen 2-5, Simpson 1-4, Parker 1-1, Swanson 1-1, Carroll 1-1, Wooten 1-2, Penner 1-1, Johnson 0-1, Leavitt 0-1). Fouled out--SMU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--SMU 27 (Jorg, Kenilvort 5), SPU 38 (Leavitt 6). Assists--SMU 6 (Copp 3), SPU 14 (Leavitt 8). Total fouls--SMU 15, SPU 14. Technical fouls--SMU-None, SPU-None. Att-375.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Montana State Billings
Thursday, Jan. 21, 6:30 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.