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FAIRBANKS, Alaska – What is the difference between a four-point loss and a 10-point victory? According to Seattle Pacific Coach Ryan Looney, it is "effort."
 
Mitch Penner amassed 29 points and Gabe Colosimo compiled all of his career-high 13 before halftime Thursday for SPU, which surged ahead early and held off a second-half rally en route to a 79-69 men's basketball victory over Alaska Fairbanks at the Patty Center.

Along with leading all scorers in the game, Penner reached a career milestone. The 6-foot-5 senior forward from Seattle's Kennedy High School scored his 1,00th career point on a layup with 12:31 showing on the first-half clock. He is the 35th men's basketball player in school history to reach that scoring standard and now has 1,021 points in four seasons.
 
The Falcons (15-4) won the battle of third-place teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings, securing sole possession of that spot with an 8-3 league ledger. They stretched their winning streak to six games.
 
SPU avenged a previous loss to the Nanooks, who were 79-75 victors on Jan. 2 in Seattle.
 
"I was proud of our guys tonight," said Looney, in his seventh season as head coach. "Our biggest deal is we thought that Fairbanks played harder than us the first time we played them, at home.
 
"We just made the plan simple -- we wanted to be the team that played harder tonight. And I think we did."
 
The Falcons lead the nation in 3-point field goal defense, holding opponents to 25.4 percent beyond the arc. Their poorest performance in that area came in the initial encounter. UAF's 56-percent accuracy, on 10 of 18 shooting, was by far the best 3-point performance by an SPU foe.
 
Thursday the Nanooks' 3-point bombers were limited to 23.5-percent, at 4 of 17.
 
Again, Looney singled out "effort" for the move favorable Falcons result this time around.
 
"We just simply played harder on that end of the floor and probably got to a better position to contest a lot of shots. Also we changed our lineup tonight to give ourselves a little bit better chance to have the right guys guarding the right people."

 

Giving red-shirt freshman forward Coleman Wooten (Tahoma HS) his first collegiate start enabled Looney to move Penner into the power forward position from his usual small forward spot. From there, Penner drew the defensive assignment on UAF's Bangaly Kaba, who scored 15 points in the first meeting against the Falcons larger lineup.
 
Wooten responded with a team-high seven rebounds, increasing his career-best total by one.
 
"Coleman did a great job rebounding. But the biggest reason we did that was to put Mitch Penner at the four, which made our defensive matchup at that spot better than it was the first time around.
 
"Mitch not only had 29 points, but he was very complete too with five assists and solid defense. Kaba did a number on us the first time at our place and Mitch held him to two points tonight."
 
Fairbanks (13-6) fell into fourth place, with a 7-4 GNAC record.

 

Penner nailed 9 of 16 shots, including a 4-for-7 performance from 3-point range. He topped 20 points for the fifth time this season.
 
Senior Brendan Carroll (Brisbane, Australia) added 15 points for the Falcons.
 
Stellar shooting enabled SPU to break open the game after a 2-2 tie. The visitors nailed nine straight shots and two free throws to produce a 24-13 advantage. Five different players scored during the spree, led by 10 points from Penner.
 
Colosimo (Sandy, Utah) nearly doubled his previous career-high point total of seven by halftime, with 13 points on 5-for-5 accuracy, including three 3-pointers. His trey with four seconds remaining forged a 45-23 halftime margin, the Falcons' largest lead.
 
"Fairbanks, they pack it in on defense and we thought we needed to play people who could make them pay from the 3-point line," Looney explained. "Gabe did that early and often in the first half."
 
Penner had 15 points by halftime on 6 of 10 shooting.
 
UAF steadily chipped away at the deficit and then tallied nine unanswered points, seven of them from Almir Hadzisehovic, to close the gap to 61-55 with 7:53 let to play.
 
The Falcons responded with a 9-2 run, capped by two Penner free throws with 4:40 remaining, that pushed their lead back out to 70-57. Fairbanks never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
 
Travante Williams paced the Nanooks with 19 points and Hadzisehovic had 18.
 
The SPU men remain in Alaska to take on the second-place Seawolves in Anchorage. Tip-off is 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
 
UAA lost to Saint Martin's on Thursday, dropping out of first place with a 9-2 record. The Falcons can move into a second-place tie with a win on Saturday. The Seawolves won this season's first meeting, 61-59 on Dec. 31 in Seattle.
 
"The higher we can get in the standings, the better," Looney said. "But in all reality, I'm focused on the big picture, which is where we would potentially end up in the region.
 
"We know that these games on this road trip are very important for us in the regional poll that will come out in a couple weeks."
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016
Patty Center / Fairbanks, Ak.
 
Seattle Pacific 79, at Alaska Fairbanks 69
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (15-4, 8-3 GNAC)
Wooten 2-7 1-4 5, Penner 9-16 7-9 29, Dierickx 0-1 0-3 0, Leavitt 1-2 0-0 2, Carroll 4-10 5-6 15, Colosimo 5-6 0-0 13, Swanson 3-5 1-1 7, Rasmussen 1-3 2-4 5, Simpson 0-0 2-2 2, Streufert 0-1 1-2 1, Parker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-51 19-31 79.
 
ALASKA FAIRBANKS (13-6, 7-4 GNAC)
Kaba 1-7 0-0 2, Williams 5-12 7-7 19, Hadzisehovic 7-10 4-7 18, Slocum 2-8 0-2 5, Davis 2-8 2-2 6, Chavez 2-4 2-3 7, Duncan 2-4 2-2 6, Pederson 2-5 2-2 6, Ladines 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-60 19-25 69.
 

Seattle Pacific...............   45   34  -   79

Alaska Fairbanks..............   23   46  -   69

3-point goals--SPU 10-23 (Penner 4-7, Colosimo 3-4, Carroll 2-6, Rasmussen 1-2, Leavitt 0-1, Wooten 0-3), UAF 4-17 (Williams 2-6, Slocum 1-4, Chavez 1-1, Pederson 0-1, Kaba 0-1, Davis 0-4). Fouled out--SPU-Rasmussen, UAF-Pederson. Rebounds--SPU 38 (Wooten 7), UAF 34 (Williams 7). Assists--SPU 17 (Penner 5), UAF 10 (Kaba 3). Total fouls--SPU 20, UAF 21. Technical fouls--SPU-None, UAF-None. Att-259.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage
Saturday, Jan. 30, 3:00 p.m. PST
Alaska Airlines Arena / Anchorage, Ak.