Box Score               |    VIDEO: Mitch  Penner  
Final Stats (html)    |     VIDEO: Senior Ceremony

SEATTLE – "Brougham" rhymes with "home" and that is what the Pavilion has been for five Seattle Pacific seniors. The Brougham-court advantage was on display Saturday in their final playing appearance at the on-campus arena.
 
The seniors combined for 71 points, led by Mitch Penner's 27, to spark SPU to an 85-62 Great Northwest Athletic Conference triumph over Simon Fraser in the last regular-season men's basketball game for both teams.
 
Scoring contributions from the rest of the senior class included 15 points from Gilles Dierickx (Ghent, Belgium), 14 from Bryce Leavitt (Kennewick, Wash.), nine from Brendan Carroll (Brisbane, Australia) and six from Garrett Swanson (Spokane, Wash.).
 
"We talked a lot the last two days about making tonight about our seniors and everybody giving the best possible effort they could for them," SPU coach Ryan Looney explained. "All five of them had a fantastic night."



The Falcons (21-7) enter the postseason with wins in their last three outings. They finished in a third-place tie with Alaska Anchorage in the GNAC standings, both with 14-6 league ledgers.
 
Penner and Brendan Carroll spent their entire collegiate careers with the Falcons and Saturday's Senior Night triumph improved their career record to an astounding 44-9 in Brougham Pavilion.
 
That duo is part of another remarkable feat. They were members of teams that won an unprecedented three consecutive GNAC Tournaments, from 2013-15.
 
They will vie for a fourth when the three-day conference championship commences from March 3-5 at Marcus Pavilion on the Saint Martin's campus in Lacey, Wash. SPU is the No. 4 seed and has a quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Central Washington on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. Those two split their regular-season meetings as each won on its home court.
 
Thursday's winner meets top-seeded Western Oregon on Friday at 2:15 p.m. and the championship game is set for Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

 

"We don't have a player on our roster that's ever lost a conference tournament game and Mitch and Brendan were on the last three winners," Looney said. "Right now that's our sole focus. We'll head down to Lacey and try to win the whole thing again."
 
This year will be a tougher challenge as the Falcons were a top-two seed in each of the previous three years. With the benefit of first-round byes, they needed to win only two games.
 
It will take three victories this year on consecutive days as SPU. No team has won games on three straight days to claim the GNAC Tournament title. Montana State Billings captured the 2012 crown with a run of three wins during a four-day span.
 
"It's just going to make it a little bit more interesting," said Looney. "After the game in the locker room, we talked about if going there and only winning two games has started to get a little bit boring, we can challenge ourselves on a different level and try to win three."
 
SPU shot a sizzling 66 percent (19 of 29) in the second period Saturday to stretch a 44-32 halftime lead to as many as 29 points.
 
Penner reached the 20-point mark for the 12th time this season by nailing 12 of 20 shots from the field. He increased his career total to 1,226 points, a figure that ranks 14th among all-time Falcons.

 

The 6-foot-5 forward from Seattle's Kennedy High School also grabbed 11 rebounds to complete the double-double. He led SPU's 39-24 domination of the boards.
 
Penner's progress has been reflected in more areas than can be seen on the court, according to Looney.
 
"When you look at the big picture from where he was at as a freshman, I'm most proud of Mitch for how much he has grown off the court. He's grown up and become really mature. He's a guy who's doing a great job in the classroom, has been a good citizen on campus and is obviously a great representative of our team too."
 
The Clan (2-24) completed the season with a 1-19 GNAC record. Andrew Williamson paced them with 14 points and Michael Harper had 12. Oshea Gairey tallied 11 of his 13 points during the first half.
 
The Falcons broke the game open with an 11-3 spurt immediately after intermission. They nailed 5 of their first 6 shots while limiting SFU to just one basket in its first five possessions.
 
For the game, SPU posted 55-percent accuracy (37 of 67) helped by producing 62 points in the paint. The Clan shot 43 percent (23 of 53).
 
After Gairey made a layup 1:11 into the game to tie the score 2-2, the Clan missed their next nine shots. Before their next basket, another layup by Gairey, SPU went on a 16-1 run to open an 18-3 margin with 11:52 left in the half.
 
The Falcons led by as many as 20 points before Simon Fraser narrowed the margin. After opening the game making just 1 of 10 shots, the visitors hit 11 of their final 18 attempts to finish at 43 percent (12 of 28).
 
Gairey netted 11 first-half points, including a layup with 25 seconds on the clock that drew the Clan within 42-32.
 
Swanson made a layup with two seconds left to provide SPU with a 44-32 halftime edge. His team shot 47 percent in the first half (18 of 38) and registered a 26-12 rebounding advantage.
 
 "I'm proud of our guys, especially our seniors," Looney said. "We started the game extremely well, with a lot of energy. We had a little bit of a lull late in the first half, but collectively our guys did a really good job responding in the second half."



NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.

at Seattle Pacific 85, Simon Fraser 62

SIMON FRASER (2-24, 1-19 GNAC)
Sewani 3-4 0-0 6, Gairey 5-13 2-2 13, Williamson 3-12 7-8 14, Vos 1-3 0-0 3, Harper 4-11 2-2 12, Lewin 4-6 0-0 8, Bakken 3-4 0-0 6. Totals 23-53 11-12 62.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (21-7, 14-6 GNAC)
Penner 12-20 2-2 27, Swanson 3-7 0-0 6, Dierickx 7-10 1-2 15, Leavitt 7-10 0-0 14, Carroll 3-7 2-2 9, Rasmussen 2-4 2-3 6, Poulsen 2-2 0-0 4, Simpson 1-4 0-0 3, Betu 0-1 1-2 1, Streufert 0-0 0-0 0, Colosimo 0-2 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Wooten 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-67 8-11 85.

Simon Fraser..................   32   30  -   62
Seattle Pacific...............   44   41  -   85

3-point goals--SF 5-15 (Harper 2-5, Vos 1-3, Gairey 1-2, Williamson 1-4, Lewin 0-1), SPU 3-10 (Simpson 1-1, Carroll 1-3, Penner 1-3, Swanson 0-2, Colosimo 0-1). Fouled out--SF-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--SF 24 (Lewin 7), SPU 39 (Penner 11). Assists--SF 7 (Gairey 3), SPU 14 (Leavitt 5). Total fouls--SF 14, SPU 11. Technical fouls--SF-None, SPU-None. A-430.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
GNAC Tournament
(#4) Seattle Pacific vs. (#5) Central Washington
Thursday, March 3, 2:15 p.m. PST
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.