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LACEY, Wash. – The Falcons' three-year reign as GNAC Tournament champions came to an end Friday. They did not relinquish the crown without a fight.
 
Julian Nichols scored in the lane with 6.6 seconds remaining for sixth-ranked Western Oregon, which secured a 58-57 men's basketball semifinal victory in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship when SPU's Will Parker was unable to replicate his winning 3-pointer from the day before at Marcus Pavilion.
 
The Falcons won the 2013, 2014 and 2015 titles with championship-game victories over Western Washington each year. The 2016 season should continue next week as they are likely to receive an at-large berth when the NCAA Division II Tournament field is announced Sunday night.
 
"We have a great chance for our season to continue, but we need a couple things to go our way in the other conference tournaments around the region," said Coach Ryan Looney, whose SPU squad was listed fourth in this week's regional rankings. The top eight teams will receive berths to the West Regional.
 
Seattle Pacific boasts the nation's longest current playoff streak among Division II men's basketball teams, having participated in the postseason 11 consecutive seasons.

 

The fourth-seeded Falcons (22-8) claimed a 57-56 lead on a 17-foot jumper from Brendan Carroll just behind the free throw line with 23.6 seconds showing on the clock. Nichols answered 17 seconds later with a spinning move to the rim that forged the final score.
 
SPU quickly advanced the ball past midcourt before calling a timeout with 3.8 seconds left. The inbounds pass came to Parker (Skyline HS), whose trey attempt from the left side bounced off the rim.
 
The senior point guard hit a game-winning 3-pointer from the right side with 0.6 seconds left in Thursday's 69-65 quarterfinal victory over Central Washington.
 
"One went in, one did not," SPU coach Ryan Looney said of Parker's back-to-back last-second shots. His Falcons had the benefit of a first-round bye the previous three years, but were required to win a first-round contest the day before battling top-seeded Western Oregon in the semifinals.
 
"In the format of this tournament, if you don't get one of the first two seeds it's really hard to advance."
 
The Falcons lost despite the game-high 26-point performance of senior Mitch Penner (Seattle, Wash./Kennedy HS). He made 8 of 11 shots from the field and converted all nine of his free throws.
 
Carroll was the only other SPU player in double figures with 14 points, 12 of them coming during the first half.
 
"Mitch was great. When we needed some big baskets he gave them to us again," Looney said.
 
"The biggest issue is that Brendan Carroll gave us some offense in the first half, but we didn't necessarily have a second scorer in the second half of the game, which made it hard for us to muster up enough points to win that thing."
 
Devon Alexander scored 19 points to pace the Wolves (26-3), who also got 14 from Nichols and 10 from Andy Avgi. The GNAC Player of the Year, Avgi had scoring outputs of 34 and 29 points in this season's first two encounters versus SPU.
 
The Wolves' effort on the offensive boards proved decisive as their 13 rebounds were parlayed into 12 second-chance points. They battled to a 32-32 deadlock on the glass, becoming just the second team this season to match SPU, which collects an average of 12.4 more caroms than opponents to lead the nation in rebounding margin.
 
"We played hard enough to win, we just didn't do a very good job taking care of the ball, our turnover margin was minus-five," Looney explained of his team's 12-7 turnover deficit.
 
"And we got owned on the offensive glass, which is uncharacteristic for us. We held them to 58 points, they shot a low percentage, but because of how many offensive rebounds they had they scored on a bunch of second chances."
 
The Falcons held a 41-39 margin with 12:13 left to play when Western went on a seven-point spree. After four straight SPU points, the Wolves appeared to put the game away with an eight-point run that provided a 54-45 advantage with 5:10 remaining.
 
WOU's lead was 56-49 after Tanner Omlid made a layup with 3:26 left to play. SPU reeled off eight unanswered points to go ahead 57-56. Penner made a runner with 3:02 remaining and, following a Wolves turnover, the Falcons' Garrett Swanson was fouled at 2:05.
 
Swanson made the front end of the one-and-one and then Western's Omlid was whistled for a foul in the lane on Penner. Swanson sank his second free throw and then Penner stepped to the line to complete the four-point possession by converting two charity shots.
 
After two missed shots on the Wolves possession, Carroll hit his go-ahead basket for SPU and Nichols nailed the game-winner.

 

The Falcons shots 43 percent (20 of 47), but made just 2 of 14 shots beyond the 3-point arc. They limited WOU to 40-percent accuracy (21 of 53) and 3-for-18 shooting on treys.
 
"The whole time we knew offense was a little bit of a struggle," Looney said. "We were just trying to keep our guys motivated to play hard on the defensive end and at some point shots would start to fall. That's what happened. The reality of it is, we just needed one more defensive stop to win the game."
 
In the first half, Carroll tallied 12 of the first 15 points for the Falcons, who surged to a 15-6 lead 6:36 into the contest. Included in his total was a game-opening three-point play, with a jumper and free throw, followed by a 25-foot 3-pointer that just beat the shot clock.
 
SPU led 17-11 before Western went on a 10-2 run to claim its first lead, at 21-19, on a layup by Alexander with 7:43 left in the half. The differential never grew larger than four points before the Wolves settled for a 32-21 halftime edge.
 
The close halftime score was unusual for these two as one of them had a large lead in each of the regular-season meetings. WOU was up 42-27 on Jan. 7 in Monmouth, Ore. while the Falcons were 49-35 leaders on Feb. 6 in Seattle. Both of the trailing teams rallied in the second half.
 
Western won the two regular-season meetings with SPU, both of them in overtime.
 
Looney doesn't think Friday's setback will have any negative carryover into a potential NCAA playoff run.
 
"It hurts right now, but it won't have any impact on anything. Hopefully it can be a learning lesson. We didn't handle the very last situation of the game very well and we got owned on the offensive glass, which for us is a very important area."
 
Alaska Fairbanks, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 6 Western Washington in the other semifinal, 91-90. Neither of Saturday finalists has won a GNAC Tournament title.
 
The conference championship game between Western Oregon and Fairbanks is scheduled for Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
GNAC Tournament -- Semifinal
Thursday, March 4, 2016
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.

(#6) Western Oregon 58, Seattle Pacific 57

SEATTLE PACIFIC (22-8)
Penner 8-11 9-9 26, Dierickx 3-7 2-2 8, Leavitt 0-6 0-0 0, Parker 2-6 1-1 5, Carroll 6-11 1-1 14, Simpson 1-1 0-0 2, Swanson 0-1 2-2 2, Colosimo 0-3 0-0 0, Wooten 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-47 15-15 57.

WESTERN OREGON (26-3)
Omlid 2-7 0-0 5, Avgi 2-7 6-10 10, Alexander 7-17 3-4 19, Nichols 5-10 4-7 14, Wiley 4-6 0-0 8, Roth 1-3 0-0 2, Nestell 0-0 0-0 0, Alaby 0-3 0-0 0, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 13-21 58.

Seattle Pacific..........   31   26  -   57
Western Oregon...........   32   26  -   58

3-point goals--SPU 2-14 (Penner 1-2, Carroll 1-5, Parker 0-2, Swanson 0-1, Colosimo 0-2, Wooten 0-1, Leavitt 0-1), WOU 3-18 (Alexander 2-5, Omlid 1-4, Avgi 0-2, Wiley 0-2, Roth 0-2, Alaby 0-1, Nichols 0-2). Fouled out--SPU-None, WOU-None. Rebounds--SPU 32 (Penner, Dierickx 7), WOU 32 (Omlid, Avgi 7). Assists--SPU 2 (Carroll, Parker 1), WOU 8 (Avgi 4). Total fouls--SPU 17, WOU 17. Technical fouls--SPU-None, WOU-None. Att-519.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Event
NCAA Division II Tournament selection show
Sunday, March 6, 7:30 p.m. PST
NCAA.com