• FINAL STATS
HAYWARD, Calif. – This Hunter showed off his long-range shooting Saturday.
Hunter Eisenhower scored 11 of his game-high 17 points during his first eight minutes on the court, helping Seattle Pacific build a large first-half lead en route to a 70-59 non-conference men's basketball victory over Cal State East Bay at Pioneer Gymnasium.
The Falcons (1-1) won for the first time, gaining a split at the season-opening Pioneer Challenge tournament.
By the 11th minute the Falcons already had more 3-pointers than they managed in the previous night's 50-minute, double-overtime affair. They made only 2 of 14 treys in Friday's 100-93 loss to Sonoma State.
Eisenhower was the primary reason for Saturday's drastically improved 3-point accuracy as he helped the team to a 6-for-15 performance by nailing 5 of his 8 treys. He eclipsed his previous-best scoring game of 14 points, registered at Western Washington on Feb. 22, 2017.
The senior forward from Wasilla, Alaska played less than one minute on Friday. But he was prepared when called upon Saturday.
"Looking at the boxscore from Friday, we had three or four guys with 40-plus minutes. We needed to be really mindful of how we managed our guys' time," said second-year SPU coach
Grant Leep. "We wanted to get guys into the rotation and into the game-flow very early.
"I credit Hunter a ton because he didn't play a lot on Friday, but he stayed ready. He stayed in that right mindset to be able to come out and contribute."
Gavin Long ignited an early run of 12-unanswered SPU points with four consecutive free throws. Eisenhower netted the next eight points on two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws, to provide a 14-2 advantage 5:32 into the contest. Eisenhower's first trey came on his initial attempt, 34 seconds after entering the game as a substitute at 15:54.
The margin increased to 27-9 when a third Eisenhower trey, with 8:11 showing on the clock, capped an 11-2 Falcons surge. They owned a 36-21 lead at halftime.
Long and Tony Miller each finished with 12 points for SPU, which also got 10 from Nikhil Lizotte.
Nate Streufert
Nate Streufert collected eight caroms to lead the visitors' 39-32 rebounding edge.
The Falcons shot 50 percent from the field (19 of 38) while holding their hosts at 32 percent (19 of 60). They prevented any Pioneer from reaching double-digits in scoring.
East Bay (0-2) was led by the eight-point efforts of Jordan Balser, Deiondre Bird and Keshawn Bruner.
After turning the ball over just three times during the opening 20 minutes, SPU made 14 miscues during the second half. One stretch of five turnovers in nine possessions enabled East Bay to close the deficit to 46-37, capped by a 3-pointer by Belser with 12:22 left to play.
Eisenhower answered with his fifth 3-pointer to halt the rally and start a 9-2 SPU spree.
"When Hunter gets it going from three it just gives us a different dimension," Leep said. "Our guys recognize that too.
"There were different points in which both Coleman (Wooten) and Tony (Miller), being our leading returning scorers, they passed up shots to make the extra pass and move it to Hunter. They continued to make the right play, recognizing that Hunter had it going."
The Pioneers came within 61-53 on the strength of a 14-4 run, but again SPU responded, this time with five unanswered points.
Back-to-back treys, by Patrick Marr and Jelani Mitchell, provided a last gasp for East Bay, which drew within 66-59 with 1:52 remaining.
The Falcons scored the game's final four points to secure the win, getting a jumper from freshman Braden Olsen and two free throws from Lizotte.
Despite his team's impressive offensive exploits, Leep was more pleased with their efforts on the other end of the floor.
"We really guarded. We had a bunch of guys a year ago whose identity was so caught into what they were as an offensive player. Now they are starting to develop an identity as defensive players as well. Collectively as a team we really guarded their stuff.
I was really proud of our guys especially coming off a tough, hard-fought double-overtime time game Friday. We just held a team under 60 points, which is great."
The SPU men return to Seattle for their home opener as hosts of the Sodexo Classic on Nov. 17 and 18 at Brougham Pavilion. They clash with Concordia-Irvine on Friday and Hawaii-Hilo on Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
"We're really excited to play at home. We've set ourselves up, creating a defensive identity and need to continue building on that," Leep said.
"These are two really good teams out of the PacWest (Conference). Concordia got us in overtime a couple years ago. Our guys will understand how good of a program that is, how well coached they are and how hard they play, and hopefully come out and do the same."
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Pioneer Challenge
Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017
Pioneer Gymnasium / Hayward, Calif.
Seattle Pacific 70, Cal State East Bay 59
SEATTLE PACIFIC (1-1)
Wooten 2-2 0-6 4, Simpson 0-1 1-2 1, Miller 3-8 5-6 12, Lizotte 2-5 6-6 10, Long 3-6 6-6 12, Eisenhower 5-8 2-2 17, Olsen 3-6 0-0 6, Streufert 0-1 5-6 5, Cavell 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 19-38 26-36 70.
CAL STATE EAST BAY (0-2)
Frakes 2-5 0-1 4, Anderson 2-7 3-4 7, Asah 1-9 2-2 5, Balser 3-8 0-0 8, Mitchell 1-5 4-4 7, Bird 3-5 2-2 8, Bruner 2-6 4-6 8, Bender 2-6 1-2 5, Marr 2-5 0-0 5, Cuze 1-3 0-0 2, Wight 0-1 0-0 0, Maker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-60 16-21 59.
Seattle Pacific........ 36 34 - 70
Cal State East Bay..... 21 38 - 59
3-point goals--SPU 6-15 (Eisenhower 5-8, Miller 1-2, Lizotte 0-2, Olsen 0-2, Simpson 0-1), CSUEB 5-25 (Balser 2-4, Asah 1-5, Mitchell 1-4, Marr 1-1, Bender 0-3, Cuze,Marko 0-2, Wight 0-1, Anderson 0-3, Bruner 0-1, Bird 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, CSUEB-Bender. Rebounds--SPU 39 (Streufert 8), CSUEB 32 (Balser, Frakes 6). Assists--SPU 13 (Wooten 4), CSUEB 10 (Mitchell 3). Total fouls--SPU 18, CSUEB 23. Technical fouls--SPU-Long, CSUEB-Anderson. A-256.
Next Men's Basketball Game
Sodexo Classic
Concordia-Irvine at Seattle Pacific
Friday, Nov. 17, 7:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.