• FINAL STATS

NAMPA, Idaho – Maurice Jones amassed 34 points on 13-for-16 shooting Thursday, leading Northwest Nazarene to a 103-91 men's basketball victory over Seattle Pacific in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener for both teams at the Johnson Sports Center.
 
The Falcons (4-3) lost their inaugural league contest for the first time since 2010, stopping a six-game winning streak in GNAC openers. They surrendered over 100 points to a conference opponent for the first time in 132 games, dating back to a 113-105 loss at Alaska Fairbanks on March 4, 2010.
 
Tony Miller scored 22 points to pace SPU, which also got 15 from Gavin Long and 11 apiece from Braden Olsen and Harry Cavell. Nathan Streufert added 10 points.
 
Jones nailed 5 of 7 shots from 3-point range and grabbed seven rebounds to spark a 34-32 edge on the boards. NNU is the first team to outrebound the Falcons this season.
 
"NNU did a great job and Jones came out on fire. He's shown that he's a really good player this year," said second-year SPU coach Grant Leep. "We were waiting for one of our guys to step up to the challenge and we didn't have it tonight. Credit to NNU for making shots, but we need to become more consistent with our defensive identity."
 
The Nighthawks (5-2) had five double-figure scorers, including Khalil Thompson (19), Obi Megwa (18), Jayden Bezzant (10) and Olamilekan Adetunji (10).
 
SPU started well, hitting 9 of its first 12 shots, including 4-for-5 accuracy on 3-pointers. Long capped the hot streak with an old-fashioned three-point play, a layup and free throw, to provide a 25-16 advantage for the visitors with 13:05 left in the first half.
 
Leep attributed his team's stellar early play to successful application of the game plan.
 
"We ball moved very well early. They were paying a lot of attention inside to Tony and we knew that they were going to do that going in. Our guys were ready and we executed the things that we had installed for our game plan pretty well early on.
 
"And then we hit that first wave of them adjusting and coming back and we didn't step up to the challenge at that point."
 
The Falcons cooled off, missing 9 of their last 10 treys in the half, and NNU capitalized. Trailing 29-20, NNU staged a 16-2 spree to gain a 36-31 lead 3:26 before halftime.
 
Jones collected 18 first-period points on 7-of-10 shooting to lift the Nighthawks to a 47-40 halftime margin. He made all six of his second-half field goals.
 
SPU scored the first five points after intermission, on a Nikhil Lizotte trey and Streufert jumper, to draw within 47-43. That is as close as the Falcons would come and the NNU advantage grew to as many as 13 points.
 
Cavell scored nine points during a three-minute stretch midway through the second half. He registered a three-point play and a layup to complete a seven-point surge that trimmed the deficit.

 

Streufert scored six straight SPU points to bring the guests within 84-79 with 3:33 left to play. The Nighthawks turned back that rally by netting the next six points, four of them from Bezzant.
 
NNU converted 9 of 10 free throws in the final 1:26 to secure the victory.
 
The Nighthawks made 50 percent of their shots (34 of 68), a figure that included 11-for-24 accuracy on treys. The Falcons shot 46 percent overall (31 of 67), but finished 7 of 27 on 3-pointers after making just 3 of their final 22 attempts.
 
The SPU men remain on the road to visit Central Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m.
 
In the of the Falcons most GNAC road trips they must fly back to Seattle on Friday and then bus to Ellensburg on Saturday.
 
"We're not going to obviously kill our guys in practice, but we do have to get some things done," said Leep. "We have a quick turnaround against a tough Central team and we have to get a full game plan's worth of prep into a practice and a shoot around.
 
"We have to have a short memory and be able to move past a frustrating one and understand that you get a chance to wipe the slate clean the next time that you step on the court."
 
Seattle Pacific's next home game is Dec. 28 against GNAC rival Western Washington with a 7:30 p.m. tip-off in Brougham Pavilion.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017
Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho
 
at Northwest Nazarene 103, Seattle Pacific 91
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (4-3, 0-1 GNAC)
Tony Miller 8-18 5-6 22, Long 4-7 7-7 15, Cavell 5-8 1-1 11, Olsen 4-8 2-2 11, Streufert 4-6 2-3 10, Simpson 1-3 4-4 7, Lizotte 2-7 0-0 6, Wooten 2-3 1-4 6, Colosimo 1-2 0-0 3, Trey Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Eisenhower 0-4 0-0 0, Khan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-67 22-27 91.
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (5-2, 1-0 GNAC)
Jones 13-16 3-5 34, Thompson 5-14 5-6 19, Megwa 6-13 6-7 18, Adetunji 2-4 6-6 10, Bezzant 4-8 2-4 10, Prvulj 2-6 2-2 6, Lopevic 1-3 0-0 3, Roth 1-4 0-0 3, White 0-0 0-0 0, Brink 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-68 24-30 103.
 
Seattle Pacific....... 40   51  -   91
Northwest Nazarene.... 47   56  -  103
 

3-point goals--SPU 7-27 (Lizotte 2-3, Simpson 1-3, Tony Miller 1-5, Colosimo 1-2, Wooten 1-2, Olsen 1-3, Eisenhower 0-4, Khan 0-1, Cavell 0-3, Long 0-1), NNU 11-24 (Jones 5-7, Thompson 4-10, Lopevic 1-3, Roth 1-1, Prvulj 0-2, Bezzant 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, NNU-Bezzant, Roth. Rebounds--SPU 32 (Tony Miller, Streufert, Wooten 5), NNU 34 (Adetunji, Jones 7). Assists--SPU 15 (Wooten 5), NNU 10 (Bezzant 4). Total fouls--SPU 23, NNU 23. Technical fouls--SPU-None, NNU-None. A-418.

 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Central Washington
Saturday, Dec. 2, 7:00 p.m. PST
Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.