• FINAL STATS (html) | • VIDEO: GABE  COLOSIMO

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Coach Grant Leep credited his team's work ethic, with half of the Falcons putting in a 30-plus minute shift, for Saturday's significant victory.
 
Gabe Colosimo led six double-figure scorers with a career-high 21 points for Seattle Pacific, which upset league-leading and 23rd-ranked Western Washington in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball clash at Carver Gymnasium.
 
Colosimo twice converted a pair of free throws inside the final 26 seconds, including two with 8.7 seconds remaining that put SPU up 91-86 and secured the outcome.
 
"That scrap, that desire to get those balls and to not quit until the whistle blows. Our guys did such a great job of playing hard all the way through," Leep exclaimed.
 
The Falcons (12-7) improved to 7-5 in conference play, dealing a second-straight defeat to Western, which entered the week with a 10-game winning streak. The Vikings (15-5) dropped to 10-2 in GNAC games.


 
Eight players saw time for SPU and all but two of them reached double digits in scoring. Nathan Streufert chipped in 15 points and put the Falcons ahead for good, at 86-84, with an offensive rebound and put-back basket with 1:02 remaining. He was fouled and missed the free throw, but SPU grabbed the offensive rebound to extend the possession before tacking on two Colosimo free throws with 25.4 left.
 
Colosimo made 7 of 14 shots from the field, including three treys. In Thursday's 81-80 loss at Simon Fraser he was scoreless in three shot attempts.
 
"Gabe was coming off a rough game," explained Leep, who pointed to a 3-pointer one minute into Saturday's game that turned the tide for his sophomore floor leader.
 
"Any time as a player you see that first three go in you think 'Okay, I got this.' Gabe really got involved in the game flow. He's developing so much as a point guard. He does what we need him to do, he does what we ask and he plays so hard, there's never any question about that."
 
Freshman Braden Olsen filled in for Colosimo, who battled foul trouble and picked up his fourth with 7:37 to play. The backup point guard contributed 14 points.
 
Coleman Wooten and Gavin Long each scored 12 points. Red-shirt freshman Harry Cavell responded to his first collegiate starting assignment with 10 points.
 
For the sixth game in a row SPU utilized a short, eight-man rotation as injuries have sidelined four players. Four Falcons played 30 or more minutes Saturday led by the 37 of both Wooten and Long. Cavell was in for 35 minutes and Colosimo for 30.
 
Leading scorer Tony Miller and his 18.2-point scoring average have been out of the lineup the last seven games. The 2017 GNAC Freshman of the Year topped SPU with 23 points in this season's first meeting, an 86-80 WWU win on Dec. 28 in Seattle.
 
Deandra Dickson amassed 25 points and nine rebounds Saturday to lead the Vikings, who also got 16 points from Siaan Rojas, 15 from Trey Drechsel and 14 apiece from Daulton Hommes and Trevor Jasinsky.
 
Both teams shot well, 52.5 percent for WWU (32 of 61) and 51.7 percent for the Falcons (31 of 60). Long-range accuracy proved to be the difference as SPU nailed 8 of 16 treys and Western was 5 of 18 on 3-pointers.
 
The Falcons matched their season low with seven turnovers while forcing 12 Vikings miscues. That led to a 20-5 disparity in the points-off-turnovers category.
 
"The two biggest things were the fact that we only turned it over seven times coming off our last two games where we might have 32 turnovers combined," said Leep. "We took care of the ball.
 
"And then every loose ball we got. We got those 50-50 balls tonight. Our guys played so hard with such heart and scrap that it really turned the game for us."

 

A thrilling first half ended on a buzzer-beater by Wooten that gave SPU a 49-47 edge. After Western's Hommes made the second of two free throws with 2.8 seconds showing on the clock, the Falcons inbounded to Long near halfcourt at the right sideline. He quickly passed to Wooten who rushed a 21-footer off before the clock expired and it swished through the net.
 
"Coleman streaked down and Gavin did a really good job of not panicking and throwing the ball to Cole, and we got one to go in," Leep described.
 
"Small plays like that, I guess it's actually a big play, make such a big difference. When you play hard and you play together and do the right things, things are going to work out for you."
 
The Falcons extended that lead to 71-63 with 11:14 left to play on the strength of a 15-6 run.
 
That margin gradually eroded and Dickson capped a 12-6 Western spree with a layup at 5:01 that leveled the score, 77-77. The first eight points in that surge came from the free throw line and six of those were drained by Dickson.
 
The teams traded points for the next three minutes before Streufert's decisive put-back was followed by Colosimo free throws at the 25.4-second mark.
 
Both teams were hot in the opening period with SPU posting 58-percent accuracy (18 of 31), including 6-for-11 on 3-pointers. The Vikings countered with 56-percent shooting (18 of 32).
 
A series of spurts characterized the start of the game. Western made four of its first five shots, two of them 3-pointers, to build a 10-5 lead.
 
Turnovers on the next three possessions enabled the Falcons to reel off 10 straight points and claim a 15-10 margin with 15:31 left in the first half. Colosimo and Streufert each had five points in the run.
 
After an exchange of baskets set SPU's lead at 17-12, the Vikings tallied 14 unanswered points while forcing five straight misses by the visitors. Jasinsky had five points to spark the run that produced a 26-17 advantage with 11:38 left in the period.
 
WWU led by as many as 12 points in the half before SPU staged a nine-point spree to draw within 31-28.
 
Neither team led by more than five points during the final four minutes of the period, setting up Wooten's half-ending heroics.
 
"This win is really big for us, especially coming off of a disappointing loss," said Leep. "To be able to rebound and respond like we did today that just builds more confidence going forward. We learned a lesson from that loss. And now we can apply some lessons from a good win, to continue playing this way and continue playing that hard."
 
The SPU men return home to host two GNAC games next week at Brougham Pavilion. They entertain Alaska Anchorage on Thursday at 7 p.m. before a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday, Feb. 3 against Alaska Fairbanks in the annual Homecoming Game.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018
Carver Gymnasium / Bellingham, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 92, at (#23) Western Washington 88
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (12-7, 7-5 GNAC)

Wooten 5-10 1-4 12, Streufert 6-9 2-3 15, Cavell 3-7 4-6 10, Colosimo 7-14 4-4 21, Long 4-10 4-6 12, Olsen 4-7 5-5 14, Lizotte 1-2 2-2 5, Eisenhower 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 31-60 22-30 92.

 
WESTERN WASHINGTON (15-5, 10-2 GNAC)

Dickson 8-12 9-11 25, Hommes 5-10 3-5 14, Schilder 1-1 0-0 2, Drechsel 7-13 0-0 15, Jasinsky 4-10 4-4 14, Fernandez 0-0 0-0 0, Kingma 0-1 0-0 0, Wallace 1-3 0-0 2, Rojas 6-11 3-5 16. Totals 32-61 19-25 88.

 
Seattle Pacific...............   49   43  -   92
Western Washington............   47   41  -   88
 

3-point goals—SPU 8-16 (Wooten 1-1, Olsen 1-1, Eisenhower 1-1, Streufert 1-2, Lizotte 1-2, Colosimo 3-8, Cavell 0-1), WWU 5-18 (Rojas 1-2, Jasinsky 2-6, Hommes 1-3, Drechsel 1-5, Dickson 0-1, Wallace 0-1). Fouled out—SPU-None, WWU-Jasinsky. Rebounds—SPU 30 (Wooten 7), WWU 37 (Dickson 9). Assists—SPU 11 (Wooten, Long 4), WWU 13 (Dickson, Hommes 3). Total fouls—SPU 18, WWU 17. Technical fouls--SPU-None, WWU-None. A-1567.

 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Feb. 1, 7:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.