• FINAL STATS

Jan. 4, 2018
 
Hot Night in Fairbanks for the Falcons
 
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The thermometer outside the arena in Fairbanks, Alaska showed a frigid four degrees. Inside the Patty Center, the Seattle Pacific 3-point shooters displayed hot hands.
 
Coleman Wooten posted a season-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds Thursday, leading the SPU men to a 95-79 basketball victory over Alaska Fairbanks in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest.
 
The Falcons (8-4) are above .500 in league play for the first time since winning their GNAC opener last season. They improved to 3-2 with their second straight conference win, following a 99-93 overtime home triumph over Simon Fraser on Dec. 30.
 
"It was a great team win, we had multiple guys contribute," second-year coach Grant Leep exclaimed. "I loved the intensity that we started with defensively. We did a really good job of contesting their shots, making them very difficult, and then holding them to one shot."
 
Trailing 5-4, the Falcons staged a 25-8 surge to take control. They nailed 5 of their first 6 shots to start that streak. Wooten keyed the run with seven points, including a pair of free throws with 8:29 left in the first half that concluded it with the visitors leading 29-13.
 
That margin increased to as many as 23 points by halftime after the Falcons closed the period with a 6-2 run to lead 53-30.
 
The Falcons nailed a remarkable 10 of 12 shots from 3-point range, with six different players getting into the act. Those long-range exploits paced a 64-percent performance from the field (18 of 28) during the period.
 
By the end of the night, Wooten had hit 7 of 8 shots from the field and all three of his 3-point tries to top five SPU double-digit scorers. He distributed four assists.
 
Wooten's previous season best of 14 points came in the last outing, on Dec. 30. The junior forward boasts a career high of 35 points and he reached the 20-point plateau 11 times last season.
 
"He's playing right. He's doing what we ask him to do," Leep described. "Coleman had always been identified as just a scorer. But we see him as complete basketball player.
 
"Tonight he just did really well. He set guys up and had a bunch of assists, he rebounded with great effort and intensity and then he was able to finish his plays offensively. He was more aggressive and really took advantage of some matchup situations."

 

Tony Miller tallied 17 points for SPU and freshman Braden Olsen equaled his career high with 11. Gabe Colosimo and Harry Cavell each contributed 10 points.
 
Alaska's Alex Baham compiled all of his team-high 19 points during the second half. Joe Lendway scored 16, LaDonavan Wilder 15 and Michael Kluting 11 for the Nanooks (4-7), who fell to 2-3 in GNAC games.
 
SPU gained its largest lead of the game, at 67-39, after Miller sank a free throw with 13:03 left to play.
 
Fairbanks then went on a 12-point spree, getting five of those from Wilder, to draw within 67-51 with 9:50 remaining.
 
A dunk by Miller halted the rally and the Nanooks never got closer than 16 points after that.
 
Seven separate Falcons drained a 3-pointer as they combined to shoot 12 of 19 for the game from long distance. Along with Wooten's 3-for-3 effort beyond the arc, Wasilla, Alaska native Hunter Eisenhower was also perfect in his two attempts.
 
"We've been a little streaky from the arc this year. The way that our guys moved the ball and the pace that they moved the ball tonight, we got open shots," said Leep. "When you have open shots that aren't contested, it's more like what you do when you are warming up and practicing in the gym. We found open guys and the open guys finished their plays.
 
"When the ball moves, and you find the open guy, that's just how the game is supposed to be played. Our guys just got in a really nice groove, and a really nice rhythm and found open shots."
 
Overall the Falcons made 53.4 percent of their field goals (31 of 58), just a hair better than the 52.9-percent accuracy turned in by Fairbanks (27 of 51).
 
The SPU men remain in Alaska for one more game. They visit Anchorage on Saturday for an 8 p.m. Pacific Time contest at Alaska Airlines Arena. The last time the Falcons visited UAA, on Dec. 29, 2016, they were dealt an 85-49 defeat that marked their most lopsided loss since 1998.
 
That loss prevented the Falcons from sweeping the Alaska road trip for the fifth consecutive visit, instead drawing a split. A win Saturday in Anchorage would give them their fifth sweep in the last six trips to The Last Frontier.
 
"We came up here with the goal to be consistent, execute and continue to play well. Saturday is going to be another opportunity for that," Leep said.
 
"We wanted to start the New Year off the right way. We won last Saturday at home, but we still kind of had a sour taste in our mouth for how we played. We know that we're capable of more defensively and we really wanted to set a good tone and did that here in Fairbanks."
 

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018
Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
 
Seattle Pacific 95, at Alaska Fairbanks 79
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (8-4, 3-2 GNAC)

Wooten 7-8 3-3 20, Miller 6-11 4-5 17, Streufert 2-5 0-0 4, Colosimo 3-5 2-2 10, Long 3-5 1-1 7, Olsen 2-4 6-9 11, Cavell 3-9 2-5 10, Lizotte 3-8 1-2 8, Eisenhower 2-2 2-3 8, Poulsen 0-1 0-0 0, Van Dyken 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-58 21-30 95.

 
ALASKA FAIRBANKS (4-7, 2-3 GNAC)

Mitchell 1-5 0-0 3, Baham 4-6 8-9 19, Lendway 7-8 2-2 16, Kluting 4-6 3-4 11, Kimble 3-10 0-1 6, Wilder 6-10 1-3 15, Eisenhut 1-3 4-5 7, McCullough 1-2 0-0 2, Lootens 0-0 0-0 0, Hatch 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-51 18-24 79.

 
Seattle Pacific....... 53   42  -  95
Alaska Fairbanks...... 30   49  -  79
 

3-point goals--SPU 12-19 (Wooten 3-3, Colosimo 2-4, Cavell 2-3, Eisenhower 2-2, Miller 1-3, Lizotte 1-2, Olsen 1-1, Long 0-1), UAF 7-15 (Baham 3-5, Wilder 2-2, Mitchell 1-3, Eisenhut 1-2, McCullough 0-1, Hatch 0-1, Kimble 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, UAF-Wilder; Kimble. Rebounds--SPU 30 (Cavell, Wooten 9), UAF 30 (Kluting 9). Assists--SPU 14 (Wooten, Colosimo 4), UAF 12 (McCullough 5). Total fouls--SPU 20, UAF 20. Technical fouls--SPU-None, UAF-None. A-209

 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage
Saturday, Jan. 6, 8:00 p.m. PST
Alaska Airlines Arena / Anchorage, Alaska