• FINAL STATS  

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Harry Cavell tallied 15 of his season-high 18 points during the first half Thursday, helping Seattle Pacific build an early lead en route to an 86-72 men's basketball victory over Western Washington in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest.
 
The Falcons (5-3) won their third straight game, improving to 2-1 in league play.
 
Western (7-6) sustained its first home setback in four games at Carver Gymnasium this season. The Vikings lost for the fourth straight time and fell to 1-2 in GNAC games.
 
Cavell scored half of his team's points during the decisive 16-2 run midway through the first half that put SPU ahead for good.
 
Twelve of his team-high 18-point total came on 3-pointers as the sophomore hit 4 of 9 attempts beyond the arc.
 
Coach Grant Leep thought that initial shooting success set up Cavell for a big night.
 
"When you find a layup early like he did and then you find an open three, a good rhythm three that you let go and it's pure, that just really sets the table for you to continue to have a good, confident offensive night.
 
"He just keeps getting better and better. Every day in practice Harry would make a play that the coaches would look at each other and go 'wow.' Now he's up to about three of those a day, where we kind of all look at each other. Credit to him because he works so hard."
 
A 6-foot-6 guard, Cavell surpassed the 15-point figure he produced in the team's GNAC opener on Nov. 29 versus Northwest Nazarene. He came within two points of the career-high 20 points he dropped on Alaska Fairbanks on Feb. 3, 2018.
 
Coleman Wooten contributed 16 points and his game-high eight rebounds fueled the Falcons' 36-26 lead on the boards.
 
"I just love how hard we came out and competed and played. Especially in the first half we did such a great job on rebounding," Leep said. "We really emphasized that. Western historically has always been a very good rebounding team and we wanted to make sure we were doing our best to limit them to one shot. Our kids did a really good job of setting the tone physically. We created a lot of extra shots and points for ourselves on the offensive glass, but then also did a good job of limiting their offensive rebounding opportunities.
 
"I really give a lot of credit to our points guards tonight as well with Nikhil (Lizotte), Divant'e (Moffitt) and Sharif (Khan). We only had nine turnovers. When you take care of the ball and you out-rebound your opponent and you shoot it like we did tonight you're going to be in a good position a lot of times."

 

Nikhil Lizotte and Sam Simpson each chipped in 12 points for SPU. Lizotte was perfect in six free throw attempts while Simpson nailed 4 of 7 trey tries.
 
Leep stated that the 6-foot-9 Simpson's prowess from outside proves particularly problematic for opposing defenses.
 
"It helps so much. When you have size that can space the floor it just opens up so many lanes and ways to attack for our perimeter guys.
 
"Sam is such a confident shooter right now. When he gets a clean look like that, it's almost like if he doesn't make it you are surprised. He works really hard at it and is always in the gym. He's probably our leading extra-shot getter that we have in the program. And when you do that, when you put the time and the work in it's going to pay off."
 
Sam Boone, a junior transfer from Lamar Community College, registered his SPU high marks in both points (10) and rebounds (5).
 
The Falcons recorded 14 of their final 16 points from the line during the final 9:32 to sustain the lead. They made 14 of 16 free throws in that stretch and were 18-for-24 during the course of the game.
 
From the field, SPU shot 51 percent (29 of 57) and made 10 of 22 attempts from 3-point range.
 
All nine players that saw time on the floor scored a basket for Seattle Pacific.
 
"This group, they do such a great job of sharing the ball. Our scoring was balanced," said Leep. "Everybody that plays for us can score. When you have that it makes it really hard for teams to key in and try to stop one guy.
 
"We really emphasize trying to get the ball moving and our group really trusts one another and they share the ball. We finished with 15 assists on 29 made baskets. When you share the ball and guys are touching the ball, that's such an important part of the game."
 
Trevor Jasinsky totaled 20 points to pace the Vikings, who also got 11 from Cameron Retherford and 10 apiece from Luke Lovelady and Jalen Green.
 
WWU shot 45 percent (28 of 62), but was just 7-for-21 on treys.
 
The lead changed hands 10 times during the opening nine minutes and the Northwest rivals were never separated by more than four points during that stretch.
 
Leif Anderson's driving layup gave the Vikings their last lead, 20-18, with 10:55 left in the first half.
 
Nineteen seconds later Simpson drained a 3-pointer to put SPU ahead for good. His trey ignited the 16-2 spree the provided a 34-22 advantage with 5:15 left in the period.
 
Western missed 7 of 8 shots during that span, the only basket coming on a shot in the lane by Micah Winn that halted a run of nine unanswered points by the Falcons.
 
The Falcons forged another run, this time of seven straight points, capped by back-to-back baskets from Cavell. He spun on the dribble to create an open layup and followed that with a 3-pointer from the right corner.
 
The Vikings tallied the next five points as part of an 11-3 surge that brought them back into contention.

 

The first half closed with a drive to the hoop by Falcons' freshman Divant'e Moffitt, who fed Nathan Streufert for an open dunk with one second showing on the clock. That set the halftime score at 45-36 in SPU's favor.
 
The visitors hit 54 percent of their first-half shots (19 of 35), including 6-for-13 accuracy from 3-point range. The stellar shooting was made possible by a 13-4 lead in second-chance points, many of them close-range put-backs.
 
The Falcons were credited with 10 first-half assists to just one for their hosts, who shot 49 percent (16 of 33), but made only 2 of 10 treys in the opening period.
 
WWU closed within three points on three occasions in the second half, the last time on a 3-pointer by Retherford that trimmed the Falcons' lead to 55-52 with 14:08 left to play.
 
SPU scored the next five points, starting a 10-2 run that pushed the lead into double digits. Western never drew closer than eight points the rest of the way.
 
Seattle Pacific has been victorious in three of its last four visits to Bellingham.
 
The Falcons close out this week's two-game GNAC road trip on Saturday in Burnaby, B.C., meeting Simon Fraser at 7 p.m.
 
"We haven't really played well up there recently. They beat us up there each of the last two years and they've played really well," Leep said of Simon Fraser. "Our first year as a staff it was a game that knocked us out of the conference tournament.
 
"We just feel like we need to be able to keep this momentum going by going up there and playing well. That will be another tough opponent on the road."
 
The next Brougham Pavilion home game for the SPU men is Thursday, Jan 10 at 7 p.m. versus Alaska Fairbanks.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019
Carver Gymnasium / Bellingham, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 86, at Western Washington 72
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (5-3, 2-1 GNAC)
Wooten 6-9 3-6 16, Streufert 2-3 0-2 4, Cavell 7-15 0-0 18, Lizotte 3-8 6-6 12, Long 2-7 5-6 9, Simpson 4-7 0-0 12, Boone 3-4 4-4 10, Khan 1-2 0-0 3, Moffitt 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 29-57 18-24 86.
 
WESTERN WASHINGTON (7-6, 1-2 GNAC)
Lovelady 4-9 2-3 10, Jasinsky 8-17 2-2 20, Retherford 4-6 2-3 11, Payne 1-3 0-0 2, Winn 4-7 0-0 8, Green 3-7 3-3 10, Secrest 2-4 0-0 6, Eenigenburg 1-3 0-0 3, Anderson 1-2 0-0 2, Ahlemeyer 0-1 0-0 0, Cotton-Welch 0-0 0-0 0, Bosco 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 28-62 9-11 72.
 
Seattle Pacific.......45...41..--..86
Concordia-Irvine......36...36..--..72
 
3-point goals--SPU 10-22 (Simpson 4-7, Cavell 4-9, Wooten 1-1, Khan 1-2, Long 0-1, Lizotte 0-2), WWU 7-21 (Jasinsky 2-7, Secrest 2-3, Green 1-1, Retherford 1-2, Eenigenburg 1-2, Bosco 0-2, Payne 0-2, Anderson 0-1, Winn 0-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, WWU-None. Rebounds--SPU 36 (Wooten 8), WWU 26 (Lovelady 5). Assists--SPU 15 (Cavell, Wooten, Moffitt, Streufert 3), WWU 9 (Payne, Bosco, Jasinsky 2). Total fouls--SPU 14, WWU 19. Technical fouls--SPU-None, WWU-None. A-533.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser
Saturday, Jan. 5, 7:00 p.m. PST
West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.