• FINAL STATS   |   • VIDEO: SHARIF  KHAN
• PHOTO GALLERY

SEATTLE – Coleman Wooten produced a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double Thursday and Divant'e Moffitt added 21 points to lead Seattle Pacific to a 92-76 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory over Simon Fraser at Brougham Pavilion.
 
Home for the first time since Jan. 12 after a four-game road trip, the Falcons (10-6) halted a three-game losing streak while improving their league ledger to 7-4.
 
"We needed to return to our identity and our guys responded in such a great way," said SPU coach Grant Leep. "We challenged our senior group, Coleman, Sam Simpson, Nate (Streufert) and Nikhil (Lizotte) to step up and lead. They did tonight and did exactly what we needed them to do."
 
Stellar 3-point shooting put SPU in control early, gaining a lead it would not relinquish. The hosts hit 8 of 13 first-half treys, three of them from sophomore Sharif Khan.


 
Wooten's season-high 23 points came on 11-for-15 shooting from the field. He made his only 3-point try and distributed three assists.
 
"Coleman was just dominant tonight," Leep exclaimed. "He was super-efficient, he made the right plays, let the game come to him and took advantage of the situations where we wanted to get him to certain spots with certain matchups. He was really steady and solid tonight and I'm really proud of how tough and hard and physical he played."
 
The 6-foot-5 senior forward netted his 1,000th career point on Saturday in Billings, Montana to become the 36th player in SPU history to reach that milestone. He now has 1,029 points to rank No. 31 on the school's all-time scoring list.
 
A graduate of Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington, Wooten notched his fourth double-double of the season. He has accomplished the feat 14 times during his collegiate career.

 

Another local product gave SPU its first pair of 20-point scorers in a game this season. Moffitt, from Spanaway Lake High School, compiled a career-high 21 on 6-for-9 accuracy. He handed out four assists.
 
Khan, from Bellevue (Wash.) High School, also surpassed his previous collegiate-high total of 14 points with 16 on Saturday. He drained 4 of 5 treys and all four of his free throws.
 
"I'm really proud of Sharif. He's a better shooter than what his percentages have shown this year. We know that and our guys know that," said Leep. "To his credit, he's persevered so much through some tough stretches, but he's in the right spots and guys like playing with him. He is a great teammate and it was nice to see him get rewarded with knocking down those shots."
 
Senior Nikhil Lizotte was the Falcons fourth double-figure scorer, with 14 points.
 
Injuries limited the Falcons to eight healthy players. Unavailable Thursday were leading scorer Gavin Long (13.5 ppg) and reserve forward Sam Boone. All eight players that saw action were credited with at least one assist and five of them had three or more.
 
"We knew we had a shorter rotation going in, that Gavin and Sam were going to miss this one. Guys were very tough and strong mentally knowing that they had to give us an extended stretch of minutes," said Leep. "We brought Divant'e and Sharif off the bench and they finished with 21 and 16. When you get a contribution like we did from everybody, we're tough to beat.
 
"Everybody who played got an assist tonight, which is pretty unique. We had 21 assists on 31 made baskets, we took the right threes, we rebounded it really well and we had some good stretches defensively where we could at least push the lead out and have a little bit more of a cushion."
 
SPU swept the season series from Simon Fraser, including a 94-66 triumph on Jan. 5 in Burnaby, B.C. The Clan (9-10) dropped to 3-8 in GNAC games.
 
Othniel Spence topped SFU with 26 points, Jordan Muir-Keung had 16 and Michael Provenzano 10.
 
The Clan shot 51 percent (29 of 57), but allowed 56-percent accuracy (31 of 55) to SPU. The Falcons finished with 10 treys in 19 attempts and the visitors were 7-for-20 from long distance.
 
Before tip-off, Lizotte converted a free throw after Simon Fraser was charged with an administrative technical foul for not properly reporting its starters.
 
The Clan scored the next five points on the way to a 7-3 lead after Spence put back his own miss with 17:34 showing on the clock. They would not score again for nearly four minutes, missing four shots and committing two turnovers in that span.
 
SPU capitalized with nine unanswered points, capped by Sam Simpson's fastbreak layup at 14:08 that provided a 12-7 lead.
 
Three other Falcons scored during the run, including a 3-pointer from Lizotte, that put them in front for good.
 
Spence ended the Clan drought with a driving layup at 13:42.
 
An 11-2 surge stretched the SPU lead to 37-22, but Simon Fraser answered with 10 consecutive points, eight of them from Spence, to close within 37-32.
 
Late in the half, the Falcons netted eight straight points before SFU got a last-second layup from Muir-Keung to draw within 48-37 at halftime.
 
Both teams shot exactly 50 percent in the first half with SPU making 16 of 32 shots and the Clan 14 of 28. The difference came behind the arc where the Falcon made five more shots in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Back-to-back layups by Wooten and one by Harry Cavell started the second half, stretching the SPU advantage to 54-37. That margin never got lower then 12 points and grew to as many as 19 as the Clan never strung together more than five points and achieved consecutive baskets on just four occasions.
 
Wooten compiled 16 of his points after intermission on perfect 8-for-8 shooting from the field.
 
The SPU men remain home to host their annual Homecoming Game on Saturday. They clash with GNAC rival Western Washington at 4 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion.
 
"We'll just have to see how they are feeling tomorrow," Leep said of the one practice day between games.
 
"Obviously we're not going to go too heavy, but with a senior-laden group they should be able to handle some adjustments. We'll make sure to have them ready to play so their legs are fresh and ready to go for Saturday."
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
at Seattle Pacific 92, Simon Fraser 76
 
SIMON FRASER (9-10, 3-8 GNAC)
Singh 1-1 0-0 2, Roche 3-8 1-2 7, Spence 9-17 4-4 26, Balata 4-7 1-1 9, Provenzano 3-5 2-2 10, Muir-Keung 7-14 2-3 16, Hannan 1-1 1-3 4, Bryson 1-4 0-0 2, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Moyo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-57 11-15 76.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (10-6, 7-4 GNAC)
Wooten 11-15 0-3 23, Simpson 1-3 2-2 4, Streufert 2-5 1-4 5, Cavell 3-7 1-2 9, Lizotte 4-10 3-3 14, Moffitt 6-9 9-12 21, Khan 4-6 4-4 16, Van Dyken 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-55 20-30 92.
 
Simon Fraser............37...39..--..76
Seattle Pacific.........48...44..--..92
 
3-point goals--SF 7-20 (Spence 4-10, Provenzano 2-2, Hannan 1-1, Roche 0-2, Bryson 0-3, Balata 0-1, Muir-Keung 0-1), SPU 10-19 (Khan 4-5, Lizotte 3-7, Cavell 2-3, Wooten 1-1, Simpson 0-1, Moffitt 0-2). Fouled out--SF-Balata, SPU-None. Rebounds--SF 23 (Hannan 5), SPU 37 (Wooten 10). Assists--SF 11 (Provenzano 4), SPU 21 (Simpson, Moffitt 4). Total fouls--SF 22, SPU 16. Technical fouls--SF-TEAM, SPU-None. A-338.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Feb. 1, 4:00 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.