• COMPLETE RELEASE (pdf)    |    • VIDEO: Harry  Cavell

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26
Seattle Pacific at Sonoma State, 3:00 p.m. PST
The Wolves' Den / Rohnert Park, Calif.
 
• Webcast: https://ccaanetwork.com/ssu/?B=154827
• LiveStats: https://sonomaseawolves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Seattle Pacific at (#24) Point Loma, 2:00 p.m. PST
Golden Gymnasium / San Diego, Calif.
 
• Webcast & LiveStats: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/plnu/
 
A hectic holiday week awaits the Seattle Pacific men's basketball team. Fresh off their first win, the Falcons (1-4) remain on the road for two non-conference tilts. They visit Sonoma State on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 26 at 3 p.m. The Seawolves (2-3) were double-overtime victors in the most recent meeting, on Nov. 10, 2017, after losing the first five matchups with SPU. Grateful to be home for Thanksgiving, the SPU men return to the road the next day for a visit to San Diego and a 2 p.m. game at 24th-ranked Point Loma on Saturday, Nov. 30. The Sea Lions (4-1) were NCAA Division II national runners-up last season and won the only previous meeting with SPU, in November 2016. This week's outings are games No. 3 and 4 on SPU's six-game road trip the continues next week with the beginning of Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, Dec. 5 at Central Washington and Dec. 7 at Northwest Nazarene. The Falcons will have been on the road for over a month between their Nov. 12 game and the next home game, Dec. 20 versus Puget Sound.
 
Notable
A balanced attack featured five different Falcons leading the team in scoring in at least one game this season (ties included). There have been five different assist leaders and four in rebounds.

HARRY CAVELL INTERVIEW

 Youth Being Served
Only six of the 14 players on the roster had ever before worn an SPU uniform and just two of them were primary starters last season (Harry Cavell, Gavin Long). The rotation of 11 players utilized so far includes seven underclassmen. Five of those are freshmen, with red-shirt frosh Jacob Medjo and Filip Fullerton joined by true freshmen Shaw Anderson, Jacob Parola and Zack Paulsen. A pair of sophomores, Divant'e Moffitt and Braden Olsen, share the point-guard duties. The infusion of newcomers also features starting center Mehdi El Mardi, a junior transfer from Trevecca Nazarene, and incoming freshmen Chris Penner and Clayton Whitman.
 
2020 Season Preview
Two starters return from the Seattle Pacific team that posted a 22-7 record in 2019, won the GNAC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA West Regional semifinal. Headlining the list of returnees is leading scorer Gavin Long. The 6-foot-5 senior guard averaged 14.4 points en route to second-team All-GNAC honors. Junior guard Harry Cavell is also back after averaging 10.2 points as a starter in 2019. A quartet of returning guards bolsters that starting tandem, a group that includes Gabe Colosimo, Sharif Khan, Divant'e Moffitt and Braden Olsen. Graduation hit the frontcourt hard, but capable reinforcements are prepared to fill the void. The Falcons have two transfers eligible at the center position, Filip Fullerton from Portland State and Mehdi El Mardi from Trevecca Nazarene. A fantastic five-man freshman class is brimming with talent and only lacks experience in the college game. All five were standouts in the Washington state prep ranks. The frosh class is comprised of Shaw Anderson (Kelso HS), Jacob Parola (Gonzaga Prep HS), Zack Paulsen (Curtis HS), Chris Penner (Capital HS) and Clayton Whitman (Lynden HS).
 
Last Week
The Falcons halted their slowest start since 1980-81 with an 80-66 win at 23rd-ranked Concordia-Irvine (Nov. 16). Their first victory snapped a four-game losing skid. Filip Fullerton compiled 14 of his career-high 16 points during the second half and SPU held the Eagles without a basket during a late, six-minute stretch. The day before (Nov. 20), the Falcons got 13 points apiece from Gavin Long and Divant'e Moffitt in a 72-57 loss to Azusa Pacific. The Cougars broke open a close game, stretch a four-point halftime edge to as many as 15 in the second half.
 
Scouting Sonoma State (2-3)
> Located in Rohnert Park, Calif., 50 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma State is a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).
 
> The Seawolves defeated Humboldt State 86-73 on Nov. 21 before losing 107-56 in an exhibition game at Division I Saint Mary's on Sunday (Nov. 24).
 
> High-scoring senior Isaac Davidson, a 6-foot-7 forward, leads Sonoma with a 20.3-point scoring average.
 
> The Falcons won the first five encounters in the series with Sonoma before dropping a 100-93 double-overtime decision on Nov. 10, 2017 in the season opener at Hayward, Calif. Current SPU senior Gavin Long led all scorers with 24 points in that contest.
 
Scouting Point Loma Nazarene (4-1)
> The Sea Lions hail from San Diego, California. They became NCAA Division II members in 2014 after previously competing at the NAIA level.
 
> Point Loma won the West Region title in 2019 and was the NCAA Division II national runner-up. They were led by former SPU coach Ryan Looney, who left in April to become the head coach at Idaho State. Matt Logie is the new PLNU coach.
 
> The Sea Lions score at an impressive 86.8-point clip and outscore opponents by nearly 10 points per game paced by five double-figure scorers. Kaden Anderson, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Enumclaw (Wash.) High School, tops the team with 18.0 points and 8.4 rebounds per outing.
 
> Saturday marks the second ever meeting between the Falcons and Point Loma. The Sea Lions posted an 86-79 win in the first encounter, on Nov. 26, 2016, a neutral-site clash in Azusa, California.
 
Falcons Fast Fact
The Falcons fashioned a 13-game win streak from Jan. 31 to Mar. 15, 2019 that was their longest since a school-record stretch of 15 straight victories in 2002. Last year's win streak was stopped by a 67-63 loss to Saint Martin's in the NCAA West Region semifinal that ended the Falcons season.
 
On the Rebound
The Falcons led the GNAC and ranked No. 10 nationally in rebound margin in 2019, averaging 7.3 more boards in games than their foes. SPU compiled a 19-5 record when outrebounding opponents in 2019 and collected more caroms in all but six contests.
 
Court Report
 

Senior Gavin Long and junior Harry Cavell were named to the 15-man Preseason All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference team and the Falcons were picked second in the coaches preseason poll ... SPU was ranked No. 23 in the final 2019 coaches poll, its first national recognition since a No. 25 ranking on Feb. 16, 2016.
 
Gavin the Great
Senior Gavin Long leads SPU with 11.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He is a two-time All-GNAC selection, earning second-team honors last year after honorable mention acclaim in 2019. The 6-foot-5 guard led the Falcons with a 14.4-point scoring average last year. In the 2019 GNAC Tournament championship game he tallied 17 points, in the process becoming the 37th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point career milestone. With 1,083 career points, Long currently ranks No. 29 among all-time Falcons scorers. He registered a career-high 27-point effort against Northwest Nazarene in the GNAC Tournament semifinal on Mar. 8, 2019.
 
20-Game Winners
The Falcons' GNAC Tournament semifinal win on March 8 clinched a 20-win season in 2019, the first under third-year coach Grant Leep. They achieved 20 wins for the 25th time in the program's 75-year history.
 
Coach Leep
Grant Leep, 40, begins his fourth season directing the SPU men's basketball program after seven years as an assistant on the Falcons staff. He has a 52-39 career record. Leep coached the 2019 team to a 22-7 record that featured a late 13-game winning streak. His Falcons won the GNAC Tournament and advanced to the West Regional semifinal of the NCAA Division II Tournament. Leep has strong basketball ties throughout the Northwest as an All-America player at Mount Vernon (Wash.) High School before lettering four years at Washington. Leep still owns the Huskies 3-point accuracy records for a season (52.7% in 2002) and career (42.9%). His coaching resumé includes stops at Eastern Washington and a pair of community colleges. SPU had a 165-51 (.764) record during his time as an assistant.
 
GNAC Tournament
SPU captured its fourth GNAC Tournament title last year, adding a 2019 trophy to the display that includes hardware from three consecutive seasons between 2013-15. The conference determines its automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division II Tournament with a post-season playoff. The top-six finishers in the regular-season standings will participate in the GNAC Tournament. All of the conference's 2020 men's and women's playoff games will be contested at SPU's Brougham Pavilion. The top-two seeds receive a first-round bye while the lower seeds meet on March 5. The semifinals are set for March 6 and the championship game is March 7.
 
2019 Season Review
The Falcons returned to the NCAA Division II Tournament after a two-year absence. They reeled off 13 consecutive victories en route to a GNAC Tournament championship and appearance in the NCAA West Regional semifinal. SPU's final record of 22-7 included a 16-4 league ledger that was good for second place in the GNAC standings. Coleman Wooten earned first-team All-GNAC honors, Gavin Long was a second-teamer and Nikhil Lizotte garnered honorable mention acclaim.
 
Postseason Pursuit
SPU seeks to return to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second straight season after a two-year absence in 2017 and 2018. Prior to that, the Falcons forged a run of 12 straight playoff berths, from 2005-2016, that was the longest active streak among Division II men's basketball teams. SPU advanced to the national semifinals in both 2000 and 2006, placing third both times.