• FINAL STATS    |    • VIDEO: NIKHIL  LIZOTTE
• PHOTO GALLERY

SEATTLE – Nikhil Lizotte led five double-figure scorers with 20 points Saturday for Seattle Pacific, which completed a sweep of the season series over Western Washington with a 91-75 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory.
 
A Homecoming crowd of 1,124 at Brougham Pavilion saw the Falcons (11-6) improve to 8-4 in league play with their third sweep of WWU in the last six seasons. They also accomplished the feat in 2014 and 2016.
 
"There was a buzz in the gym tonight and that's palpable, you can feel that," SPU coach Grant Leep exclaimed. "Our guys noticed that and there was a little extra something there. Especially with basketball alum Jeff McBroom going into the Hall of Fame, for him to be able to see this is really special."
 
McBroom and seven other former Seattle Pacific standouts in various sports were inducted into the Falcon Hall of Fame and Friday and were recognized at halftime Saturday. A 6-foot-5 forward, McBroom capped an All-America senior season in 1999 by averaging a school single-season record 24.3 points per game.
 
A 10-point run midway through the first half put SPU in front for good and that lead grew to as many as 20 points after halftime.
 
Along with his second 20-point performance in the last three games, Lizotte had four rebounds, two assists and sank all eight of his free throws.
 
"I'm really proud of Nikhil because we challenged him to be more of a point guard. He's really taking that on," Leep said. "He played 31 minutes tonight and didn't turn the ball over."


 
Harry Cavell scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Falcons 48-33 advantage on the boards.
 
Divant'e Moffitt added 13 points, Coleman Wooten had 12 and Gavin Long 10.
 
"It was such a team effort. I love the balance that we have," said Leep. "Our guys play so well together and they take joy in the other guys doing well. That speaks a lot to the character of the group."
 
SPU countered the Vikings potent long-distance attack with 46 points in the paint while surrendering just 20. The impressive inside game also resulted in a 16-point advantage from the free throw line where the Falcons made 24 of 29 attempts and Western was 8-for-12.
 
The Vikings (11-11) lost their third straight outing, falling to 5-7 in GNAC games.
 
Western's Trevor Jasinsky compiled 28 points, on 11-for-21 shooting, to lead all scorers. He made 4 of 8 treys. The junior forward tallied his team's first 12 second-half points.
 
Jasinsky completed a three-point play with 7:30 remaining, drawing the Vikings within 67-58. At that point he had accounted for 25 of the team's 58 points.
 
But WWU's scoring leader was kept off the board for the next 3-minutes, 34-seconds, enabling the Falcons to put together runs of five and six points.  They stretched the margin to 80-63 before Jasinsky scored again, on a driving layup with 3:36 left to play.
 
Tucker Eenigenburg contributed 12 points for Western and Jalen Green had 11.
 
The Vikings shot 41 percent (27 of 66) from the field and most of that was due to stellar 3-point shooting. They made half of their trey attempts (13 of 26), while hitting just 14 of 40 shots inside the arc.
 
To open the game, the lead changed hands in each of the first nine possessions before the Falcons finally scored back-to-back baskets. Sam Boone made a layup and Moffitt nailed a 3-pointer to put them up, 15-11.
 
Western answered with consecutive treys, from KJ Bosco and Tyler Payne, to go ahead 17-15 with 10:46 left in the half.

 

Leep immediately called a timeout, unhappy with his team's 3-point defense. At that juncture, the Vikings had compiled the majority of their scoring on treys that accounted for five of their six baskets.
 
"We were hitting the reset button," Leep explained of the timeout. "At that point they had 17 points and 15 of them came on threes. We just needed to stop it. After that second straight three we needed to refocus on our game plan and move forward. Our guys did a good job of responding to that."
 
SPU took their coach's instruction to heart, fighting fire with fire as three of their next five baskets were 3-pointers. The hosts reeled off 10 unanswered points, the first five coming from Cavell. When Wooten capped the surge with a 3-pointer at 9:05, SPU led 25-17 and never relinquished control.
 
Neither team netted more than two straight field goals the rest of the period that concluded with a nifty move and drive to the hoop for a layup by Lizotte with 2.1 seconds showing on the clock. That provided a 43-38 halftime margin for the Falcons.
 
Ten of the Vikings 14 first-half field goals came from 3-point range. They shot 10-for-15 on treys and 4-for-19 inside the arc.
 
SPU countered with 6-for-11 accuracy on treys in the opening 20 minutes.
 
The Falcons entered this week in the throes of a three-game losing streak that followed a seven-game winning streak. The slump ended Thursday with a 92-76 home win over Simon Fraser.
 
Leep believes these last two wins could serve as the spark for Seattle Pacific's push to the playoffs.
 
"This was just a huge week for us coming off of losing three straight. We really felt like we had gotten away from our identity as a group and we were turning the ball over way too much. To come back this week and only have 12 turnovers on Thursday and seven today just gives this group so many more extra possessions and opportunities.
 
"This helps us a bunch. We needed to get back to who we were. We had deviated from that. As long as we do that, and take care of the basketball, we are really tough to beat."
 
The SPU men hit the road for a pair of games next week in Alaska. They visit Anchorage on Thursday at 8 p.m. Pacific Time and Fairbanks on Saturday at 3 p.m. PST.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
at Seattle Pacific 91, Western Washington 75
 
WESTERN WASHINGTON (11-11, 5-7 GNAC)
Lovelady 0-3 0-0 0, Jasinsky 11-21 2-4 28, Payne 2-5 0-0 5, Anderson 2-5 0-0 6, Green 3-8 2-2 11, Eenigenburg 5-10 1-1 12, Bosco 2-5 1-2 7, Cotton-Welch 2-3 1-1 5, Secrest 0-3 1-2 1, Winn 0-2 0-0 0, Ahlemeyer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-66 8-12 75.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (11-6, 8-4 GNAC)
Wooten 5-10 0-0 12, Streufert 3-5 2-4 8, Cavell 3-9 9-11 16, Lizotte 5-12 8-8 20, Long 5-10 0-0 10, Moffitt 5-9 2-2 13, Simpson 3-4 1-2 8, Boone 1-5 0-0 2, Khan 0-3 2-2 2, Van Dyken 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-68 24-29 91.
 
Western Washington......38...37..--..75
Seattle Pacific.........43...48..--..91
 
3-point goals--WWU 13-26 (Jasinsky 4-8, Green 3-6, Bosco 2-2, Anderson 2-4, Payne 1-3, Eenigenburg 1-3), SPU 7-23 (Lizotte 2-6, Wooten 2-3, Cavell 1-4, Moffitt 1-1, Simpson 1-2, Van Dyken 0-1, Khan 0-2, Streufert 0-1, Long 0-3). Fouled out--WWU-Bosco, Green, SPU-None. Rebounds--WWU 33 (Jasinsky 7), SPU 48 (Cavell 9). Assists--WWU 10 (Payne 5), SPU 13 (Long, Moffitt, Cavell 3). Total fouls--WWU 21, SPU 19. Technical fouls--WWU-None, SPU-None. A-1124.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage
Thursday, Feb. 7, 8:00 p.m. PST
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Ak.