• FINAL STATS
 
ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Coach Grant Leep won't take credit for any motivational magic that occurred during the second-half timeout that proved to be the turning point Thursday.
 
Coleman Wooten's 16-point, 10-rebound performance sparked Seattle Pacific's 74-62 men's basketball victory at Central Washington's Nicholson Pavilion and clinched at least a tie for second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings.
 
The ninth consecutive victory for the Falcons (18-6) improved their league ledger to 15-4 and put them alone in second place. They close out the regular-season schedule on Saturday in Nampa, Idaho with a 6 p.m. Pacific Time game against Northwest Nazarene.
 
A tie for the GNAC regular-season championship is still possible for SPU with a win Saturday paired with a loss at CWU by first-place Saint Martin's.
 
If the SPU men don't get help in their pursuit of first place, a victory on Saturday would give them sole possession of second place and a bye in the first round of next week's GNAC Tournament in Bellingham.

 

Wooten gathered double-digit rebounds for the ninth time this season en route to his sixth double-double. His 10 rebounds, along with a game-high 12 from Sam Boone, led the Falcons 48-27 advantage on the boards.
 
"Sam Boone played a great game tonight with 12 rebounds in 17 minutes. That's about as efficient as you can get," Leep exclaimed. "We out-rebounded them by 21, and Sam was obviously a huge part of that. To beat a team by 21 on the glass is just a huge, huge advantage."
 
Those 21 additional rebounds proved pivotal as the Wildcats actually shot better from the field, at 43 percent (25 of 58) to 42 percent (27 of 64). They had an edge from long distance as well at 39 percent (6 of 21) to 28 percent (8 of 29) for SPU.
 
A 6-foot-5 forward from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Wash., Wooten hit 7 of 12 shots from the field. He led SPU in points for the fifth time in the last nine games after not being the team's top scorer in any of the first 15 contests.
 
Harry Cavell and Gavin Long each contributed 15 points for the Falcons.
 
The Wildcats (11-16) dropped to 5-14 in GNAC games. They were swept in the season series by SPU, which was a 97-82 victor on Dec. 1 in Seattle.
 
Jeryn Lucas scored 19 points for Central and Jackson Price tallied 12 of his 18 during the first half.
 
CWU made it interesting in the second half, closing within 49-48 on a Price trey with 12:09 left to play. That prompted Leep to call a timeout, and his team responded to the break.
 
"The really cool thing about that timeout is the guys talked things over on the bench. They come back to the bench before I do, while I'm talking to the assistant coaches," Leep described. "Walking back to the huddle I heard our guys talking about being alright, settling down and having better effort on defense.
 
"They're a veteran group that maintained composure. They've been through a lot together and it's really good to see some of that leadership come out from our seniors."
 
The Falcons exited the huddle and proceeded to extinguish their hosts.
 
SPU staged an 11-2 run, getting five points from Long, whose two free throws at 8:37 created a 60-50 margin.
 
The Wildcats never got closer than eight points the rest of the way and an eight-point run produced SPU's largest lead of the game, 74-55, with less than four minutes to play.
 
Central scored the last seven points to set the final 74-62 score.
 
"We were a little bit sloppy at times, but we didn't panic ever. Our guys just felt like we were in control of what was happening out there," said Leep. "We had that nice little surge in the second half that gave us some separation. To be in that situation and respond that way was nice.
 
"We did what we needed to do. Sometimes you just have to survive on the road in conference and that's what we did tonight."

 

In the first half, eight straight SPU points from Cavell, broken up only by a layup from Price, put the visitors ahead 21-15 halfway through the period. Cavell nailed consecutive 3-pointers and a fastbreak layup during that stretch.
 
Lucas slowed that surge with a layup, but the Falcons netted the next six points, four of them from Wooten, to take their largest lead of the half. They were in front 27-17 with 6:28 left in the half.
 
The Wildcats rallied behind a 14-6 run, getting eight of those points from Price. His trey, with 33.7 seconds showing on the clock, drew the hosts within 37-35.
 
With the shot clock off, SPU ran the time down before Nikhil Lizotte drove toward the free throw line and pitched the ball out to Sam Simpson on the top left of the arc. Simpson quickly triggered a 3-pointer that nestled into the net as the buzzer sounded to forge a 40-35 halftime score in favor of the Falcons.
 
Central shot 54 percent (15 of 28) and got 12 first-half points from Price in the first half. But domination of the backboards enabled the Falcons to lead as they compiled a 24-14 rebound advantage.
 
Saturday's opponent, Northwest Nazarene, entered the day tied for second place with SPU. But the Nighthawks lost at home to Saint Martin's, 97-87, on Thursday to drop to third place, one game behind the Falcons.
 
A Crusaders win on Saturday would tie them with SPU for second place in the final standings, and they own the tiebreaker in that scenario by virtue of a season sweep. NNU won this season's first meeting, 87-86, on Nov. 29 in Seattle.
 
"We just have to continue to be us and do the things that we've done that have worked so well for us in this winning streak," Leep said. "NNU is a very good team and they took their first home loss tonight. They're going to have Senior Night on Saturday and have a little extra fire and emotion. We have to be ready to match that.
 
"We have a hungry group that understands that clinching second place leads to a bye in the conference tournament. This is such a fun time of year in college basketball. To be in this situation is a cool opportunity for our group, as we've kind of grown up over the last three years, to put ourselves into this spot. We're all very excited for this opportunity."
 
The GNAC Tournament is slated for March 7-9 at Western Washington's Carver Gymnasium. The top-two seeds earn first-round byes while seeds 3 through 6 compete in Thursday's quarterfinals. Friday's semifinals are set for 5:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. with the championship game on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
 
Tickets for the tournament are available online now and details are available here -- http://www.gnacsports.com/mbasketball/championship-info/
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019
Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 74, at Central Washington 62
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (18-6, 15-4 GNAC)
Wooten 7-12 1-3 16, Streufert 2-3 0-0 4, Cavell 5-7 3-4 15, Lizotte 1-9 0-0 3, Long 4-10 7-8 15, Simpson 3-6 0-0 8, Moffitt 2-8 1-1 5, Boone 2-5 0-0 5, Khan 1-4 0-0 3, Van Dyken 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-64 12-16 74.
 
CENTRAL WASHINGTON (11-16, 5-14 GNAC)
Lucas 7-18 2-2 19, Poquette 3-4 1-1 7, Cola 3-8 0-1 6, Boykin 1-7 1-2 3, Hudson 1-1 0-0 2, Price 7-9 1-2 18, Montoya 2-6 1-2 5, Ladd 1-2 0-0 2, Nelson 0-1 0-0 0, Pope 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-58 6-10 62.
 
Seattle Pacific...............  40   34  -   74
Central Washington............  35   27  -   62
 
3-point goals--SPU 8-29 (Simpson 2-5, Cavell 2-4, Wooten 1-4, Boone 1-2, Khan 1-4, Lizotte 1-7, Moffitt 0-1, Long 0-2), CWU 6-21 (Lucas 3-9, Price 3-5, Montoya 0-2, Boykin 0-3, Pope 0-2). Fouled out--SPU-Lizotte, CWU-Hudson. Rebounds--SPU 48 (Boone 12), CWU 27 (Cola 7). Assists--SPU 20 (Lizotte 6), CWU 11 (Boykin, Price 3). Total fouls--SPU 14, CWU 18. Technical fouls--SPU-None, CWU-None. A-936.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene
Saturday, March 2, 6 p.m. PST
Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho