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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 8:00 p.m. PST (7 pm AST)
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Ak.
 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 3:00 p.m. PST (2 pm AST)
Alaska Airlines Court / Fairbanks, Ak.
 
• Webcast & LiveStats for both games: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/spu/
 
The annual trek north to Alaska takes place this week for Seattle Pacific, which seeks to stretch a two-game winning streak and improve its fourth-place standing. The Falcons (11-6, 8-4 GNAC) visit Anchorage on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. Pacific Time (7 p.m. AST). The Seawolves (12-8, 7-5) won five consecutive games before losing 81-61 at Western Oregon in their last outing. They lost their last two matchups with SPU. On Saturday, Feb. 9 the Falcons travel to Fairbanks for a 3 p.m. Pacific Time contest. SPU won 21 of the last 23 encounters with the Nanooks (5-14, 2-10). The Falcons swept both games on the Alaska road trip in five of the last six years after failing to do so for 10 straight years.
 
1,000-Point Club
SPU senior Coleman Wooten netted his 1,000th career point on Jan. 26 in Billings to become the 36th Falcon to reach that scoring milestone. He currently ranks 31st among all-time SPU players with 1,041 points. The 6-foot-5 forward was named GNAC Player of the Week on Nov. 19, 2018. Wooten collected double-figure rebounds seven times this season while leading the team with 7.8 boards per game. He has four double-doubles. Wooten was recognized as a second-team All-GNAC performer last year after being an honorable mention selection in 2017. On Jan. 17, 2017 Wooten erupted for a career-high 35 points at Saint Martin's. He has 17 career games of 20 points or more, 14 double-doubles and 21 double-digit rebounds games.
 


Sharp Shooters
The SPU men rank No. 20 nationally in field goal accuracy at 49.3 percent (492 of 998) as a team, reaching the 50-percent mark nine times in 17 contests. The Falcons held all but three foes under 50-percent and won all nine games when shooting 50 percent themselves. SPU hit an astounding 64.3-percent of its attempts (36 of 56) in the Dec. 1 home win over Central Washington and shot 61.2 percent (30 of 49) at Simon Fraser on Jan. 5. Six Falcons are making as many or more shots than they miss, led by the 61-percent accuracy (59 of 97) of Nathan Streufert. SPU's best 3-point shooter is Sam Simpson at 45 percent (22 of 49). Five players are converting free throws at better than an 80-percent clip, topped by the 88.5 percent accuracy of Nikhil Lizotte (46 of 52).
 
Falcons Fast Facts
Senior Coleman Wooten needs seven rebounds to become the 14th Falcon to reach the 600-board milestone. He then will be the ninth Falcon in history to compile both 1,000 points and 600 rebounds … SPU tops the GNAC and ranks 26th nationally in rebound margin, grabbing 6.6 more boards per game than opponents ... The Falcons have a 10-1 record when posting a better shooting percentage than foes ... SPU's record is 10-1 in games when it scores 80 points or more.
 
Recent Recap
Coleman Wooten produced a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double on Jan. 31 and Divant'e Moffitt added 21 points to propel the Falcons to a 92-76 win over Simon Fraser. Home for the first time since Jan. 12 after a four-game road trip, the Falcons halted a three-game losing streak. On Feb. 2, Nikhil Lizotte led five double-figure scorers with 20 points for SPU, which completed a sweep of the season series over Western Washington with a 91-75 victory before a Homecoming crowd of 1,124 at Brougham Pavilion.
 
 Scouting Alaska Anchorage (12-8, 7-5 GNAC)
> The Seawolves lost 81-61 at Western Oregon in their last outing to halt a five-game winning streak.
 
> Tyler Brimhall leads Anchorage with 18.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
 
> The road team won six of the last eight meetings in the UAA-SPU series that the Falcons lead 39-38 after an 87-74 victory on Jan. 12 in Seattle.
 
> Anchorage owns an 8-2 home record this season, but SPU was victorious in six of its last seven visits to UAA.
 
Scouting Alaska Fairbanks (5-14, 2-10 GNAC)
> The Nanooks won 63-61 at Concordia (Ore.) in their last game, led by 31 points from Tymoryae Glover, to stop a nine-game losing skid.
 
> Fairbanks features the high-scoring trio of Glover (13.6 ppg), Michael Kluting (12.7) and Spencer Sweet (12.5).
 
> Greg Sparling is in his first year as head coach at UAF after serving the previous 24 seasons at Central Washington.
 
> The Falcons lead the all-time series 63-16 and won 21 of the last 23 encounters. SPU won the last six matchups, including a 79-62 decision on Jan. 10 in Seattle.
 
Gavin the Great
Gavin Long leads the Falcons with a 13.3-point scoring average. The 6-foot-5 junior guard has been SPU's top scorer six times this year, including a trio of 19-point performances. Long was a 2018 honorable mention All-GNAC selection. He is SPU's top returning scorer with an 11.9-point average in 2018. Long netted a career-high 26 points at Simon Fraser on Jan. 25, 2018, the top scoring game by a Falcon last season. Last year Long ranked second on the team in blocked shots (15) and third in both field goal accuracy (52.4%) and assists (53).
 
Super Students
Six student-athletes from this year's SPU team were 2018 All-GNAC Academic honorees, led by Sam Simpson with a 3.87 grade point in biochemistry. Nathan Streufert boasts a 3.76 GPA in physiology. The other academic all-stars are: Gabe Colosimo (3.49, psychology), Gavin Long (3.41, physiology), Conner Van Dyken (3.31, health) and Coleman Wooten (3.50, accounting).
 
Balanced Attack
Four starters average double-figure points for the Falcons, who share the ball so much that only three 20-point performances have been posted by a player this season (Nikhil Lizotte 2, Coleman Wooten 1). Nearly 48 percent of SPU's baskets (226 of 492) were set up by teammates and seven players have been credited with at least 20 assists. Six different Falcons served as the scoring leader for games this season and eight players topped the team in assists.
 
Hot Lizotte
Senior Nikhil Lizotte leads all SPU scorers in conference games, averaging 13.3 points versus GNAC foes. A reserve at the time, he started the second half of the Nov. 17 game with SPU trailing 30-28 and erupted for 19 points while hitting 5-of-5 treys with four assists in 15 minutes to spark the win over Azusa Pacific. Lizotte led all SPU scorers on six occasions this season. He converts free throws at an 88.5-percent clip (46 of 52) and compiled a string of 21 consecutive charity shots that ended on Jan. 17. Lizotte transferred to SPU from Humboldt State where he started all 29 games in 2016-17. The 5-foot-9 guard led the Lumberjacks in 3-pointers (75) and was second in scoring (13.8 ppg). Lizotte is a graduate of Davis High School in Yakima, Wash.

 

Carom Collector
Senior Nathan Streufert led SPU last year with 7.4 rebounds per game and averages 6.5 this season. On Feb. 1, 2018 versus Alaska Anchorage, he out-rebounded the rest of his teammates by a 17-14 margin. Streufert collected a season-high 15 caroms on Jan. 22 at Saint Martin's. His father, Earl Streufert, is the boy's basketball coach at Richland (Wash.) High School.
 
2019 Season Preview
All five starters return from last season's 17-12 team, including the Falcons top-five point producers. Heading the list of returnees is senior forward Coleman Wooten, a second-team All-GNAC selection in 2018 after averaging 11.0 points and 7.0 rebounds. Junior guard Gavin Long was an honorable mention all-league pick who averaged 11.9 points. That standout tandem is joined by three other returning starters; seniors Nikhil Lizotte and Nathan Streufert along with junior Gabe Colosimo. "This is the first time in my three years that we've had a really good mix of returning, experienced veterans, but then also some talented young players behind them," said third-year coach Grant Leep. Athletic sophomore Harry Cavell is back after drawing 10 starts in 2018. Two veteran returnees are back from injuries that sidelined them the majority of last year. Senior Sam Simpson is a stat sheet stuffer while sophomore Sharif Khan is a stellar sharpshooter. The lineup is bolstered by the addition of talented newcomers Sam Boone, a junior transfer from Lamar CC, and freshman Divant'e Moffitt.
 
Coach Leep
Grant Leep, 38, is in his third season directing the SPU men's basketball program after seven years as an assistant on the Falcons staff. He has a 40-34 career record. Leep coached the 2018 team to a 17-12 record, including an 11-9 GNAC mark. He 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 Report
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference is deep with quality teams. No GNAC teams have fewer than two wins in league play and all of them have at least two losses. The Falcons sit in fourth place at 8-4, just one game ahead of Thursday's opponent, Alaska Anchorage (7-5). SPU is in pursuit of its sixth GNAC regular-season championship, but its first since 2014.
 
Opening Weekend Cancelled
The Falcons were scheduled to start the 2018-19 season at the Mac Martin Invitational in Chico, California on Nov. 9 and 10. The team arrived in Chico on Nov. 8, but returned home that night due to the "Camp" wildfire. The tournament was cancelled and the games will not be made up.
 
2018 Season Review
The Falcons finished the 2017-18 season with a 17-12 record, tying for fourth in the standings at 11-9. They beat host Alaska Anchorage in the GNAC Tournament first round before a semifinal loss to Western Oregon. Coleman Wooten earned second-team All-GNAC honors and Gavin Long was honorable mention.
 
Postseason Pursuit
SPU seeks to return to the NCAA Division II Tournament after a two-year absence. 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.