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THURSDAY, JANUARY 30
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 8:30 p.m. PST (7:30 AST)
Alaska Airlines Court / Fairbanks, Ak.
 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 8:30 p.m. PST (7:30 AST)
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, 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 surpass the school-record 15-game men's basketball winning streak. The first-place Falcons (14-4, 10-0 GNAC), winners of 14 consecutive games and undefeated in league play, visit Fairbanks on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 8:30 p.m. Pacific Time (7:30 p.m. AST). The Nanooks (7-11, 6-4) lost their last eight matchups versus SPU. On Saturday, Feb. 1 the Falcons travel to Anchorage for an 8:30 p.m. Pacific Time contest. The Seawolves (13-8, 6-4) lead the GNAC with 17.6 assists per game, nearly three more than any other team. The two Alaska schools are tied for third-place in the GNAC standings.
 
Streaking
Along with the current 14-game winning streak, one shy of the school record, the Falcons have registered some other lengthy stretches of success. They won their last 20 regular-season meetings versus GNAC opponents. SPU's last league loss came on Jan. 26, 2019 in Billings, Mont.  At 10-0, a perfect record after one swing through the league slate, the Falcons are off to their best conference start since the GNAC started in 2001-02.
 
Notable
The Falcons are outscoring opponents by 15.6 points per game during the winning streak (85.1-69.5) and the closest margin was seven. At 14 games, SPU's has the second-longest active winning streak among NCAA Division II men's basketball teams, trailing only Lincoln Memorial which has won 19 straight. The Falcons are one of only four teams undefeated in conference play nationally ... Two of the Falcons' four losses came versus teams currently ranked in the Top-25: Azusa Pacific (9) and Chico State (18). The combined record of the four teams that defeated SPU is 57-17 (77.0%).

MEHDI EL MARDI INTERVIEW

Sharp Shooters
The SPU men lead the GNAC and rank No. 21 nationally in team field goal accuracy at 49.8 percent, reaching the 50-percent mark eight times in 18 contests and winning all eight. They held all but two foes under 50-percent and won all 11 games when out-shooting opponents. SPU hit an astounding 70 percent of its attempts (42 of 60) in a Dec. 20 home win over Puget Sound, nearly eclipsing the school record of 71.2 percent (37 of 52) set against BYU-Hawaii on Jan. 29, 2000. Five Falcons are making more shots than they miss, led by the 57-percent accuracy (48 of 84) of Filip Fullerton. SPU's best 3-point shooter is Shaw Anderson at 56 percent (34 of 61). The Falcons rank 14th nationally in free throw accuracy at 78.8 percent and five players convert free throws at better than an 80-percent clip, topped by Braden Olsen at 88 percent (420 of 48).
 
Dynamic Divant'e
Sophomore point guard Divant'e Moffitt was impressive during SPU's just concluded three-game homestand, averaging 26.7 points and 3.7 assists while shooting 60 percent (30 of 50). Moffitt erupted for a career-high 30 points in a win over MSU Billings on Jan. 18 and followed that with a 27-point performance versus Western Washington on Jan. 23. For the season, he tops the team in scoring (15.8 ppg) and assists (3.3 apg) with 52-percent accuracy from the field.
 
Last Week
A pair of home victories over Northwest rivals completed SPU's perfect 10-0 sweep of the first half of the GNAC schedule. Divant'e Moffitt poured in 27 points to lead the first-place Falcons to a 74-65 victory over second-place Western Washington on Jan. 23, ending the Vikings eight-game winning streak. Harry Cavell matched that 27-point figure in the 94-68 win versus Simon Fraser on Jan. 25. Moffitt tallied 23 points and eight assists in that contest. For the week, SPU shot 49.6 percent while holding opponents at 39.2 %.
 
About Alaska Fairbanks (7-11,  6-4 GNAC)
> The third-place Nanooks won two of their last three games, including an 86-78 victory at Montana State Billings in the last outing (Jan. 25).
 
> Fairbanks features high-scoring junior guard Shadeed Shabazz from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School. He leads all GNAC scorers with 24.6 points per game and his 67 steals (3.7 spg) are 28 more than any other player in the conference.
 
> Greg Sparling is in his second year as head coach at UAF after serving the previous 24 seasons at Central Washington.
 
> The Falcons lead the all-time series 65-16 and were victorious in 23 of the last 25 encounters. SPU won the last eight matchups, including an 86-68 home decision on Jan. 4 in this season's first meeting.
 
Scouting Alaska Anchorage (13-8,  6-4 GNAC)
> The third-place Seawolves won their last two games and boast an 8-3 home record, but SPU was victorious in seven of its last eight visits to Anchorage.
 
> Niko Bevens leads four UAA double-digit scorers with 13.2 points per outing.
 
> The Seawolves are the GNAC's most unselfish team, averaging a whopping 17.6 assists per game, nearly three more than any other team and over 5.5 more than SPU. DeAndre Osuigwe tops the GNAC with 89 assists (4.5 per game).
 
> The road team won eight of the last 10 meetings in the UAA-SPU series that the Falcons lead 41-38 after winning the last three encounters. SPU was an 83-76 victor in this season's first matchup, on Jan. 2 in Seattle.
 
Youth Movement
Only six of the 13 players on the roster had worn an SPU uniform before this season and just two of them were primary starters last season (Harry Cavell, Gavin Long). The 11-player rotation utilized so far includes six underclassmen. Four of those are freshmen, with true frosh Shaw Anderson and Zack Paulsen joined by red shirts Jacob Medjo and Filip Fullerton. A pair of sophomores, Divant'e Moffitt and Braden Olsen, share the point-guard duties. The infusion of newcomers also features reserve center Mehdi El Mardi, a junior transfer from Trevecca Nazarene, and incoming freshmen Chris Penner and Clayton Whitman, who are red-shirting.
 
Court Report
SPU players have produced three 30-point games, the most since there were four in 2017. Shaw Anderson tallied 33 points on Jan. 4, the most by a Falcon since Feb. 14, 2017 when Tony Miller had 33. Anderson then compiled 34 points on Jan. 11. Divant'e Moffitt erupted for a career-high 30 points on Jan. 18 ... Anderson was named the GNAC Player of the Week on consecutive Mondays (Jan. 6 & Jan. 13) and Moffitt garnered the weekly honor on Dec. 2 ... Senior Gavin Long and junior Harry Cavell were named to the 15-man Preseason All-GNAC team and the Falcons were projected second in the coaches preseason poll.
 
Quoting Coach Grant Leep
On attempting to stay undefeated in GNAC play on the Alaska road trip -- "The GNAC has been so deep and so strong the last few years. We can't take any of this for granted. We enjoy what we've done, but at the same time we have to stay sharp, we have to stay aware that we still have 10 more conference games left against very good opponents. We have to go on the road for a handful of those and take care of business away from home. We want to get everybody's best shot, we expect to get everybody's best shot and we need to ready ourselves for that."
 
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. 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 four-man freshman class is brimming with talent and only lacks experience in the college game. All four were standouts in the Washington state prep ranks. The frosh class is comprised of Shaw Anderson (Kelso HS), Zack Paulsen (Curtis HS), Chris Penner (Capital HS) and Clayton Whitman (Lynden HS).
 
Coach Leep
Grant Leep, 40, is in his fourth season directing the SPU men's basketball program after seven years as an assistant on the Falcons staff. He has a 65-39 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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Decade of Dominance
The winningest decade in the stellar history of SPU basketball came to a close on Dec. 20 with the program's 211th victory from 2010-19. The 211-88 record produced a 70.6 winning percentage that ranks second all-time, trailing only the 71.3 percent mark (206-83) compiled by the Falcons teams from 2000-09.
 
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.
 
Next Week
The SPU men begin a three-game homestand on Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. versus Western Oregon. The Falcons host Concordia-Portland on Feb. 8 at 4:15 p.m. in the annual Homecoming Game before Saint Martin's visits on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.