SEATTLE -- Rowan Anderson scored six of his game-high 17 points inside the final five minutes Thursday for Whitworth, which led most of the game but was forced to respond to a relentless rally to claim its second men's basketball win in as many nights at Seattle Pacific, 69-65.
 
Anderson led all Pirates scorers for the second straight game, following a 24-point performance in Wednesday's 95-83 decision on Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion.
 
"When you compare the two games, we definitely got better and we needed to get better," fifth-year SPU coach Grant Leep said. "Some of the discipline on defense, we took some steps forward there, but we're still not where we need to be."

Frenetic Finish
An NCAA Division II competitor from Spokane, Washington, Whitworth (2-3) never trailed Thursday until Harry Cavell nailed a 3-pointer from the right side with 5:01 remaining that produced the Falcons lone lead, 58-57.
 
Anderson answered half a minute later with a contested jumper in the lane that put the Pirates ahead for good.
 
Two Zack Paulsen free throws brought SPU within 64-63 with 2:09 left to play and then Sharif Khan made a steal. On the ensuing possession, Kelton Samore's potential go-ahead layup in traffic underneath the basket wouldn't fall with 1:05 showing on the clock.
 
Whitworth converted five of six free throws inside the final 47 seconds to secure their second victory.

Marvelous Mehdi
The Falcons (0-2) got a career-high 14 points from senior center Mehd El Mardi and 12 of them came during the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
 
"He did a nice job of setting some screens, which then got them into rotations and he rolled hard to the basket," Leep described. "Our guards do a really nice job, obviously led by Divant'e Moffitt with the ball in his hands a lot, of finding Mehdi on those rolls. We were able to find and get him some really easy finishes.
 
Three of Moffitt's four assists created second-half baskets for El Mardi.
 
"It was nice to see Mehdi establish his physical presence on the block in the second half because we've seen that in practice," added Leep. "He gave us another scoring option and another way to get the ball in the paint."

DIVANT'E MOFFITT BLOCKED SHOT & COAST-TO-COAST BASKET

A junior point guard, Moffitt compiled 12 points after topping all scorers with 30 points on Wednesday. Cavell notched an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double, his fifth as a Falcon.
 
SPU utilized 50-percent second-half shooting (13 of 26) to improve to 41.5 percent for the game (22 of 53).
 
The Pirates did the opposite, slumping with 33-percent shooting after halftime (8 of 24) to finish at 41.1 percent (23 of 56).
 
The difference was that Whitworth made one more 3-pointer (7) in the same 21 tries as SPU, and had one more free throw (16) than the Falcons made with both attempting 19 shots from the line.
 
Garrett Paxton scored 15 points for the Pirates, who also got 13 from JT McDermott.

Robust Rally
Staring down a double-digit deficit for the second straight night against the same opponent, the Falcons battled back from that 40-27 disparity. El Mardi capped a 14-3 spree with a layup off a feed from Moffitt to tie the game 53-53 with 10:37 remaining.
 
"I loved the response that we had to that adversity. The score at the end of the first half was nowhere near where we wanted it to be," said Leep. "But they don't quit and they kept fighting and stayed together.
 
"We need to learn to play with that grit and toughness that we saw in the second half, all the time. And that needs to be what we can hang our hat on as a team."
 
Twice the Falcons had opportunities to take their inaugural lead of the contest, but Samore was whistled for a travel at 9:54 and Paulsen missed a shot just over one minute later.
 
They would eventually gain a one-point edge that lasted for just 32 seconds.
 
SPU surrendered 26 fewer points than the 95 they yielded a night earlier, but also produced 18 less than the 83 they scored Wednesday.
 
"I have a very good staff. We studied the film from last night and saw some breakdowns on film that we had that weren't who we are and what we teach," Leep explained. "We have very smart basketball players, so when we told them the adjustments that we need to make, they're very good at applying them."

SYON BLACKMON BANK SHOT

First-Half Summary
In the first half, Whitworth raced out to a 7-1 advantage and owned leads of 16-9 and 27-18.
 
The Pirates were vulnerable to a comeback late in the first period, going scoreless with five straight missed shots over a 4-minute, 23-second span. SPU was unable to capitalize, getting just one basket on a Paulsen floater in the late to trim the deficit to 29-24 with 6:59 left in the period.
 
Neither team found the basket for exactly three minutes with the Falcons errant on four consecutive attempts. McDermott ended Whitworth's drought with a contested layup at 3:59.
 
The visitors tallied the final five points to claim their largest lead of the game and a 40-27 margin at intermission.
 
A 22-4 advantage on points in the paint fueled the Pirates 47-percent first-half shooting (15 of 32) and they limited SPU to 33-percent accuracy (9 of 27).

Upcoming Action
The Falcons hit the road next week for back-to-back games at Saint Martin's, on Jan. 20 & 21.
 
"This is going to help us a bunch having played these two challenging games. Saint Martin's is a team that plays primarily a zone defense and we saw a lot of zone this week with Whitworth with how they mix things up and keep you off balance," Leep said. "As far as preparation for a GNAC opponent, this couldn't have been better for us.
 
"It hurts to lose, it always does. You work and you practice to do all the things to try to win the game. But to fall short, you can learn so many lessons. As long as we learn these lessons and continue to stay together, our group is going to be better off for this."
 
The SPU men return home to host Lewis-Clark State on consecutive nights, Jan. 27 & 28. Those two games are recent additions to the ever-changing 2021 schedule.
 
Quoting Coach Grant  Leep
On playing with a 10-man rotation that includes five players that made SPU debuts:
"With the team that we have right now, with how many guys who are playing that are new to our program and new to college basketball in general, there's a growth process there and sometime growing is painful. We need to make sure that every day we are together, whether it's a film session, a game, a practice, that we've gotten better from it. We need to apply what we're learning to the next time that we touch the floor."
 
On the 10-point effort of red-shirt freshman Kelton  Samore, a transfer from American University:
"He's very skilled and we love how he fits our style of play. It was really nice to see Kelton get some success on the floor. It's been a tough go getting him integrated into the program because of the timing with which he came to SPU. He transferred to us winter quarter to plan on enrolling in the spring. Obviously, campus moved to online classes where we thought we could have him for all of our spring workouts. Then we got off to a slow start with the ongoing pandemic. We're finally getting consistent practice time and Kelton is really benefiting from that."
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Whitworth 69, at Seattle Pacific 65
 
WHITWORTH (2-3)
McDermott 5-9 3-4 13, Fitzgerald 1-4 3-4 6, Lopez 1-11 0-0 2, Anderson 5-10 6-6 17, Paxton 5-10 2-3 15, Lackey 2-4 2-2 6, Fogle 2-4 0-0 5, Vargas 2-4 0-0 5, Twenge 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-56 16-19 69.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (0-2)
El Mardi 6-10 2-2 14, Paulsen 1-4 7-8 9, Khan 2-7 0-0 5, Cavell 3-9 3-4 11, Moffitt 4-14 3-4 12, Samore 4-6 0-1 10, Blackmon 2-2 0-0 4, Richardson 0-1 0-0 0, Penner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-53 15-19 65.
 
Whitworth            40     29    -- 69
Seattle Pacific      27     38    -- 65
 
3-point goals--WU 7-21 (Paxton 3-7, Fogle 1-3, Fitzgerald 1-3, Anderson 1-3, Vargas 1-2, Lopez 0-2, McDermott 0-1), SPU 6-21 (Cavell 2-4, Samore 2-3, Moffitt 1-5, Khan 1-5, Richardson 0-1, Paulsen 0-2, El Mardi 0-1). Fouled out--WU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--WU 35 (Lopez 8), SPU 31 (Cavell 10). Assists--WU 13 (Anderson 6), SPU 8 (Moffitt 4). Total fouls--WU 19, SPU 21. Technical fouls--WU-None, SPU-None.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Wednesday, Jan. 20, 6:00 p.m. PST
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.