LACEY, Wash. -- Just when their prospects appeared dim, the Falcons started lighting up the basket ... and the scoreboard.
 
Kelton Samore compiled 25 points for Seattle Pacific, which utilized 70-percent second-half accuracy Wednesday to overcome a 21-point first-half deficit en route to a 91-81 men's basketball victory over Saint Martin's at Marcus Pavilion.
 
Trailing 40-19 with four minutes left in the first half, SPU went on a 10-2 run to begin its journey toward a 31-point swing by the game's conclusion. After scoring 29 points on 44-percent shooting in the first half, the Falcons amassed 62 points after halftime while nailing 21 of 30 attempts from the field.
 
"They're a very explosive and talented offensive group. To get up 21 on us, they were doing a lot of things right," SPU coach Grant Leep said of the Saints. "I was just glad that our guys were able to trim that lead down to 13 by the half to make it a little bit more manageable. Then to come out and play like we did in the second half was a lot of fun to see."
 
SPU (1-2) notched its first win of the season in its inaugural road outing.
 
A red-shirt freshman transfer from American University, Samore made 10 of 12 shots from the field and converted all four of his free throws. The 6-foot-9 forward also completed a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds to lead the Falcons' 33-29 edge on the boards.
 
Senior guard Sharif Khan (Bellevue HS) contributed a career-high 18 points, all of them coming from behind the 3-point arc from where he drilled 6 of 8 attempts.

SHARIF KHAN 3-POINTER

"They really stepped up for us," Leep exclaimed. "Sharif is a fifth-year senior in our program who has seen it all so he's not going to get rattled in those moments. He hit some really timely threes.
 
"And Kelton is starting to grow in his understanding of our offense and what we're asking him to do in the positions that we're going to play him. He is so skilled with the ball and it's a hard matchup for opposing teams. He really got it going and made some great plays. It really helped that his teammates made great basketball decisions to get him the ball in good spots."
 
Finding a Way to Contribute
Three other Falcons finished in double digits as Mehdi El Mardi chipped in 13 points while Harry Cavell and Zack Paulsen (Curtis HS) each had 11. SPU's leading scorer on the season, Divant'e Moffitt (Spanaway Lake HS), was held 13 under his season average of 21.0 points, with eight.
 
Cavell and Moffitt, the Falcons top-two scorers on the season, were kept pointless during the first half. They found other ways to contribute as each distributed seven assists for the game.
 
"That's a good thing for them to learn. Teams are going to scheme to try to take them away," said Leep. "They're going to do different things to try to stop Divant'e when he has the ball in his hands. They're going to do certain things to stop Harry when he has the ball.
 
"So, both of them stepped up to carry us without scoring the ball. That was really big because then teams have to adjust what they're doing, which then allows Harry and Divant'e to start finding ways to get in the scoring column again, which they are both very capable of doing."
 
The torrid second-half shooting improved the visitor's overall figure to 58 percent (32 of 55), including 10-for-20 accuracy on 3-pointers.
 
Alex Schumacher paced the Saints (0-2) with 20 points and Tyke Thompson had 18.
 
After shooting 52 percent in the opening period (16 of 31), SMU cooled after intermission and finished at 47 percent (30 of 64).
 
Leep didn't take credit for any magnificent halftime speeches that inspired the rally. He praised his players for setting the tone for the comeback.
 
"Our guys really took control in the locker room and they made the decision to play harder and smarter. We didn't do anything special. We didn't put in a new defensive scheme, we didn't install a new offense. But the guys just kind of owned it and made the adjustments, and it really started to click."

Super Second Half Surge
Khan sparked the second-half rally with three consecutive 3-pointers in a short span of a minute-and-a-half. SPU trailed 45-31 before Khan's trio off treys trimmed the deficit to 47-40 with 16:18 left to play.
 
A 13-2 spree midway through the period swung the game in the Falcons' favor.
 
Samore's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 12:02 remaining tied the game, 55-55, completing SPU's comeback from a 21-point deficit.
 
After a missed jumper by Shumacher at the other end, Moffitt got the ball under the SMU basket and dribbled the length of the court for a driving layup that put the Falcons up 57-55, their first lead since 3-2. That basket, with 11:33 left to play, accounted for Moffitt's first points.
 
After extending its lead to 72-62 on a layup by El Mardi off a nifty feed from Syon Blackmon, SPU never let the margin grow smaller than five points the rest of the way.

MEHDI EL MARDI LAYUP

Slow Starting SPU
In the first half, the Saints raced out to an early 11-point advantage on the strength of stellar shooting. They hit their first six shots, and four of them were 3-pointers.
 
Even when Saint Martin's missed, it worked out as Ty Velasquez was errant on a trey at 14:38 for the team's first miss. But an offensive rebound retained possession and Seth Coddington was fouled on a layup in traffic to start a three-point play with 14:12 left in the half. That provided a 19-8 lead for the Saints, who held SPU to 2-for-9 shooting to open the game.
 
"In the first half we did miss some open shots. We gave up 42 points in that first half and a number of it was breakdowns that we had on stuff that we were prepared to guard that gave them rhythm looks," Leep explained.
 
"We were way better defensively in the second half, so we got out on the break and didn't have to start our offense every trip. Against a team that wants to play zone, when they don't get to set up their zone, it makes it a lot easier to find a rhythm when you combine that with stops on the other end."
 
After Samore hit a jumper for SPU, the Saints reeled off seven straight points to lead 26-10. Later, a run of 10 unanswered points led to the largest disparity of the contest, at 40-19, with 4:07 showing on the clock before intermission.
 
"Especially in that first half they were really hard to stop," Leep said. "They're very talented offensively and have a lot of guys that can make shots. They had seven threes in the first half. When you are making threes at that rate it just opens things up. There's a reason that teams shoot so many threes these days, because it creates so much more room and space to have to guard."

We Meet Again
These same two teams square off again Thursday night in Lacey with a 6 p.m. tip-off in Marcus Pavilion.
 
"It's going to be really hard coming back tomorrow and trying to win again at Saint Martin's," said Leep. "Winning is hard because you have to continually do the right thing time and time again, and have the discipline to do that. We learned a little bit last week playing Whitworth on back-to-back nights about some of the things that we can do as far as adjustments are concerned."
 
Seattle Pacific returns home next week to host Lewis-Clark State in back-to-back games on Jan. 27 and 28. Both contests begin at 6 p.m. The Warriors are ranked No. 4 nationally among NAIA competitors.

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 91, at Saint Martin's 81
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (1-2)
El Mardi 6-8 1-1 13, Paulsen 3-10 4-4 11, Khan 6-9 0-0 18, Cavell 3-7 4-5 11, Moffitt 2-6 4-4 8, Samore 10-12 4-4 25, Blackmon 2-3 0-0 5, Penner 0-0 0-0 0, Medjo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-55 17-18 91.
 
SAINT MARTIN'S (0-2)
Wang 1-3 0-0 2, Adams 4-7 1-2 9, Schumacher 7-18 4-5 20, Thompson 7-13 0-0 18, Wang 1-3 0-0 2, Malloy 2-8 0-0 6, Coddington 1-1 1-1 3, Velasquez 5-10 2-2 15. Totals 30-64, 9-12 81.
 
Seattle Pacific      29     62    -- 91
Saint Martin's       42     39    -- 81
 
3-point goals--SPU 10-20 (Khan 6-8, Blackmon 1-2, Samore 1-2, Cavell 1-3, Paulsen 1-5), SMU 1-27 (Thompson 4-7, Velasquez 3-6, Malloy 2-6, Schumacher 2-7, Moore 1-1). Fouled out--SPU-None, SMU-None. Rebounds--SPU 33 (Samore 10), SMU 26 (Adams 7). Assists--SPU 20 (Cavell, Moffitt 7), SMU 18 (Schumacher 5). Total fouls--SPU 12, SMU 18. Technical fouls--SPU-None, SMU-None.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Thursday, Jan. 21, 6:00 p.m. PST
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.