WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27
Lewis-Clark State at Seattle Pacific, 6:00 p.m. PST
Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28
Lewis-Clark State at Seattle Pacific, 6:00 p.m. PST
Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3
Northwest University at Seattle Pacific, 6:00 p.m. PST
Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
• Webcast link for all three games: https://www.youtube.com/user/SPUsports
• LiveStats link for all three games: www.sidearmstats.com/spu/mbball
 
Seattle Pacific begins an extended men's basketball homestand with a pair of mid-week games that tip off at 6 p.m. on Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion. The Falcons (2-2) host Lewis-Clark State on consecutive nights, Wednesday, Jan. 27 and Thursday, Jan. 28. The Warriors (12-1) are ranked No. 4 nationally among NAIA competitors. Northwest University visits next Wednesday, Feb. 3 for a 6 p.m. clash. SPU won all 12 previous regular-season meetings with the Eagles, including a 76-64 win in the last matchup (2015). 
 
Falcons Fast Facts
• Six Falcons average double-figure points, all five starters and reserve Kelton Samore
 
• Harry Cavell is the only Falcon to register double-digit points in all four games
 
• Cavell has 988 career points, needing 12 to reach 1,000, and 459 rebounds, 41 shy of 500
 
• SPU is shooting 89.7 percent from the free throw line as a team, hitting 78 of 87 attempts
 
• The Falcons converted 25 of 26 free throw in last Thursday's 70-62 win at Saint Martin's
 
• First-team All-GNAC point guard Divant'e Moffitt erupted for 30 points on Jan. 13 vs. Whitworth
 
• Averaging a team-leading 2.0 steals, senior guard Sharif Khan made four thefts on Jan. 14

 

Player of the Week
Kelton Samore, who came off the bench to spark two SPU road wins by averaging 19 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 65 percent from the field, was named the GNAC Player of the Week on Monday. The 6-foot-9 forward hit 15 of 23 shots from the field, including 2-for-4 accuracy on 3-pointers. Samore poured in a career-high 25 points on 10-for-12 shooting on Jan. 20 for the Falcons, who rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit to defeat SMU 91-81. He completed his first double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds. In Thursday's (Jan. 21) 70-62 victory, Samore netted the go-ahead basket with 50.2 seconds left to play. He tallied 13 points and five rebounds and made both of his free throws for SPU, which sank 25 of 26 as a team. A red-shirt freshman, Samore is a transfer from American University. He prepped at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon.
 
Abbreviated Schedule
With six schools opting out this year, the GNAC announced Dec. 17 that there would not be a conference season and the Falcons fended for themselves in finding opponents. SPU will almost certainly play fewer games than in any of its prior 76 seasons. Just once have the Falcons played less than 20 games, and that was in 1945-46 when they competed 18 times (3-15). There are currently 12 games scheduled, 10 of them at home. There may be additional opponents inserted into the schedule and there is a possibility of games being postponed or cancelled if COVID issues arise.
 
Notable
Five players debuted for SPU this year, all of them coming off the bench. Chris Penner and Clayton Whitman are red-shirt freshmen from last year's roster. The other three are newcomers to the team; Syon Blackmon, Payton Richardson and Kelton Samore. The five-man starting lineup of Harry Cavell, Sharif Khan, Divant'e Moffitt, Zack Paulsen and Mehdi El Mardi, all returning players, scored 242 of the team's 309 points (78%).
 
2020 Review
Seattle Pacific registered a 22-7 record in 2020, including a 14-game winning streak that was the program's second longest, to qualify for the NCAA Tournament that was cancelled March 12 due to the pandemic. SPU won the league regular-season title with an 18-2 mark. Grant Leep was the 2020 GNAC Coach of the Year, Shaw Anderson was the Freshman of the Year and Harry Cavell shared Defensive Player of the Year.
 
Dynamic Duo
The Falcons feature their returning backcourt tandem from last year's GNAC championship team. Junior point guard Divant'e Moffitt, a first-team All-GNAC honoree, topped the team with a 17.1-point scoring average and was the leading playmaker with 99 assists (3.4 apg). Senior guard Harry Cavell was second on SPU in scoring (13.5 ppg) and was the best rebounder, collecting 6.7 caroms per contest.
 
Scouting Lewis-Clark State (12-1)
> The Warriors, from Lewiston, Idaho, won their last four games and are ranked No. 4 nationally in the NAIA.
 
> Trystan Bradley, a 6-8 senior forward, averages 16.8 points to top LCSC.
 
> The Warriors twice won at Whitworth (65-62 & 86-74), a team that beat SPU.
 
> The Falcons own a 9-1 advantage in the series that hasn't been contested in 20 years. They won the last four encounters, including an 80-64 home win on Dec. 29, 2001 in the last matchup. The lone Warriors win (75-68) came on Feb. 6, 1999 in Lewiston when they were both members of the Pacific West Conference.
 
Scouting Northwest University (0-1)
> Located in Kirkland, Wash, Northwest University is an NAIA member from the same Cascade Collegiate Conference as Lewis-Clark State.
 
> The Eagles lost 88-48 to Portland State on Dec, 8 in their only counting game. They fell in four road exhibitions versus NCAA Division I foes, California (86-61), Oregon State (114-42), Portland (74-69) and Seattle University (89-40).
 
> The Falcons won all 12 previous regular-season meetings versus Northwest. They were 76-64 victors in the most recent encounter, on Dec. 11, 2015.
 
 

Coach Leep
The GNAC's 2020 Coach of the Year Grant Leep, 41, begins his fifth season directing the SPU men's basketball program after seven years as an assistant on the Falcons staff. He has a 75-44 career record. Leep coached the 2020 team to a 22-7 record that featured a 14-game winning streak. His Falcons won the GNAC regular-season championship and qualified for the cancelled NCAA West Regional as the No. 5 seed.  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.
 
Dynamic Divant'e
Point guard Divant'e Moffitt notched his third career 30-point game Jan. 13. He was honored as a unanimous first-team All-GNAC selection in 2020. His 17.1-point average ranked fourth in the GNAC in 2020 and his 3.4 assists per game were seventh. Moffitt erupted for a career-high 33 points at Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 30, 2020. He reached double-digits 24 times last season, nine of them 20-plus point performances. Moffitt was the Falcons top scorer in 13 games and leading assister 18 times. He shot 51 percent from the field and 81% from the free throw line.