FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26
(#13) Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, 6:00 p.m. PST
Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27
(#13) Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, 2:00 p.m. PST
Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
• Webcast for both games: https://www.youtube.com/user/SPUsports
• LiveStats for both games: www.sidearmstats.com/spu/mbball
 
The top two men's basketball teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference square off this weekend in Seattle on consecutive days at Iron Coaching Court in Brougham Pavilion. Seattle Pacific (7-3) entertains 13th-ranked Northwest Nazarene (10-1) on Friday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. The one-loss Nighthawks bring an eight-game winning streak to Seattle. The defending GNAC champion Falcons were victorious in seven of their last eight outings. They won the last four matchups with NNU.
 
Notable
Six 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 four are newcomers to the team; Syon Blackmon, Kobe Elsner, 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 603 of the team's 796 points (76%).

SHARIF KHAN INTERVIEW

Last Week
Seattle Pacific beat Central Washington on consecutive nights beginning with an 86-82 win in Ellensburg (Feb. 19) behind 18 points from Divant'e Moffitt. Harry Cavell and Kelton Samore hit that same 18-point figure to fuel the Falcons' 92-74 home victory. The Wildcats forgot to bring their uniforms and used SPU's road maroon jerseys for that Feb. 20 contest in which SPU shot a season-best 57.7 percent (30 of 52).
 
Falcons Fast Facts
• SPU, the 2020 NCAA D-II leader (80.5%), ranks No. 2 in free throw accuracy at 84.9% (185 of 218)
 
• The Falcons converted 25-of-26 free throws on Jan. 21 and 30-of-33 on Feb. 19 at Central Washington
 
• Harry Cavell is the only Falcon to register a double-figure point total in all 10 games
 
• Cavell has 1,105 career points to rank No. 22 among all-time Falcons. He reached 1,000 on Jan. 27
 
• Cavell has collected 508 career rebounds to become SPU's 16th 500-rebound player
 
• Cavell is the 11th player in SPU men's basketball history to compile both 1,000 points and 500 rebounds
 
• Nine of the 12 Falcons that played this season have established a career-high game scoring total
 
• Point guard Divant'e Moffitt posted a pair of 30-point performances (32 on Jan. 27 & 30 on Jan. 13)
 
• Senior guard Sharif Khan leads the Falcons in 3-pointers (17) & blocked shots (7) and is second in steals (16)
 
• SPU had consecutive GNAC Players of the Week in Kelton Samore (Jan. 25) & Harry Cavell (Feb. 1)
 
• Syon Blackmon had back-to-back double-digit games last week, including a career-high 11 on Feb. 19
 
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, nine of them at home. Additional opponents are expected to be added to the schedule.
 
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.

 

Scouting #13 Northwest Nazarene (10-1)
> The 13th-ranked Nighthawks bring an eight-game winning streak to Seattle.
 
> SPU (79.6 ppg) and NNU (79.4) rank one-two in scoring among GNAC teams and also scoring defense with NNU first (72.1 points allowed) and SPU second (75.9).
 
> Ezekiel Alley, the Feb. 22 GNAC Player of the Week, paces NNU with 18.5 points per game while shooting 45 percent on treys. Kobe Terashima averages 5.7 assists.
 
> The Falcons lead the all-time series 62-26 and won the last four encounters, including a sweep last season. SPU won 77-68 on Dec. 7, 2019 in Nampa, Idaho and 72-70 on Feb. 27, 2020 in Seattle. In that last meeting, the Falcons overcame a 26-point deficit, rallying to win after trailing 37-11 during the first half.
 
Dynamic Divant'e
Point guard Divant'e Moffitt leads SPU with 17.6 points and 5.2 assists per game. He notched two 30-point performances in 2021, doubling his career total to four. Moffitt erupted for 32 points versus Lewis-Clark State (Jan. 28) and 30 against Whitworth (Jan. 13). He was honored as a unanimous first-team All-GNAC selection in 2020. His 17.1-point average ranked fourth in the conference in 2020 and his 3.4 assists were seventh. Moffitt poured in 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 games.
 
 

Coach Leep
The GNAC's 2020 Coach of the Year Grant Leep, 41, is in his fifth season directing the SPU men's basketball program after seven years as an assistant on the Falcons staff. He has an 80-45 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.