SEATTLE – Seattle Pacific University men's basketball head coach Grant Leep secured career win 100 on Tuesday night when the Falcons disposed of visiting Douglas College 114-63 with six Falcons scoring in double-figures.
"When you started coaching, it wasn't for milestones and achievements," head coach Grant Leep said. "It's for the impact you hope to make in the lives of young men and the program you work with. To have that milestone is pretty cool."
Leep's 100th career win comes in his seventh year at the helm of the program. He's led the Falcons to a regular season GNAC title during the 2019-20 season. Leep was named the conference's Coach of the Year as well. A season before, the Falcons won the GNAC Tournament and advanced to the West Region Semifinals.
"I learned early on in my playing and coaching career that a head coach is only going to be as good as their assistants," Leep said. "I've had great people in Kegan Bone, Matt Borton, Keffrey Fazio, Gabe Colosimo, George Parker, and David Choi, I've been surrounded by great people in those support roles and couldn't have done it without them. We've had tremendous players come through our program. You can't do it without good players. I'm grateful to people like Harry Cavell, Sharif Khan, Divant'e Moffitt, Gavin Long, and Coleman Wooten."
The Falcons ran away with coach Leep's 100th career victory early against the Royals. After 12 minutes of play, SPU led 44-14. SPU continued to apply pressure early in the second half. Clayton Whitman hammered home a fast break dunk that gave the team a 73-30 lead with 16:48 to play in the game. The Falcons' largest lead of the game was their last lead when DJ Clark knocked down a jumper to spread the difference to 51.
The Falcons were led by 22 points from Jonas La Tour. He tied Trace Evans for a team-high eight rebounds while dishing out two assists and grabbing three steals. Kelton Samore, Anderson, Evans, and Julian Mora had 11 points each. It was a career-high for Mora. Zack Paulsen was the final Falcon to score in double-figures with 10 points.
SPU shot 57.3 percent from the field (47-for-82) while hitting 46.9 percent of their 3-point attempts (15-for-32). They outscored the Royals 60-24 in the paint and scored 34 points off of 20 turnovers.
"I loved tonight because the challenge was to keep being us and to grow what we've been building," Leep added. "It's easy to fall out of that. This group handled it with maturity, did it the right way, and kept it about us. We got better tonight because of it. Everybody we played scored. We were able to get some younger guys some extended stretches that are crucial for their development. This was a big game, and I'm proud of how our team handled it."
The Falcons are back at Royal Brougham Pavilion this Saturday, as they host Warner Pacific at 3 p.m.