ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Shaw Andersson delivered the kind of performance that he has become known for during his four seasons with Seattle Pacific.
But even with some double-digit scoring help from his teammates, the Falcons still couldn't come up with enough points against Central Washington on Thursday night.
Anderson capped his career with a 28-point outing, Maui Sze and Trace Evans came up with 11 points apiece, but Central went on an 11-0 scoring run after SPU had climbed back into a tie to take a 90-76 victory in the first round of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament.
The loss in CWU's Nicholson Arena ended the season for the Falcons at 17-15.
"The effort was there from our guys," interim head coach Keffrey Fazio said. "The battle was there. We couldn't quite break through some of the energy that sustained them when we needed them to go into a slump. We'd make a run, but they'd find a way to stay living. We were there."
After becoming the all-time leading scorer for Seattle Pacific in last Saturday's regular-season finale at Alaska Fairbanks, Anderson's 28 points gave him a final total of 1,987. The previous record was 1.948 by Loren Anderson (no relation) from 1955-58.
Anderson hit 10 of 25 from the floor and also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Sze, in his final game, handed out six assists to go with his 11 points, and Evans collected six boards and dished four assists.
The Falcons were down 54-43 early in the second half, but put together a 19-8 scoring run to climb back into it. A 24-foot 3-pointer from the top of the key by Sze tied the score at 62-62 with 9:18 still to play.
But SPU went scoreless for the next 3 minutes, and 30 seconds, while Central Washington (19-9) was putting 11 straight points on the board for a 73-62 lead. The Falcons finally ended the dry spell on a short turnaround shot by Owen Moriarty. CWU responded with another 7-0 run to make it 80-64; That capped an 18-2 run and effectively iced it with just 4:06 remaining.
Anderson played the whole game until he was taken out with 18.2 seconds left for a salute from the fans.
Seattle Pacific started the game by hitting its first eight shots, with four of those from 3-point range, to take a 20-12 lead. But it cooled off considerably after that, draining just 6 of 21 and 2 of 14 behind the arc through the rest of the half, and went into the break down 44-36.
"To win on the road, to win the conference tournament, you just have to be a little tougher, a little stronger, and will it to happen," Fazio added. "Credit to them. They played hard, made shots when they needed to, and did what they needed to do. I'm proud of my team. I'm proud of how we played. We didn't waiver from how we wanted to play. I'm just proud."
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