SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific University men's basketball team picked up its first Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory of the season when it took care of Western Oregon 67-54 on Saturday afternoon, led by 22 points and eight rebounds from Trace Evans.

FROM THE COACH
"Really good bounce game for our guys tonight," head coach Keffrey Fazio said. "We knew that it was gonna be a tough one, so we had to be resilient, and I'm happy our guys were able to come out on top. Trace was huge for us coming out of the half. He really got us started building a lead. Our conference is really tough, and you have to earn everything. I thought our guys did that tonight."


HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Falcons withstood a quick 6-0 run from the Wolves over the first 2:48 of the game.
• SPU answered with a 23-5 run that lasted 7:08.
  • The Falcons went 9-for-11 from the field, including three made 3-pointers.
  • Henry Sandberg lit it up from the field, leading the Falcons with nine points during that stretch.
  • Trace Evans went to work in the low post, scoring six points during that stretch.
  • The seven-minute run gave the Falcons a 23-11 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the first half.
• The Wolves hit four 3-pointers in the final five minutes of the first half to tie the game 30-30.
• A 3-pointer from Julian Mora gave the Falcons a 33-30 lead at halftime.
• The Falcons opened the second half with a 22-8 run that lasted a little over eight minutes.
  • SPU went 9-for-1 from the field, led by 12 points from Evans.
    • Evans had a stretch of eight consecutive points during the run.
  • The run gave SPU a 55-38 lead with 11:46 left in the game.
• The Falcons maintained their distance from the Wolves and went on to take the game 67-54.

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• The Falcons shot 54.9 percent (28-for-51) from the field on Saturday, with six made 3-pointers.
• SPU out-rebounded WOU 33-25 in Saturday's game.
• The Falcons dished out 14 assists to just six from the Wolves.
• Evans was efficient for the Falcons, scoring a game-high 22 points on a 9-for-16 shooting performance.
  • He added a game-high eight rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal to his stat line.
• Mora shot it well for SPU, scoring 13 points on a 5-for-8 shooting performance that featured two 3-pointers.
• McMillan pulled down seven rebounds while making four field goals to finish with eight points and a team-high four assists.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The SPU defense held its opponent to the second-lowest point total of the season on Saturday.
  • The Falcons were one point away from matching their opponents' lowest score, which occurred on Nov. 28 when SPU beat Vanguard 72-53.

UP NEXT
The Falcons travel to Western Washington on Thursday, Jan. 8, for a 7:00 p.m. game, followed by a game against Simon Fraser on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 7:00 p.m.
 
SPU SOCIAL

• X - @SPUSports & @SPU_Basketball
• Instagram - @SPUSports & @SPU_Basketball
• Facebook - /SPUSports