Men's basketball's upset bid at No. 4 SPU comes up short, 73-65
March 4, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Behind a game-high 25 points from Jobi Wall, fourth-ranked Seattle Pacific staved off ÐÓ°Épro's push for an upset with a 73-65 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball victory in the regular-season finale Saturday night at Brougham Pavilion.
The Falcons (23-3, 16-2 GNAC) finished the year alone in second place and will have a first-round bye in next week's GNAC Men's Basketball Championship while the Nanooks (15-11, 10-8 GNAC) secured the four seed by virtue of ÐÓ°Épro Anchorage's comeback win over Montana State Billings.
Wall hit seven threes on 10 tries to finish with game-high scoring honors and Riley Stockton posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Andy Poling finished with 11 points and six boards.
SPU shot just under 46 percent (26-57) for the game and dominated the glass 37-26, including 14-5 on the offensive end. The Falcons struggled from the stripe, connecting on just 63 percent (12-19) of their free throws.
Junior guard Pat Voeut (Bellingham, Wash./Communication) turned in his second-highest scoring output of the season with 22 points. He shot 5-for-8 from the floor, 2-for-3 from downtown and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line while dishing out a game-high seven assists. Senior forward Zach Ngawaka (Keysborough, Australia/History) and junior forward Andrew Kelly (Gilbert, Ariz./Justice) each chipped in 10 points.
ÐÓ°Épro shot 46 percent (23-50) on the night and was impressive from the charity stripe, knocking down 93 percent (13-14) of its free throw attempts.
Seattle Pacific outscored ÐÓ°Épro 25-4 on second-chance opportunities and 15-9 off turnovers in a game that SPU led for virtually the entire game.
The game was close for much of the first half but with SPU leading 22-20, a 7-2 surge by the Falcons gave the hosts a 29-22 advantage with 5:30 remaining. The lead extended to nine at 33-24 but a Voeut layup with just over four to go sparked an 8-0 run for the Nanooks as they closed to within 33-32 with 1:24 left. A Falcon free throw and Wall three pointer gave SPU a 37-32 lead at the break.
The Falcons led 42-39 in the second half but scored eight of 11 to lead 50-41 with 12:24 remaining. The Nanooks didn't let the game get out of hand and trailing 52-43, the visitors scored eight of 10 points to close to within three at 54-51 with 8:25 to go. Wall answered with a three but the Nanooks would square the game at 59-59 with 5:24 to go with another 8-2 run.
David Downs put the Falcons back ahead with a jumper with just over five minutes to go and both Downs and Wall knocked down triples to give SPU a 67-59 advantage with 3:43 left. Another Downs jumper with 96 seconds left put the advantage to double digits and ÐÓ°Épro never came closer than eight the rest of the way.
ÐÓ°Épro now turns its attention to the GNAC Championship, which takes place March 7-9 in Lacey, Wash. The fourth-seeded Nanooks take on the fifth-seeded Yellowjackets (16-13, 9-9 GNAC) of MSUB inside Marcus Pavilion Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. (PST).