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 Alaska'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 Alaska 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.
Alaska 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 Alaska 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 Alaska never came closer than eight the rest of the way.
Alaska 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).