After falling behind by ten points in the second half, outscored Seattle Pacific 19-3 over a seven-minute span to pull off a 66-59 victory Saturday night in GNAC men’s basketball action at Royal Brougham Pavilion.
The first half was close, with nine ties and eight lead changes. Seattle Pacific scored the first four points of the second half, but came right back with seven unanswered points, with back-to-back three-pointers by Ryan Coldren (, ) and Ricky Berry (Phoenix, Ariz.) giving SeattleU a 36-35 lead. Marques Echols answered for the Falcons, hitting three straight long distance shots as the home team opened a 50-40 lead with 9:22 remaining in the second half.
Michael Wright () grabbed two rebounds and hit two shots to cut the Falcon lead to five. After Jojay Jackson hit a three-pointer, SeattleU scored 14 unanswered points, with Leigh Swanson (, ) scoring six of those points and Berry hitting a three-pointer with 3:31 left in the second half to give SeattleU the lead for good. After Rob Will converted a three-point play to cut ’s lead to two, Shaun Burl (, ) and Chris Gweth () hit two free throws each in the final 25 seconds to ice the game for the visitors.
Wright earned his second double-double of the season with 15 points and ten rebounds, shooting 7-of-8 from the field and also blocking two Falcon shots. Gweth also scored 15 points, plus he contributed six rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Coming off the bench, finished with 14 points, and Burl added nine points, four rebounds, five assists, and two steals to the winning effort.
Will led the way for Seattle Pacific (15-5, 7-4 GNAC) with 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 7-of-12 from the free throw line. Echols scored 16 points, and finished the night with nine points, ten rebounds, four assists, and three steals. After shooting 48 percent from the field in the first half, the Falcons were held to 31 percent field goal shooting in the second half.
This is only the second time has defeated Seattle Pacific in the past 16 meetings at Royal Brougham Pavilion dating back to the 1991-92 season. This was also a key regional win for SeattleU, who now has victories over the teams ranked third and fifth in last week’s West Region rankings and will look to move into at least the top ten of the next rankings released Wednesday, Feb. 13.
Seattle University (13-7, 6-5 GNAC) plays its first home game since Jan. 26, as Saint Martin’s visits the Connolly Center on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, Feb. 14, beginning at 7 p.m. The Saints defeated the Redhawks on Jan. 19 in Lacey, Wash., 88-77.