The men’s basketball team showed that it could play with at times, but the Bulldogs used a significant rebounding and shooting advantage to pull away with a 79-58 victory Tuesday night at the .
(2-2) broke the game open early in the second half with a 13-3 run, thanks in part to three Bulldog three-pointers, that gave the home team a 52-34 lead. scored the next eight points, the last three on a traditional three-point play by Shaun Burl (, ) to cut its deficit to ten, but answered with nine straight points to extend the lead again and put the game out of reach.
Chris Gweth (, ) once again led in scoring with 16 points, plus he earned four rebounds, two assists, and five steals. Leigh Swanson (, ) came off the bench and contributed 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, while Austen Powers (, ) and Drew Harris (, ) each scored eight points and Michael Wright () pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
The game was even for the first eight minutes, with Swanson hitting a three-pointer to give a 12-11 lead. Dwight O’Neil answered with his own three-pointer, starting a 9-0 run that gave the Bulldogs a 20-12 advantage. After a Harris layup stopped the run, Gweth scored ’s next seven points as the Redhawks pulled into a 23-23 tie. The Bulldogs went on another 7-0 run to take back the lead, but Swanson made two baskets to pull SeattleU within four. As time wound down before halftime, Sylvester Seay banked in a long three-pointer to give State a 34-27 lead at the intermission.
Seay led the Bulldogs with 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the free throw line, while Paul George earned a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Mychal Ladd shot 7-of-9 from the field in earning 15 points and six rebounds, and Dwight O’Neil nearly earned a triple-double with 12 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists in the game.
shot 59.3 percent from the field in the second half, including 5-of-9 from behind the three-point line. The Bulldogs also won the rebounding battle, 37-25, to offset 17 turnovers. shot 38.5 percent from the field and committed 14 turnovers, but did make 16-of-19 shots from the charity stripe, including 15-of-17 in the second half.
(3-1) flies from here to Wednesday in anticipation of the Great Alaska Shootout, hosted by the of , , at Sullivan Arena. SeattleU begins play in the weekend tournament Thanksgiving evening, Nov. 27, against Louisiana Tech starting at 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Pacific time). The game will be broadcast on KKNW 1150 AM as well as on FSN Northwest.