With its best shooting night both from the field and the free throw line in recent memory, the Seattle University men's basketball team picked up its first victory of the 2011-12 season with an 85-73 win over Montana State Tuesday night at Worthington Arena.
Four players scored in double figures for Seattle U, led by Aaron Broussard (Federal Way, Wash.), who scored 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 shooting from the free throw line. Eric Wallace (Winston-Salem, N.C.) also shot 7-of-10 from the field, plus was a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe for a season-high 18 points along with eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
Seattle University scored the first four points on consecutive baskets by Clarence Trent (Tacoma, Wash.), but Montana State answered with baskets by Mohammed Fall and Xavier Blount. Trent started a string of made three-pointers for the Redhawks, as long distance buckets from Chad Rasmussen (University Place, Wash.) and Broussard helped Seattle U put together an 11-4 run for a 15-8 lead. Also in that run, Broussard became the 35th player in SU program history to reach the 1,000-career point mark with a jumper with 13:31 left in the first half.
Montana State (2-2) responded with a three-pointer by Jeff Budinich and a basket by Jamie Stewart to cut the Seattle U lead to two at 15-13. Michael Dison scored six straight points to give the Bobcats a 19-17 advantage, and a three-pointer from Christian Moon started a 6-0 scoring run to give the home team a 27-22 lead with 5:25 left in the first half.
The Redhawks ended the half by outscoring the Bobcats, 17-6, over the final five minutes, led by Wallace with six points and Broussard with four points. Seattle U shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, including 5-of-12 from behind the three-point line, and 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
Seattle U took control right after halftime, as Broussard rebounded his own miss with a tip-in, and Trent cleaned up a defensive rebound and fed Wallace for a fast break layup to increase the Redhawk lead to 10 at 43-33. Broussard scored the next seven Redhawk points as Seattle U pulled ahead, 50-38, but Rod Singleton converted on a four-point play to bring the margin back into single digits at 50-42.
The two teams traded baskets for the next five minutes, but then Seattle U rattled off an 18-7 scoring run, highlighted by a rebound and dunk from Allen Tate (Hobbs, N.M.), to pull out to its biggest lead at 78-59. Montana State increased its defensive pressure, forcing turnovers and converting those into a 9-0 run that brought the Bobcats closer, but Seattle U continued its solid shooting from the free throw line by making 5-of-6 in the final two minutes to clinch the victory.
Trent shot 6-of-11 from the field as he finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, while Rasmussen hit three shots from behind the three-point line for 11 points in 30 minutes of action. Seattle U won the rebounding battle, 40-26, and held Montana State to 37.5 percent field goal shooting in the game.
As a team, the Redhawks shot 56.0 percent (28-of-50) from the field, the highest single-game field goal percentage since a 61.0 percent shooting display against Sacramento State Feb. 13, 2010. Seattle U also went 22-of-25 from the free throw line (88.0%), the best performance from the charity stripe since a 16-for-17 performance against Western Washington Feb. 28, 2008.
Blount led the Bobcats with 17 points, while Singleton hit three long distance shots as well as all five of his free throw attempts for 14 points. Montana State did force 20 Redhawk turnovers while committing only 12 turnovers of its own.
Seattle University (1-2) will prepare for the ShoWare Showdown, a neutral-site game against Evergreen State College at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., next Monday, Nov. 28, beginning at 7 p.m. Dave Grosby and Gary Hill will be courtside calling the action live on 710 ESPN Seattle, and tickets are available by contacting the ShoWare Center Box Office at (253) 856-6999 or http://tickets.showarecenter.com.