The Seattle University men’s basketball team completed the 2015-16 regular season with a 93-71 loss to CSU Bakersfield Saturday night in a Western Athletic Conference contest at the Icardo Center.
Four players finished with 12 points apiece to lead the Redhawks, including William Powell (Huntsville, Ala.), who notched his fourth double-double over the last six games with 11 rebounds. Jack Crook (Manchester, England) added seven rebounds and three blocked shots, Brendan Westendorf (Auburn, Wash.) collected five rebounds, six assists, and three steals, and Manroop Clair (Vancouver, B.C.) hit four three-pointers to earn his 12 points.
After a steal and layup by Justin Pride gave CSU Bakersfield a 9-4 lead, Seattle U put together a 10-1 scoring run, capped by three-pointers from Jake Spurgeon (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and Clair. Later in the first half, the Roadrunners went on a 9-0 scoring run, but Westendorf hit back-to-back layups to end the CSUB run, and then another three-pointer from Clair followed by a fast-break layup from Powell closed the CSU Bakersfield lead to 33-29 at halftime.
CSU Bakersfield (21-8, 11-3 WAC) scored the first four points of the second half and then, after a three-pointer by Westendorf, scored seven unanswered points, capped by a three-pointer from Damiyne Durham, to extend its advantage to 51-36 six minutes into the second half. Jack Shaughnessy (Woodstock, Ga.) hit a three-pointer to cut the Roadrunner lead to 11 at 60-49 with less than seven minutes remaining, but that would be the closest Seattle U would come the rest of the way, as CSUB went on a 14-5 run, punctuated by another Durham three-pointer, to put the game away.
Dedrick Basile led the Roadrunners with 17 points and five assists, while Durham contributed 16 points off the bench. As a team, CSU Bakersfield shot 50.9 percent (28-of-55) from the field, including 7-of-14 from behind the three-point line, plus the Roadrunners scored 32 points off 24 Redhawk turnovers.
Seattle University (13-15, 7-7 WAC), the third seed in the WAC Men's Basketball Tournament, will face sixth seed UT Rio Grande Valley (8-21, 4-10 WAC) in the first round Thursday, March 10, at 7 p.m. at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. UT Rio Grande Valley was tied with Missouri-Kansas City in the WAC standings, and the procedure for breaking that tie for seeding purposes came down to the team with the highest RPI at the conclusion of the WAC regular season. UMKC earned the fifth seed based on a higher RPI ranking (292) than UTRGV (334).
The winner of the Seattle U/UTRGV game will face the winner of the CSU Bakersfield/Chicago State game in the semifinals Friday, March 11, at 8:30 p.m., with the championship game taking place Saturday, March 12, at 8 p.m. The first round and semifinal games will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/live), and the final will be televised live on ESPNU. Seattle U fans will also be able to listen to the live broadcast on 770 AM KTTH with Dave Grosby and Gary Hill Jr., starting with the pregame show shortly before tipoff.
All-session tickets are on sale now through the Seattle U Athletics Ticket Office and the Orleans Arena Box Office. Seattle U fans are strongly encouraged to purchase by calling 206-398-GOSU (4678) to avoid service fees associated with ticket sales through the Orleans Arena site. Single-session tickets will not be available for purchase until March 9 and can only be purchased through the Orleans Arena Box Office.