Thursday, December 20, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. – Heading into its final game before the holiday break, the Seattle Pacific men's basketball team hit the road looking for a confidence-boosting win and a victory to bump its record above .500.

It got that and more, not only knocking off a solid Concordia-Irvine team but blowing it out to the tune of a 76-59 win. The victory halted an eight-game winning streak for the Eagles and earned the Falcons selection as GNAC Team of the Week.

Head coach Grant Leep's team was led by guard Gavin Long, who totaled 19 points and eight rebounds in the road win. Long hit 7 of his 11 shot attempts from the field, including 3 of 4 from three-point range.

Seattle Pacific had four starters finish the day scoring in double figures, including a 16-point outburst from sophomore Harry Cavell. 

The contest marked the team's first true road game of the 2018-19 campaign after last month's trip to the Mac Martin Invitational at Chico State was canceled due to the devastating Camp Fire.

"This win is huge," said Leep after the victory. "Because of the way our season started with the tournament in Chico getting canceled, this was our first true road game of the season. So it was nice to be in somebody else's gym just getting the feel for what that's going to be like. Obviously, we've got some big tests in front of us in GNAC play."

A 12-3 run in the final four and a half minutes of the opening stanza allowed SPU to take a commanding 38-25 advantage into the locker rooms at halftime. While the home team did go on a couple of brief spurts to pull as close as 41-37 in the second half, the Falcons answered every time and ultimately cruised to the 17-point victory. 

"Collectively, our group did a good job," Leep said. "We started to execute and then you add on top of that we were finding some bonus baskets through playing hard, the energy picked up and good things started to happen."

The win was the Falcons' second straight, completing a perfect month of December for the club. 

The team will now be off for two weeks, returning to the floor on Thursday, Jan. 3 at Western Washington. That game will tip-off at 7 p.m. inside Carver Gym in Bellingham.