Friday, March 6, 2015

BILLINGS, Mont. - Seattle Pacific built an early 18-6 lead and cruised to a 73-54 win over Northwest Nazarene in the first semifinal game of the GNAC Men's Basketball Championships at Alterowitz Gymnasium Friday.

The second-seeded Falcons will play the winner of tonight's second semifinal between No. 1 seed Western Oregon and fifth-seed Western Washington Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (Mountain Time) for the GNAC title and an automatic berth in next week's NCAA West Regional. The pairings and the site of the regional will be announced Sunday at 7:30 p.m. with a webcast on ncaa.com.

Shawn Reid came off the bench to lead a balanced attack with 14 points as the Falcons, who will be seeking their third consecutive GNAC tournament title, improved to 22-7 on the season.  SPU also got 13 points and five assists from Riley Stockton and 12 points from Mitch Penner.

Eriik Kinney was the lone Northwest Nazarene player in double figures finishing with 16 points.

SPU's early lead was fueled by some outstanding marksmanship as Stockton opened the game with a pair of three-point field goals.  Later Joe Rasmussen knocked down back-to-back treys and Reid gave SPU's its fifth three-pointer of the contest - and a 17-4 lead - at the 12:32 mark.

From there Seattle Pacific built an 18-point lead at the break (35-17) and stretched its advantage to as many as 27 (53-26) midway through the second half.

Northwest Nazarene, however, wasn't quite finished as it rallied to within 14 points (55-41) on a Kevin Rima fast-break layup with 6:07 remaining in the contest.

The Crusaders then closed the gap to 13 (59-46) with 3:39 left on a Mike Wright three-pointer.  However, that was as close as NNU got and SPU later scored eight points in a row to rebuild a 22-point lead inside the final minute. 

SPU finished the contest converting on 11 of 26 three-point shots, including 3-of-4 by Stockton and 3-of-6 by Reid.  The Falcons, who came into the game leading Division II in rebounding margin (13.6), outboarded NNU 27-25 and also had just 10 turnovers, nine fewer than the Crusaders, which finished its season with a 14-16 record.