Banchero, Diederichs Lead Seattle Pacific; Wolves Edge Central Washington

Diederichs	Wheadon

Chris Banchero scored 24 points, and Rob Diederichs handed out a career-high 12 assists as Seattle Pacific rolled to an 87-68 victory against Northwest Nazarene in a GNAC men's basketball game Saturday at Brougham Pavilion.

Elsewhere Blair Wheadon scored eight points in the final 87 seconds as Western Oregon rallied from four points back in the final minute to upset Central Washington 77-74 at Monmouth.

Alaska Anchorage, meanwhile, earned a 56-42 road victory at Alaska Fairbanks holding the Nanooks to a UAA record low defensive scoring total for the series.

Rory Blanche connected on nine of 20 shots and scored 20 points as Western Washington (8-2 in the GNAC) defeated Saint Martin's 88-68 in the only night game to stay just one-half game back of Seattle Pacific in the conference race.

Seattle Pacific 87, Northwest Nazarene 68

Banchero was one of five SPU players in double figures as the first-place Falcons (17-3, 8-1) bounced back from their first conference loss of the season Thursday at Ellensburg.

Ryan Sweet added 17 points, Jeff Downs chipped in 16 and Jake Anderson and Brandon Larrieu had 10 each.

Sweet made it a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds. That was his team-leading third double-double of the season.

Diederichs surpassed his previous career high of 11 assists, which he set on Nov. 25, 2008 against Division I Southern Utah.

Anthony Golden was the only player in double figures for the Crusaders (12-8, 4-5) finishing with 16 points. NNU also got nine points from Lateef Williams and eight each from Kendall Gielow and Louie Beech.

The Crusaders, however, were outshot 56.9 percent to 41.7 by Seattle Pacific, which made 29 of 51 and also cashed in on 22 of 24 free throws. NNU was nine of 13 from the foul line. SPU was nine of 20 on three-point shots compared to seven of 18 by the Crusaders.

Western Oregon 77, Central Washington 74

Western Oregon trailed 74-70 inside the final minute following a three-pointer by Wheadon at 1:27 and a layup by CWU's Toussaint Tyler with 1:04 remaining.

But the Wolves (11-9, 4-5) went ahead 75-74 as Wheadon got two free throws and a three-pointer and then employed some strategy to hand CWU (12-7, 6-3) its first loss on an opponent's home court this season.

After Wheadon hit two free throws with 42 seconds left, Rico Myles blocked a layup attempt by Tyler, who scored nine of CWU's final 12 points.

Wheadon then nailed a three-pointer from the left corner to give WOU a 75-74 lead with 21 seconds left.

CWU's Shane Miller got a good look on a three-pointer from the top of the key with seven seconds left but he missed and Tarance Glynn was quickly fouled after grabbing the rebound.

Glynn missed the front end of a one-and-one and the long rebound came out to Miller breaking down the left side. WOU's Kyle Long, however, grabbed him to prevent a shot.

It was only WOU's fifth team foul of the half and CWU had to take the ball out of bounds with less than two seconds remaining. The Wolves then intentionally took their sixth foul with 0.7 seconds left.

On the next inbounds which was a catch-and-shoot situation, Central's only real option was a lob to Chris Sprinker, who already had 21 points and 10 rebounds.

But the ball went out-of-bounds and after a quick foul, WOU's Matt Schmidt hit two free throws to establish the final three-point margin.

Wheadon finished with 18 points to lead six different Western Oregon players in double figures. The Wolves also got 13 points and 11 rebounds from Myles, 12 points from Glynn, 11 from Long and 10 each from Schmidt and Nelson.

In addition to Sprinker's 21, the Wildcats who are 4-4 on neutral courts in addition to their 3-1 away record, also got 21 points from Tyler and 12 from Jon Clift.

Sprinker also blocked six shots as the Wildcats rejected 11 Western Oregon attempts in the closely contested game that was played without either team managing a double-digit lead.

In the first half, WOU led by as many as eight after trailing early by six. The Wolves were ahead most of the second half by as many as nine before CWU used a 10-0 run to go ahead 72-67 on a three-pointer by Clift with1:51 remaining.

For the game, CWU outshot Western Oregon 44.3 to 36.5 percent, but were outrebounded 51-42 though the 'Cats did control the backboards 19-17 in the second half (9-3 off the offensive glass). Myles finished the contest with a game-high six offensive boards.

Western Oregon, which held CWU leading scorer JC Cook to four points, snapped a eight-game losing streak to the Wildcats with the victory. Cook was just two of 12 from the floor.

Alaska Anchorage 56, Alaska Fairbanks 42

Brandon Walker scored 20 points and Alaska Anchorage used its best defensive effort ever against rival Alaska Fairbanks to post a 56-42 victory at the Patty Center.

The Seawolves (13-6, 4-4) also got 11 points from guard Donnie Lao as they snapped a three-game losing streak and evened their GNAC record at the midway point of the schedule.

UAA – ranked No. 8 in the NCAA Div. II West Region – plays five of its final eight remaining regular-season contests at home.

Alaska Fairbanks (6-12, 1-8) was led by forward Nashorn Maynard with 13 points, but the Nanooks shot just 32 percent from the field and 12 percent on three-pointers. UAF's previous low point total in 86 all-time games UAA against came in a 96-45 loss on Feb. 24, 2001.

Despite entering the game with seven straight wins over UAF, the Seawolves fell behind 14-2 early before regaining their composure. Lao drained a three-pointer to even the game at 18-18, and Walker then led a UAA run that produced a 29-20 lead with 19 minutes remaining.

The Seawolves used a 40-31 rebounding advantage to keep the Nanooks at bay in the second half, keeping the game a double-digit affair for the final 14:26.

Walker was easily the offensive star of the game, sinking five of nine shots from the field and nine of 10 at the free throw line. He also tied with teammate Nick Pacitti and UAF's Joe Powell for game-high rebounding honors with eight.

Lao shot three of seven from long range and sank both of his free throws to improve his season average to .943 at the charity stripe. Pacitti added eight points and a block off the bench.

Western Washington 88, Saint Martin's 68

Forward Rory Blanche came off the bench and hit his first nine shots from the field in scoring a team-high 20 points as Western Washington defeated Saint Martin's at Sam Carver Gymnasium.

The win was the 21st in 24 starts for the Vikings, while the Saints (11-9, 1-8) lost for the eighth straight time since beating WWU 94-86 in triple overtime at Lacey on Jan. 7.

Blanche entered the game midway through the first half and poured in 16 points by halftime, helping the Vikings pull away from an 18-18 tie with 9:33 left in the period to open up a 43-36 lead at halftime. 

Blanche was seven of seven from the field in the half and also converted both his free throw attempts.

Saint Martin's opened the second half with a 9-2 run to pull within a point (45-44) with 16:12 to play, but the Vikings ran off the next seven points, as guard Morris Anderson drove for a layup, fed Andrew Ready for another and then hit a three-pointer, giving WWU a 52-44 advantage with 14:25 left.

The Saints never got closer than six points after that, and the margin was never less than 16 points in the final four minutes.

Forward Derrick Webb had 19 points for the Vikings, who won for the fifth straight time in improving to 11-1 at home.

Anderson had 15 points, nine assists and six rebounds, and Ready added 11 points.  The Vikings shot 62.7 percent (37-59) from the field, their second-best mark of the season.

Forward Blake Poole led the Saints with 22 points and 13 rebounds, recording his league-best 13th double-double of the season.

Jared Howard scored 15 points, center Jeremy Green had 12 and guard Galen Squires added 10.

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