Friday, March 13, 2015
NCAA West Regional (March 13-16 at Azusa, Calif.): Friday - #3 Cal Baptist (24-6) vs. #6 Chico State (22-7), noon; #2 BYU-Hawaii (24-5) vs. #7 Seattle Pacific (23-7), 2:30 p.m.; #4 Dixie State (20-7) vs. #5 Cal Poly Pomona (23-6), 5 p.m.; #1 Azusa Pacific (24-5) vs. #8 Western Oregon (23-6), 7:30 p.m. Saturday - Semifinals at 5 and 7:30 p.m. Monday - Championship game at 7 p.m.
SPU, WOU Look To Reverse Regular-Season Results
PORTLAND, Ore. – GNAC tournament champion Seattle Pacific opens the 2015 NCAA Division II West Regional Friday at 2:30 p.m. against BYU-Hawaii at Azusa, Calif.
The opening round will also feature a 7:30 p.m. game between host and top-seed Azusa Pacific and GNAC regular-season champion Western Oregon.
The winner of the tournament advances to the NCAA Elite Eight March 25-28 at the Ford Center at Evansville, Indiana. The championship game will be televised by CBS.
Both GNAC games will be the second this season between the respective teams.
BYU-Hawaii defeated the Falcons 87-74 on Nov. 22 at Laie, Hawaii.
The Seasiders are 4-0 against GNAC teams this season. They also defeated Central Washington at Laie and Alaska Anchorage and Alaska at Anchorage.
In the first game between the two schools, GNAC Tournament MVP Cory Hutsen led SPU with 23 points while Scott Friel paced the Seasiders with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
The first game was not typical of SPU’s season as the Falcons were outrebounded (27-25) for the only time this season. SPU leads Division II in rebounding margin outrebounding its opponents by a margin of 13.3 per game.
The Falcons lead the GNAC in field goal percentage defense this season, allowing its opponents to shoot just 41.8 percent.
The PacWest school, however, shot 62.5 percentage, making 35 of 56 shots. Only two other SPU opponents shot 50 percent or better – Academy of Art on Nov. 14 (50.0) and Western Washington on Feb. 5 (55.8).
SPU, which has won seven straight games, lost both of those contests.
The Falcons are 2-2 against West Region tournament teams, defeating Dixie State 76-66 on Dec. 17 at Las Vegas and splitting two games with Western Oregon, winning at Brougham Pavilion 83-76 on Jan. 1 and losing 94-84 in two overtimes at Monmouth on Jan. 31.
Western Oregon is also 2-2 against tournament teams. In addition to its two contests with SPU, the Wolves lost 81-74 at home on Nov. 21 to Azusa Pacific and defeated Dixie State 67-52 on Nov. 25 at St. George, Utah.
In the loss to APU, WOU shot just 40.6 percent (28-of-69) and were outrebounded 45-35. Troy Leaf led APU with 33 points, making 10 of 15 shots including 5-of-8 three-pointers.
GNAC regular-season MVP Andy Avgi led WOU with 18 points and also had six rebounds and four steals.
TOURNAMENT NOTABLES: Seattle Pacific is making its 25th NCAA appearance and has an all-time record of 29-24. It’s finished third twice – losing in the semifinals in both 2000 and 2006. BYU Hawaii will be playing in its 11th tournament and has a 12-10 record. The Seasiders were the national runner-ups in 2011 … Both Western Oregon and Azusa Pacific are playing in their first NCAA tournaments. This is APU’s first season of NCAA playoff eligibility after transitioning from the NAIA … GNAC teams were 15-27 against West Region teams this winter, including 13-20 against the PacWest and 2-7 against the CCAA … Conference teams were 2-9 against teams that are competing this week in the West Regional – 2-2 against Dixie State, 0-4 against BYU-Hawaii, 0-2 against Azusa Pacific and 0-1 against Chico State. No GNAC team played either Cal Baptist or Cal Poly Pomona.
Four Qualifiers Ranked in NABC Poll
Four West Region tournament teams are ranked in this week’s NABC national poll.
Region top-seed Azusa Pacific is ranked 14th, No. 2 seed BYU-Hawaii is ranked 16th, third-seed California Baptist is ranked 21st and fifth-seed Cal Poly Pomona is ranked 24th.
Western Oregon (27th overall), Seattle Pacific (31st), Chico State (37th) and Dixie State (39th) are among “others receiving votes.
Following are the final NCAA and D2SIDA regional polls. The official NCAA poll is taken prior to the conference tournaments and doesn’t necessarily reflect the seedings for the regional tournament.
NCAA West Region (Final) – 1. Azusa Pacific; 2. California Baptist; 3. Dixie State; 4. BYU-Hawaii; 5. Chico State; 6. Cal Poly Pomona; 7. Western Oregon; 8. Point Loma; 9. Humboldt State; 10. Seattle Pacific. (Note: Final rankings taken prior to finial weekend and don’t necessarily reflect regional seedings).
D2SIDA West Regional Poll (Final) – 1. BYU-Hawaii; 2. Azusa Pacific; 3. California Baptist; 4. Cal Poly Pomona; 5. Dixie State; 6. Chico State; 7. Seattle Pacific; 8. Western Oregon; 9. Humboldt State and Point Loma.
SPU’s Hutsen Sets Three Records in Earning MVP
Corey Hutsen set GNAC tournament single-game records for points (34), field goals made (15) and field goal attempts (23) in leading Seattle Pacific to a 81-68 win over Western Washington in last Saturday’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship game at Billings.
Two individual records were also tied in the tournament as Dom Williams of Central Washington, who scored 29 points in a 79-73 loss to Northwest Nazarene, tied the record for most three-point attempts (12) and Alex Birketoft of Northwest Nazarene tied the record for most blocks (4) in the same game.
Western Washington set a tournament record for highest shooting percentage making 61.1 percent of its shots (33-of-54) in its semifinal victory over Western Oregon Friday.
Seattle Pacific launched 26 three-point attempts in its semifinal game against Northwest Nazarene to tie the tournament record. It’s the fifth time a team has taken 26 treys.
Hutsen and SPU’s Riley Stockton each tied the GNAC career record for games played increasing their totals to 124 each.
They are the third and fourth players in GNACC history to reach that number joining Chris Mitchell of Western Washington (2008-14) and David Downs of Seattle Pacific (2010-14).
Seattle Pacific Ranked in 5 Categories; WOU in 4
Seattle Pacific takes a Top 30 national ranking in five categories into this week’s West Regional tournament, including its No. 1 ranking in rebounding (13.3).
The Falcons are also ranked eighth in scoring margin (15.5), ninth in field goal percentage (50.4), 10th in 3-point defense (31.0) and 17th in scoring defense (63.5).
Western Oregon is 17th in steals (9.4), 27th in assist/turnover ratio (1.34) and turnover margin (3.6) and 29th in fewest turnovers (11.4).
Simon Fraser finished its campaign ranked No. 1 in Division II in scoring (104.2), three-pointers (12.4), steals (12.7) and turnover margin (8.0).
Western Washington is ranked fifth in blocked shots (5.3). Alaska Anchorage has two Top 10 ranks – seventh in assists (18.1) and eighth in free throw percentage (77.0).
In individual statistics, WOU’s Julian Nichols is the highest ranked GNAC player. He ranks fifth in assist/turnover ratio (3.33).
Anye Turner of Western Washington ranks seventh in blocked shots (2.80). He had a string of 28 consecutive games with a block end in WWU’s first game at the GNAC tournament.
Sango Niang of Simon Fraser ranks eighth in assists (6.4) and Joseph Stroud is ninth in blocked shots (2.65).
Stroud was the nation leader in field goal percentage last week, but fell out of the rankings as he missed by one field goal made to have the minimum number made to qualify.
Stroud ended his season making 129 of 183 for a 70.5 percentage to lead the GNAC. However, the NCAA national standard is five made per game (for Stroud who played 26 games that would be 130).
By The Numbers
Double-Doubles: 9 – Kevin Rima, NNU. 6 – Anye Turner, WWU; Matt Borton, SPU. 5 - Mitch Penner, SPU. 4 - Sango Niang, SFU; 3 - Erik Kinney, NNU; Lewis Thomas, WOU; Riley Stockton, SPU. 2 – Kalidou Diouf, UAA; Roderick Evans-Taylor, SFU; Austin Hudson, MSUB; Jeffrey Parker, WWU; Mac Johnson, WWU; Victor Ieronymides, SMU; Anthony Reese, UAF. 1 – 19 with.
30-Point Games: 3 - Dom Williams, CWU. 2 – Antoine Hosley, MSUB; Sango Niang, SFU; Travis Thompson, UAA; Jeffrey Parker, WWU. 1 – 14 with.
20-Point Games: 17 – Sango Niang, SFU. 13 - Dom Williams, CWU. 12 - Cory Hutsen, SPU. 11 - Travis Thompson, UAA; Andy Avgi, WOU. 9 - Jeffrey Parker, WWU. 8 - Brian McGill, UAA. 7 – Justin Cole, SFU; Jaamon Echols, WWU. 6 - Ashton Edwards, UAF; Joey Schreiber, WWU. 5 - Ricardo Maxwell, WWU; Marc Matthews, MSUB.
10-Rebound Games: 9 – Kevin Rima, NNU. 7 – Anye Turner, WWU; Matt Borton, SPU. 6 - Lewis Thomas, WOU; Mitch Penner, SPU. 5 - Tyler Nelson, MSUB. 4 – Riley Stockton, SPU. 3 – Erik Kinney, NNU; Mac Johnson, WWU; Anthony Reese, UAF. 2 – 10 with.
10-Assist Games: 4 – Sango Niang, SFU. 2 – Julian Nichols, WOU. 1 – Harris Javier, WWU; Dom Williams, CWU; Devin Matthews, CWU; Ricardo Maxwell, WWU; Brian McGill, UAA; Dom Williams, CWU.
2014-15 ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS: Seattle Pacific (Nov. 14-15) – Cory Hutson, SPU; Mitch Penner, SPU; Jordan Russell, CWU; Joseph Stroud, CWU. Dominican (Nov. 14-15) – Antoine Hosley, MSUB. Sonoma State (Nov. 14-15) – Brian McGill, UAA. Western Washington (Nov. 14-15) – Jeffrey Parker, WWU (MVP); Anye Turner, WWU; Joey Schreiber, WWU; Erik Kinney, NNU. Alaska (Nov. 20-22) – Ruben Silvas, Alaska. WOU (Nov. 21-22) – Trey Ingram, SMU; Lewis Thomas, WOU. Great Alaska Shootout (Nov. 26-29) – Travis Thompson, UAA*. (*UAA played Shootout as exhibition). UAA Seawolf Jamboree (Dec. 12-13) – Kalidou Diouf, UAA; Travis Thompson, UAA. GNAC Championships (March 5-7) – Cory Hutson, SPU (MVP).
ALL-REGION TEAMS: Capital One Academic All-District - Travis Thompson, UAA (Civil Engineering, 3.47, Sr., Anchorage, AK); Lee Bailey, Chaminade (Communications, Sr., 3.39, Detroit, MI); Matt Hayes, Dominican (Chemistry, 3.57, Jr., Yuba City, CA); Adam Kile, UCSD (Bio-Engineering, So., 4.00, Anchorage, AK); Evan Zeller, CSU Monterey Bay (Business Administration, So., 3.53. Mission Viejo, CA).
ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS: Capital One Academic – 3rd Team - Travis Thompson, UAA (Civil Engineering, 3.47, Sr., Anchorage, AK).
GNAC Tournament Notes
Alaska Anchorage: Derrick Fain had 17 points, making four of nine three-point shots in UAA’s opening round loss to Western Washington. The Seawolves were outshot by the Vikings 52.5 percent to 35.5 percent.
Central Washington: Dom Williams hit 5-of-12 three-point shots and scored 29 points in Central’s loss to Northwest Nazarene, just missing his fourth 30-point game of the season.
Northwest Nazarene: Erik Kinney led the Crusaders with 33 points and 11 rebounds as NNU split its two tournament games. Mike Wright had 26 points, including 20 in its first-round win over Central Washington.
Seattle Pacific: MVP Cory Hutsen had 41 points and nine rebounds in the Falcons’ two victories. Mitch Penner added 24 points and 15 rebounds as SPU claimed its third straight GNAC title. Riley Stockton had 22 points and eight assists.
Western Oregon: Andy Avgi scored 29 points, making 11 of 17 shots in the Wolves’ semifinal loss to Western Washington. WOU had just three turnovers in the game and the two teams combined for just 12. WOU’s total matched the lowest ever in a GNAC game against a GNAC opponent. It’s now been done four times.
Western Washington: Joey Schreiber scored a tournament high 51 points, making 18 of 32 shots, including 8-of-16 from the arc. Mac Johnson led the Vikings with 22 rebounds WWU shot 52.1 percent in its three games, running its win streak to 10 before losing in the championship game.