Thursday, January 16, 2014

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Patrick Simon scored 29 points, including 20 during the first half, as Seattle Pacific ended Western Washington’s GNAC and school-record 36-game men’s basketball home winning streak with a 76-60 victory Wednesday night.

The win also moved the Falcons (14-4, 5-2)  into first place in the GNAC one-half game ahead of the Vikings (10-4, 4-2).

The two clubs are now among five GNAC teams all with two losses.  Three other teams have only three conference losses.

Three of the two-loss teams play tonight in Alaska as Alaska Fairbanks (8-5, 3-2) entertains Central Washington (7-6, 3-2) at The Patty Center and Northwest Nazarene (5-8, 3-2) faces Alaska Anchorage (9-7, 2-3) at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

Also on tonight’s men’s schedule is a game in Canada between Montana State Billings (7-7, 3-3) and Simon Fraser (7-6, 0-5).

There are four games tonight on the women’s slate including a contest in Lacey between first-place Saint Martin’s (10-4, 4-1) and Simon Fraser (9-4, 3-2).

Elswhere tonight Montana State Billings (10-5, 3-2) plays at Central Washington (6-8, 1-5), Northwest Nazarene (10-4, 3-3) hosts Seattle Pacific (9-4, 2-3) and Western Washington (7-6, 3-2) plays at Western Oregon (5-8, 2-3).

Western Washington, which is ranked 19th in the latest NABC national poll, hadn’t lost in Carver Gymnasium since Jan. 7, 2012, when Western Oregon prevailed  83-73. 

Of the 36 wins, 14 were by single-digit margins, including one-point decisions over Central Washington (86-85 on Jan. 10, 2013) and Western Oregon (67-66 on Dec. 5, 2013). One was in overtime (83-76 over Seattle Pacific on Feb. 2, 2013).

Nineteen of the victories were conference games (one short of WWU’s own GNAC record) and six were West Regional playoff contests, including two regional title games against Seattle Pacific (56-50 in 2012 and 62-58 in 2013).

SPU’s last win against Western Washington in Bellingham was 84-70 on Feb. 22, 2011.

Guard David Downs and forward Cory Hutsen scored 18 points apiece in Wednesday’s victory which was televised on ROOT SPORTS.

Anye Turner led Western Washington with 15 points and Austin Bragg added 14.  Bragg also had five rebounds.  Turner also had five rebounds and a team-high four steals.

Seattle Pacific, which hit its final eight shots of the first half (over a 7 minutes, 12 second stretch) had a 41-28 lead at halftime and kept it in double digits throughout the second half. The closest the Vikings came was 11 points after getting the initial basket of the half.

The Falcons were at least 13 points up the rest of the way and extended it to as many as 19 late in the game.

Simon, who came within four points of his career high of 33 set earlier this season against San Francisco State, hit 10 of 13 from the field. He was 5 of 6 from behind the 3-point line. At one point he made 10 consecutive field goals, five of them from three-point range.

Simon, who started his collegiate career at Washington State, also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds, as did guard Matt Borton. Borton also had four steals to tie Turner in that category.

Simon’s point output was more than double his season average of 12.8 points per game.