• Game Recap & Stats

HAYWARD, Calif. – Coach Ryan Looney is already looking ahead to Christmas … and he knows exactly what he wants for a gift.

The 12th-ranked Seattle Pacific men's basketball team won 89-60 at Cal State East Bay on Saturday, improving its record to 7-0.

The Falcons have one more outing before Christmas, a home game against Grand Canyon on Saturday, Dec. 19. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Brougham Pavilion on the SPU campus.

“We've got ourselves in a pretty special situation,” said Looney, in his first season at SPU after five years at Eastern Oregon. “This is my sixth year being a head coach and none of my teams have ever been undefeated at Christmas. We're just going to try to stay focused for another seven days and try to give each other the best Christmas present possible.”

The Falcons are off to their best start in 16 years. The 1993-94 SPU squad reeled off 11 consecutive wins to start the season.

CSU East Bay tried a different defensive tactic than the Falcons' previous six opponents. The Pioneers implemented a zone defense against SPU, which entered the game shooting 32 percent from beyond the arc (34 of 105).

Chris Banchero immediately shot holes in that strategy.

Banchero hit four 3-pointers inside the opening five minutes en route to a 20-point performance. He netted the game's first two baskets, both 3-pointers. He scored 39 seconds into the contest and again 35 seconds later to give the Falcons the lead for good.

“Cal State East Bay tried to make us play a little bit different than we normally do. They zoned us for probably the first 35 minutes of the game and nobody has done that so far,” Looney described. “It was good to see us have to play on offense a little bit different and still get the same results.”

By the 15:34 mark, when Banchero made his fourth shot without a miss, SPU led 14-6. He finished with 16 first-half points for the Falcons, who steadily stretched the margin to 49-31 by halftime.

Banchero entered the game having made seven 3-pointers in 18 attempts during the first six games. He hit 4 of 7 treys Saturday, all of them during the opening 4:26.

“They just stayed in the zone,” said Looney. “Their game plan forced us to have to play differently and the early shots by Chris just propelled the rest of the guys a little bit. He wasn't forcing anything. Just early in the game, for whatever reason, he happened to be the guy that was left open when their zone broke down.”

The Falcons shot 60 percent in the first half, hitting 15 of 25 shots from the field, including 8 of 14 treys.

Banchero needed just four second-half points to register his fifth 20-point effort of the season. The 6-foot-1 junior point guard from Seattle's O'Dea High School leads SPU with 17.6 points per game.

Senior post Rafael Moreira (Brasilia, Brazil) scored 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting for the Falcons, who also got 12 from junior Ryan Sweet (Port Orchard, Wash./South Kitsap HS).

Mark Samuels tallied 16 points to lead the Pioneers and Donavon Jackson added 10.

The Falcons opened the second half with an 18-7 run, featuring points from six different players, to put the game away.

SPU shot 56 percent for the game (31 of 55), while limiting the Pioneers to 40 percent (23 of 58).

Looney was especially pleased with the win because of the distractions his student-athletes averted following a week of final exams. Saturday was the Falcons first game since their 78-72 upset of top-ranked BYU-Hawaii on Dec. 5 in Seattle.

“This was a huge win for us for a couple reasons. First, it was against an in region opponent. We had to play on the road directly after beating the No. 1-ranked team in the country and after finals. So, to be in the situation we were at on the road, to leave with a win of any kind is probably good.”

Looney is the first coach to win his first seven games on the SPU sidelines. No other Falcons coach opened his SPU tenure with more than three victories.

CSU East Bay, which dropped to 2-4, is the Falcons' fourth victim from the California Collegiate Athletic Association. SPU defeated Cal State Monterey Bay, Sonoma State and Chico State earlier this season.