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BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Lucas Alves’ 20-point, 12-rebound double-double led sixth-seeded BYU-Hawaii to a 76-72 win over No. 3 seed Seattle Pacific on Friday in an NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament first-round game at Carver Gymnasium.
Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion SPU, which was making its sixth straight postseason appearance, saw its season end with 22-6 record. The 18th-ranked Falcons lost their final three games, including a pair of setbacks last week in Alaska, after losing just three times in their first 25 outings.
One of the notable early-season victories for SPU was a 78-72 triumph over then top-ranked BYU-Hawaii on Dec. 5 in Seattle.
Alves was injured and did not participate in that first meeting against the Falcons. The Seasiders played their first eight games without the 6-foot-9 center, who was the 2009 national player of the year. Alves made his presence felt immediately on Friday, scoring six of his team’s first eight points inside the opening four minutes.
BYU-Hawaii never led in this year’s first clash, but had the upper hand on the scoreboard for the majority of the playoff game.
SPU managed to tie the game on three occasions in the second half, the last time at 51-51 on a pair of Jake Anderson free throws with 11:16 left to play. The Seasiders answered with a free throw from Anthony Reilly and layup by Cory Chase to capture the lead for good.
Chris Banchero drew the Falcons within 61-59 on a 3-pointer with 5:46 remaining, but BYU responded with six straight points en route to a 9-1 run.
The Seasiders owned their largest lead at 71-60 with 1:15 left to play. They missed five of six free throws, enabling SPU to draw within 74-72 on two Banchero charity shots with 6.2 seconds on the clock.
Reilly was fouled and converted two free throws with three seconds left to secure the win.
Banchero scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the second half for SPU. The 6-foot-1 point guard from Seattle’s O’Dea High School was the 2010 West Region and GNCA Player of the Year.
Junior Jeff Downs (Kirkland, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) added 12 points for the Falcons and senior Brandon Larrieu (Puyallup, Wash./Franklin Pierce HS) completed his collegiate career with 10 points.
Tsung-Hsien Chang tallied 15 points for BYU, which also got 12 from Rory Patterson and 11 from Garrett Sandberg.
The Seadsiders posted their 14th consecutive win, improving their record to 21-5. They will participate in Saturday’s West Regional semifinal against No. 2 seed Cal State San Bernardino, a 75-66 first-round victor over Humboldt State.
In a game that featured two of the nation’s best shooting teams, both squads had their worst shooting efforts of the season Friday afternoon.
BYU-Hawaii entered the contest shooting 52.2 percent, the highest figure among NCAA Division II teams. The Falcons limited BYU to 42.6-percent shooting (26 of 61), but could not capitalize while struggling to a 34.4-percent output (21 of 61). SPU was the nation’s third-most accurate team, shooting at a 51.5-percent clip entering the game.
The Falcons made just 5 of 25 shots from 3-point range and BYU was 3 of 14 on treys.
“We thought if we could control the tempo and keep the score in the 70s, we’d have a pretty good opportunity to win,” said first-year SPU coach Ryan Looney. “But unfortunately, we just didn’t shoot a good enough percentage.”
The teams traded leads early in the game and SPU took its final advantage at 12-11 on two free throws from Banchero with 11:39 left in the opening half.
The Seasiders then scored eight unanswered points to claim their largest first-half margin of 19-12 with 8:38 on the clock. Sandberg and Chase each made back-to-back baskets to fuel the surge. BYU led 35-30 at halftime.
The Falcons desperately missed their own 6-foot-9 center Rafael Moreira to counter Alves and Sandberg, his 6-foot-11 BYU teammate. Moreira has been sidelined since Jan 22 with a knee injury.
Sandberg had an 11-point, 10-rebound performance, the second double-double by a Seasider.
"We wanted to front their big guys because of the size advantage,” Looney explained. “We did that alright, but at the end of the day we struggled with our rebounding."
The Falcons were out-boarded 47-41 despite the team-high 12 rebounds of Anderson (Burlington, Wash./Burlington-Edison HS).
The SPU men participated in the NCAA Tournament for the 21st time. They advanced to the national semifinals in 2000 and 2006.
Looney became only coach to direct the Falcons into the playoffs during his inaugural season at SPU. He is also the only first-year coach to win a conference title with the Falcons.
"Overall this year has been a success,” Looney concluded. “We learned our lesson losing two games down the stretch and because of it we put ourselves in a tough situation playing in my opinion one of the toughest teams in the tournament."
NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Tournament
West Regional
Carver Gymnasium/Bellingham, Wash.
Friday, March 12, 2010
BYU-HAWAII 76, SEATTLE PACIFIC 72
BYU-HAWAII (21-5)
Whippy 0-5 0-0 0; Patterson 4-7 2-3 12; Alves 7-15 6-8 20; Buensuceso 2-5 0-0 5; Chang 6-17 3-8 15; Sandberg 4-6 3-9 11; Reilly 1-2 7-8 9; Chase 2-4 0-0 4; Gameren 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-61 21-36 76.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (22-6)
Anderson 2-6 3-4 7; Diederichs 2-10 2-3 6; Sweet 2-5 1-2 6; Banchero 5-16 11-13 22; Larrieu 5-9 0-0 10; Downs 4-12 2-2 12; Wardell 1-3 4-6 7; Morse 0-0 2-2 2; Campanaro 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-61 25-32 72.
BYU-Hawaii................... 35 41 - 76
Seattle Pacific............... 30 42 - 72
3-point goals--BYUH 3-14 (Patterson 2-5; Buensuceso 1-4; Reilly 0-1; Chase 0-1; Chang 0-2; Alves 0-1), SPU 5-25 (Downs 2-6; Wardell 1-2; Sweet 1-3; Banchero 1-4; Diederichs 0-4; Anderson 0-3; Larrieu 0-3).
Fouled out--BYUH-Whippy, SPU-Larrieu; Anderson.
Rebounds--BYUH 47 (Alves 12), SPU 41 (Anderson 12).
Assists--BYUH 14 (Buensuceso 5), SPU 9 (Diederichs 4).
Total fouls--BYUH 25, SPU 27. T
echnical fouls--BYUH-Buensuceso, SPU-None.
Att.-363.