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BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Coach Ryan Looney is proud of his team's success. But he is not satisfied yet.
 
David Downs and Andy Poling combined for 40 points for third-seeded Seattle Pacific, which never trailed Saturday en route to an 80-67 win over 16th-ranked Alaska Anchorage in the West Region semifinals of the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament at Carver Gymnasium.
 
The Falcons (23-7) advance to the regional final for the first time since 2006 when they reached the Final Four. They meet host and top-seed Western Washington, a 74-65 semifinal winner over Chico State. The 12th-ranked Vikings won both regular-season meeting against SPU.
 
The Northwest rivals square off in the West Region championship game on Monday at 7 p.m. in Bellingham.
 
“Our guys recognize that we didn't just come here to win the first-round game or to just be competitive,” said Looney, SPU's third-year coach. “Every time we talked before coming here we said our goal was to still be playing when we get back home.”
 
A win over Western on Monday would send SPU back to Seattle with a trip to the Elite Eight in Highland Heights, Ky. on the itinerary for Mar. 21-24.
 


Anchorage, the region's No. 2 seed, had its season end with a 23-7 record. The Seawolves were the Great Northwest Athletic Conference runners-up.
 
Downs (Bellevue Christian HS) tallied seven of his game-high 21 points on free throws inside the final 2:17. The sophomore point guard converted 10 of 12 shots from the line.
 
Poling (Portland, Ore.) was also productive from the charity stripe, hitting 13 of 16 attempts. He scored 11 of his 19 points during the first half.
 
The 6-foot-11 junior center is holding off on any celebrations until Monday.
 
“Of course we're really excited, but we're trying to keep a level head about it. We came here to win three games and we're going to make sure we're prepared for Monday.”
 
Five points from Poling sparked a nine-point run that put the Falcons ahead 13-3 with 16:11 left in the first half. They hit 5 of their first 8 shots while forcing four turnovers in UAA's first five possessions.
 
The Seawolves trimmed the margin to 15-14 with their own nine-point surge, capped by a Travis Thompson layup with 12:44 on the clock.
 
Riley Carel turned back that rally with a 3-pointer on SPU's next possession.
 
Anchorage forged the game's only tie, at 25-25, on a put-back shot by Liam Gibcus with 3:34 left in the half. The Falcons answered with a hook shot from Poling and registered their next six points from the free throw line to claim a 33-30 halftime edge.
 
UAA's Taylor Rohde, the GNAC most valuable player, was held 15 points below his league-leading 20.3-point average with five points. The 6-foot-9 senior center was limited to only 11 minutes due to foul trouble the finally forced him to leave the game with 2:38 left to play.
 
Rohde drew his second foul just 2:58 into the contest and sat the remainder of the first half.
 
In the second half, Anchorage drew within 46-44 on a 3-pointer by Lonnie Ridgeway with 10:31 remaining. SPU scored six straight points on free throws to extend its lead to 52-44.
 
After making just 3 of their first 10 shots from 3-point range, the Falcons hit their next three treys to gain a commanding 63-51 advantage with 4:58 left to play. Jobi Wall made two of the 3-pointers and Riley Stockton nailed one.
 
Inside the final 2:38, SPU drained 10 consecutive free throws to finish hitting 15-of-17 during that game-ending span.
 
Stockton (Spokane, Wash./Ferris HS) poured in a career-high 14 points for the Falcons, including 2-of-3 shooting on treys.
 
“When you get to this point in the season you need individual players to step up. We talked about it in our week of practice before we even got here,” SPU coach Ryan Looney said. “In our first-round game we got it from Jake Anderson. Tonight we got it from Riley Stockton.”
 
In Friday's 70-68 first-round victory over Dixie State, Anderson came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points.
 
Ridgeway paced the Seawolves with 14 points and Travis Thompson added 13. Gibcus recorded his first double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Looney credited the Falcons defense on Anchorage shooters as the decisive factor.
 
“We wanted to make sure that we guarded the 3-point line extremely well. Taylor Rohde is a great player, the best individual player in our region. But we thought the thing that allows them to be successful is made threes from their perimeter players.
 
“You look at the boxscore and they only had four makes. For us that was a huge key.”
 
The Seawolves shot just 24 percent (4 of 17) on 3-pointers after entering the game making treys at a 42-percent clip. They hit half of their usual output of eight 3-pointers per game.
 
Saturday's outcome swung the season series in SPU's favor.  The GNAC rivals split the regular-season meetings, with the Falcons winning 85-51 on Jan. 7 in Seattle and UAA posting a 78-69 decision on Feb. 2 in Anchorage.
 
The SPU men are participating in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth consecutive season, the longest current streak among Division II teams. This is their 23rd playoff appearance overall.
 
NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
West Regional semifinal
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Carver Gymnasium/Bellingham, Wash.
 
(#3) Seattle Pacific 80, (#2) Alaska Anchorage 67
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC  (23-7)
Wall 2-4 2-2 8, Anderson 0-3 4-4 4, Poling 3-11 13-16 19, Downs 5-8 10-12 21, Stockton 4-6 4-4 14, Hutsen 0-2 5-6 5, Carel 1-4 2-3 5, Morse 2-3 0-0 4, Niang 0-1 0-0 0, Dorman 0-0 0-0 0, Todd 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-42 40-47 80.

ALASKA ANCHORAGE (23-7)
Lauwers 0-3 2-2 2, Fossman 3-8 2-2 9, Rohde 2-3 1-2 5, Thompson 4-9 3-4 13, White 1-4 2-2 4, Ridgeway 5-14 4-7 14, Gibcus 4-7 3-4 11, Demissie 2-6 1-1 6, Jackson 1-2 1-2 3, Blossom 0-0 0-0 0, Hearn 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 22-59 19-26 67.
 
Seattle Pacific..........   33   47  -  80
Alaska Anchorage.........   30   37  -  67

3-point goals--SPU 6-13 (Wall 2-3, Stockton 2-3, Carel 1-2, Downs 1-2, Anderson 0-2, Morse 0-1), UAA 4-17 (Thompson 2-5, Demissie 1-4, Fossman 1-5, Jackson 0-1, Lauwers 0-2). Fouled out--SPU-None, UAA-Demissie, Rohde. Rebounds--SPU 36 (Anderson 9), UAA 32 (Gibcus 10). Assists--SPU 6 (Downs 4), UAA 10 (White 4). Total fouls--SPU 23, UAA 30. Technical fouls--SPU-None, UAA-None. A-494.

Next Game
(#3) Seattle Pacific vs. (#1) Western Washington
Monday, Mar. 12, 7:00 p.m. PST
Carver Gymnasium/Bellingham, Wash.