PORTLAND, Ore. -- Junior David Downs, who led Seattle Pacific to the men's basketball league tournament championship, received the 2012-13 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award on Tuesday.
 
He received six of the 10 first-place votes from the conference's athletic directors to outpoint Northwest Nazarene soccer player Stephen Marshall and win the award.
 
Downs is just the second basketball player in the 12-year history of the conference to win the award, joining Tony Binetti of Seattle Pacific who was the scholar-athlete winner during the 2005-06 season.
 
A product of Bellevue (Wash.) Christian High School, Downs compiled a 3.82 cumulative grade point average while majoring in accounting.
 
Earlier this year, he was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team for the second season in a row. Downs is the first men's basketball player in GNAC history to receive Academic All-America honors twice.  He has also twice been named to the GNAC Academic All-Conference team.
 
The 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 14.2 points and a league-leading 5.5 assists this past season, guiding the Falcons to a 27-4 record.  SPU's win total equaled its school record and its winning percentage (87.1) established a new single-season standard.
 
Downs was also named to the GNAC all-conference first team for the second year in a row and was selected the Most Valuable Player in the conference tournament after leading the Falcons to a 72-70 victory over regular-season champion Western Washington.
 
SPU finished the season ranked No. 2 nationally and advanced to the West Regional championship game for the second straight season.
 
By virtue of winning the conference academic award, Downs is now a candidate for the Conference Commissioners Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which will be selected this summer.