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SEATTLE – The Falcons face a frenetic schedule and Coach Ryan Looney thinks they are fortunate because of it.
 
Mitch Penner's 22-point, eight-rebound performance Thursday lifted the Seattle Pacific men to a 75-62 victory over Central Washington in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference basketball clash at Brougham Pavilion.
 
The Falcons (11-4) won their second straight game to forge a winning, 4-3, league ledger. They defeated CWU for the 10th time in the last 12 meetings.
 
That marked the first of four SPU games during an eight-day span. They host Northwest Nazarene on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. and Saint Martin's on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before visiting Montana State Billings next Thursday.
 
"We're excited right now because we get to play a lot of games in a short amount of time," Looney said. "We feel like if we can get ourselves on a little bit of a roll it can maybe springboard us to somewhere special."
 
Thursday's result was a great way to start that strenuous slate.


 
Penner hit 7 of 15 shots from the field, including 2 of 3 treys. The senior forward from Seattle's Kennedy High School also converted 6 of 10 free throws. His eight boards paced SPU's 40-32 rebounding lead.
 
"Mitch Penner struggled from the floor early, but found ways to still get himself to the free throw line and be productive for us on the offensive end," Looney described.
 
SPU won despite having its 7-foot starting center limited to 13 minutes due to fouls. He was eventually disqualified with 29 seconds left in the game.
 
"Gilles Dierickx really struggled with foul trouble tonight and didn't finish some balls in the post, so it was nice to see Joe Rasmussen come off the bench and step up in that spot."
 
Rasmussen, a reserve center, scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half and Brendan Carroll contributed 14 points for the Falcons.
 
Devin Matthews tallied 17 points to lead the Wildcats, who also got 12 from Gary Jacobs and 10 from Joseph Stroud.
 
Central (9-3) is also 4-3 in GNAC play and tied for fifth place after having its five-game winning streak stopped.
 
"We're excited right now any time we can win a conference game, especially one against a team that was playing well and was ahead of us in the standings," said Looney, who pointed to his team's success in areas other than scoring that sparked the win.
 
"I'm really proud of our guys rebounding effort tonight on both ends of the floor. And we did a little better job taking care of the ball against some pressure than maybe we did earlier in the year."
 
The teams had nearly identical success from the field with Central shooting 42.1 percent (24 of 57) and the Falcons at 41.8 percent (23 of 55). The difference was the free throw line where SPU (25 of 36) outscored its guests (12 of 17) by 13 points.
 
"On a night where neither team shot the ball necessarily all that well, our guys were able to find a way to win because of the margins," Looney explained. "We were plus eight on the glass on them and then won the turnover margin as well, plus four.
 
"We also got to the line almost 20 more times than they did."
 
Both teams started slow with SPU hitting just 1 of its first 5 shots and Central was 1-for-4 with two turnovers during its initial seven possessions.
 
The game was tied twice early on, but the Falcons never trailed. They broke the final, 5-5, deadlock with a 9-2 run fueled by five points from Rasmussen. That provided a 14-7 advantage with 11:48 left in the first half.
 
The teams traded points the rest of the period that ended with SPU ahead 35-27.

 

Penner scored back-to-back baskets for the Falcons, who tallied the opening six points after halftime to surge to a 41-27 lead.
 
The Wildcats responded with successive scores from Matthews that ignited a 12-4 spree and brought them within 45-39.
 
The visitors cut their deficit to 55-51 with 6:55 remaining when Matthews netted five unanswered points.
 
SPU answered that final challenge with 11 consecutive points, five of them from Penner, to claim an insurmountable 66-51 lead with 2:40 to play.
 
The defense held Central without a point in six straight possessions, forcing two turnovers and four missed shots during that 4-minute, 27-second span.
 
Saturday's game home game against Northwest Nazarene tips off at 5:15 p.m. as the opener of a Brougham Pavilion doubleheader with the women.
 
The three-game homestand concludes with a rare Tuesday game. The Falcons clash with Saint Martin's at 7 p.m.
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.

at Seattle Pacific 75, Central Washington 62

CENTRAL WASHINGTON (9-4, 4-3 GNAC)
Dawn 1-4 0-0 3, Matthews 6-9 5-8 17, Stroud 5-9 0-1 10, Roppo 1-5 0-0 2, Jacobs 6-16 0-0 12, Ladd 1-7 7-8 9, Garret 2-3 0-0 4, Bryant 1-1 0-0 3, Ross 1-2 0-0 2, Rademacher 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 12-17 62.

SEATTLE PACIFIC (11-4, 4-3 GNAC)
Penner 7-15 6-10 22, Swanson 1-5 1-2 3, Dierickx 1-7 2-2 4, Leavitt 1-4 6-8 8, Carroll 5-7 3-5 14, Rasmussen 6-10 4-6 16, Wooten 1-3 0-0 3, Simpson 1-3 1-1 3, Parker 0-0 2-2 2, Streufert 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 25-36 75.

Central Washington............  27   35   -  62
Seattle Pacific...............  35   40   -  75

3-point goals--CWU 2-15 (Bryant 1-1, Dawn 1-4, Ladd 0-3, Garret 0-1, Roppo 0-2, Rademacher 0-1, Jacobs 0-2, Matthews 0-1), SPU 4-14 (Penner 2-3, Carroll 1-1, Wooten 1-2, Swanson 0-2, Simpson 0-2, Leavitt 0-1, Rasmussen 0-3). Fouled out--CWU-Stroud, SPU-Dierickx. Rebounds--CWU 32 (Dawn 8), SPU 40 (Penner 8). Assists--CWU 8 (Ladd, Matthews 3), SPU 8 (Carroll 3). Total fouls--CWU 28, SPU 19. Technical fouls--CWU-None, SPU-None. Att-721.


Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Jan. 16, 5:15 p.m. PST
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.