February 27, 2010
Lacey, WA – Saint Martin’s couldn’t stop a hot shooting Seattle Pacific as the Saints fell 89-76 in their final Great Northwest Athletic Conference home game of the season on Saturday night at the Marcus Pavilion.
The Saints grabbed the early lead going up by as much as eight on a layup by Blake Poole at the 14:06 mark. But SPU rallied with an 11-2 run to take an 18-17 lead. With the score tied 19-19 Jeff Downs sank three free throws to give the Falcons the lead for good.
After going into the break up 41-35, Seattle Pacific turned it on in the second half. With 8:06 to play and the score 70-61 the Falcons used an 11-1 run to open up a 19 point advantage. The Saints would cut the deficit back to nine points but that was as close as they would get.
“We’ve made a lot of good strides,” said head coach Keith Cooper. “We have improved a lot to be able to play a team that good close for that long.”
Jeremy Green led the Saints with 25 points. Poole finished with another double-double posting 22 points and 10 rebounds while Roger O’Neill added 10 points.
Brady Bomber dished out seven assists for the Saints who had 20 assists and just nine turnovers as a team.
Chris Banchero had 19 points for the ninth ranked Falcons with Jeff Downs and Adam Wardell adding 17 and 14 respectively.
Neither team found their rhythm from behind the arc with both shooting just 38 percent. SPU did damage at the free throw line. They were 26 of 37 while the Saints went to the line just 12 times sinking six of them.
“It was a physical game; it’s tough to give another team 25 more free throws,” said Cooper. “We played well together and gave them a good run for their money. We’ve got two more games to get better and the future here never looked brighter.”
The Saints will finish their season on the road next week with games at Western Oregon and Central Washington.