After starting the 2024-2025 season on a five-game losing streak, the Seattle Pacific University men’s basketball team seemed to be turning things around with two wins against California State University, San Marcos 76-71 and Linfield University 81-62.
However, their two steps forward were followed by two steps back when the Falcons lost 82-68 to Point Loma Nazarene University on Friday, Nov. 29, and 90-67 to Vanguard University on Saturday, Nov. 30, in PLNU Thanksgiving Classic in San Diego, California.
Against PLNU, the Falcons jumped out to an early 10-5 lead in the fifth minute but fell behind 47-44 by halftime. Point Loma only conceded the lead once in the second half with a 51-51 tie in the 23rd minute.
Junior Trace forward Evans played a standout game against Point Loma, leading the Falcons in points, rebounds and assists. Evans scored a career-high 27 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists.
The Falcons entered Saturday’s game strong, taking an immediate 3-1 lead. Vanguard quickly tied 3-3 and soon pulled away 11-7. Seattle Pacific came close to regaining the lead but failed to do so before halftime.
Vanguard pulled too far ahead in the second half for the Falcons to reach. They ballooned their lead on a 13-6 run in the first six minutes of the half, ensuring the win by a wide margin.
Junior guard Owen Moriarty led the Falcons with 22 points, totaling 1,015 career points between his time at SPU and his single season at Bellevue College. He scored 596 points with Bellevue and 456 points since transferring to Seattle Pacific.
Reviewing the team’s performances, head coach Keffrey Fazio noticed a struggle to respond to adversity.
“All of our guys are capable of doing good things on the court,” Fazio said. “We have enough talent to win [but] when adversity comes, we don’t have a great response or take too long to respond. In basketball, that’s how you go from being down a couple of baskets [to] down 12 points, and then the leads are too hard to get back from that point.”
The team’s second-half execution is their prime obstacle to success.
“It’s been a theme throughout the season: we play pretty good the first half and then lose focus in the second half,” Moriarty said. “That’s where a lot of our disappointment is right now, and that’s where a lot of our focus is as well. We have enough desire to get the wins [but] can’t seem to figure out why we can’t get it done. It’s all there, just got to get back to the drawing board.”
The Falcons begin conference play on Saturday, Dec. 7, when they host Montana State University Billings at 2 p.m. inside Royal Brougham Pavilion.
