After four weeks of non-conference tournaments, Seattle Pacific’s men’s basketball team played its first games of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference on Saturday, Dec. 7.
The Falcons started their conference with an 88-83 loss to the Montana State University Billings Yellowjackets.
Seattle Pacific started with a 21-10 lead. In the ninth minute, MSUB’s defense locked up the Falcons enough for the Yellowjackets to find a 29-29 tie. The score was tied at 36-36 at halftime.
The Falcons regained the lead in the second half 48-43. Montana State Billings tues the score again 59-59 in the 43rd minute. The Yellowjackets were close to an immediate win before SPU sent the game into overtime on a 71-71 tie.
Seattle Pacific’s slow start in the overtime round set the stage for the Yellowjackets’ win.
The top scorer was junior guard Owen Moriarty, who exited Saturday’s game with a new career-high of 29 points. Moriarty has been an offensive asset, scoring 20 or more points in five of the last six games. Junior guard Jaxon Nap had 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, achieving his first double-double statistic with the Falcons.
Head coach Keffrey Fazio was proud of the team for fighting until the end.
“The guys did really well,” Fazio said. “Winning is hard, and sometimes, the margin is really small, and a few players here and there might have been a different outcome. We challenged our guys this week to embrace the smaller things, play for each other, and for the most part, we did a pretty good job of that, for the game today.”
The Falcons return to non-conference play for the rest of December. They will use the break from conference play as an opportunity to take a breath and focus on what they can improve on moving forward.
“We’re getting closer to understanding how this team can win and what this team cannot do,” Fazio said. “We’ve played a lot of games [and] done a lot of learning on the court. Sometimes, you need time in the practice gym to learn to practice. There’ll be a lot of time for us to focus on ourselves, and to continue to improve.”
Seattle Pacific is now eighth in the GNAC with a 0-1 conference record and 2-9 overall. The Falcons return home to Royal Brougham Pavilion on Saturday, Dec. 14, against California State University, East Bay at 5 p.m.
