By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – The winning streak has reached six games for the surging Seattle Pacific men’s basketball team, which has climbed to third place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with three weeks left in the regular season.
 
The Falcons (13-11, 9-4 GNAC) knocked off Simon Fraser 86-78 and beat Western Washington 64-63 in a pair of tough road games last week and were selected as the GNAC Team of the Week. Now just two wins away from securing their ticket to the 2025 GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships, the Falcons are miles above their 2-10 start to the season. “We started with a lot of losses early, and we had to come together as a team to figure out what we wanted this season to be about,” said SPU head coach Keffrey Fazio who is now in his second season in charge of the program. “We spent a lot of time in late December leading into January working on ourselves. We dug deep, spent a lot of time talking about things and working on and off the court.”
 
After losses to Central Washington on Jan. 16 and to Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 18, the Falcons’ conference record sat at 3-4 as they faced an uphill battle to get back in contention for a conference tournament berth. The team has done nothing but win over the last three weeks, now sitting just one game behind first-place Central Washington in the win column of the conference standings. “Those are two of the top teams in the conference, and at the time we felt like we were finding something and learning a lot about ourselves even though we lost both games,” Fazio said reflecting on the losses three weeks ago. “We continued the process of attacking what we are trying to be about. We are just trying to find something sustainable that you can walk into any game with to give yourself a chance. That’s about trust, sacrifice and guys working hard for the next guy.”
 
SPU came out with its foot on the gas last week, jumping ahead to a 46-31 halftime lead at the West Gym against the Red Leafs. The Falcons held off a strong push by the hosts to claim the eight-point win, thanks in large part to a 31-point effort from Mason Landdeck. “Simon Fraser is a very challenging team to play against, and they are as talented and play as hard as anybody in our conference,” Fazio said. “We tried to play slow because that’s our style, but their energy on defense and offense at times forced us to play a little faster. We were able in the first half to score the ball, and in the second half we had to hang on. That game shows that in this conference, you have to find a way to hang on and win ugly on the road.”
 
The same, gutsy effort was tested even further in Saturday’s game, as the Falcons held their breath through the final buzzer of the one-point win over the Vikings. Grant Coleman knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with five seconds left on the clock, and the Falcons played just enough defense on WWU’s final possession to disrupt a would-be game winning shot that rattled off the mark. SPU led by as much as seven points early in the second half but watched as the Vikings wrestled back a four-point edge with less than two minutes to go. WWU managed just one point the rest of the game however, as the Falcons found a way to keep their winning streak alive. “Our gameplan gave us a chance to win, and I was proud of our guys for how they approached the game,” Fazio said. “We didn’t play our best game, but we knew that we couldn’t let down against them. They are infamous for this run they go on at home, and if you lose focus for a minute or two they will run away from you faster than anyone in the conference. We were able to get enough stops, and then we had to battle back at the end. You don’t win close games against good teams without total buy-in. Our guys really hung in together and different guys made different plays.”
 
Jaxon Nap led the way with 22 points and seven rebounds in the win over the Vikings, while Landdeck added 16 points and four assists. In his first year after transferring from University of Montana, Nap leads the GNAC with 9.5 rebounds per game while chipping in 11.4 points and starting all 24 games for the Falcons. Landdeck meanwhile adds 10.6 points per game and 2.4 assists per game. Owen Moriarty is the team’s leading scorer, ranking ninth in the conference with 15.1 points per game. Trace Evans is third in the GNAC in shooting at 65.7% from the field, and he is second on the team with 12.7 points per game.
 
Jonas LaTour (16 starts) and Henry Sandberg (15 starts) have been the other two Falcons to start more than half the games this season, with the former also averaging in double figures at 10.4 points per game. “I’m just proud that our guys have taken some guidance and made it theirs,” Fazio said on the team’s adjustment midway through its season. “They are the ones on the court finding different ways to win. A lot of November is figuring out who you are and what you can be, and you have to set the course. We have been lucky to have some success along that challenging path.”
 
The Falcons return to Brougham Pavilion this week for their final two home games of the 2024-25 campaign. First up for SPU will be the last team to beat them, as the Nighthawks (16-4, 9-3) come to town on Thursday night for a 7:30 p.m. (Pacific) tipoff. Central Washington (16-6, 10-2) will follow on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. (Pacific) start time. The Falcons’ four GNAC regular-season titles are second-most among all conference programs, as they find themselves in contention for their first title since the 2019-20 campaign. SPU also has the most conference tournament wins (four) of any GNAC school, as they inch closer to securing their seventh-straight championships berth.
 
“Our approach will remain on what we want the game to look like,” Fazio said on his team’s next opponents. “We have had success lately by focusing on us and trying to accomplish the things we want to accomplish throughout the game. When the game starts, you just have to navigate the variance that basketball brings. It will be another challenge, and hopefully our guys will grow and adapt again. We are looking forward to the opportunity to keep winning conference games, and we are just hunting for wins right now.”