Box Score

SEATTLE, Wash. – The Montana State University men's basketball team fell behind early and never fully recovered as they fell 78-70 on the road to the Falcons of Seattle Pacific University Saturday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.
 
The Yellowjacket men fall to 14-10 overall and 9-7 in the conference while the Falcons improve to 20-5 and 12-4 in GNAC action.
 
“I was extremely proud with how hard our guys fought tonight,” stated first-year head coach Jamie Stevens. “I thought both teams played really hard; unfortunately, Seattle Pacific just made more plays down the stretch than we did. We did fight though some adversity and that will make us better over the next two to three weeks. We just cannot dig ourselves a hole like we did against a team as good as SPU and expect to win.”
 
Despite falling behind early, MSUB was able to shoot 36.8% (25-68) from the field but only made seven of their 24 attempts from three-point range. The Yellowjackets made just 18 trips to the free throw line while sending the Falcons to the line 39 times including 30 in the second half.
 
Senior guard Antoine Proctor had a team-high 21 points, hitting seven of his 19 attempts from the field. The Washington, D.C. native had a team-high two three-pointers and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.
 
Fellow senior Robert Mayes had the game's only double-double. A native of Houston, Texas, Mayes had 14 points and a game-high 15 rebounds as he cleaned the offensive glass with 10 offensive boards.
 
SPU hit 46.8% (22-47) of their looks from the field but were just .222 from beyond the three-point arc as they hit just two treys. The Falcons were an impressive 32-39 from the free throw line in the win led by David Downs who went 14-14 from the charity stripe. Downs ended the night with 24 total points.
 
Behind Downs, Andy Poling and Scott Morse ended the night with 17 and 10 points respectively with six rebounds each. Poling went 5-8 from the field while Morse hit seven of his eight attempts from the charity stripe.
 
The Falcons went on a 23-2 run over the first nine minutes of the game before the Yellowjackets were able to slowly start working their way back into the game. MSUB ended the first half down by just nine points (34-25) taking a little momentum into the locker room after Cameron Cussworth drained a three with four seconds remaining in the half.
 
Proctor kept the momentum in favor of the Yellowjackets out of the intermission when he drained one of his two threes 12 seconds into the second half, and MSUB would attempt to keep the game close over the closing minutes of the game.
 
The Yellowjackets pulled within one point when Proctor broke free for a fast-break layup with just over four minutes remaining, but that would be as close as MSUB would pull.
 
The two squads appeared to be fairly evenly matched under the hoop as SPU barely out-scored MSUB 34-32 in regards to points in the paint, but 33 points off the bench for the Falcons compared to 17 by the Yellowjackets proved to be the difference maker in the game.
 
The Yellowjackets will remain on the road for their final two games of the season, first traveling to Simon Fraser University on Thursday, Feb. 23. MSUB will then head to Washington to take on the nationally-ranked Western Washington University Vikings on Saturday, Feb. 25 to end their season.