SEATTLE – Matching a feat they accomplished the last time the two teams met, Cory Hutsen and Matt Borton were the top scorers for the Seattle Pacific Falcons with 20 points apiece as the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team fell 81-59 Saturday afternoon in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at Royal Brougham Pavilion televised on ROOT SPORTS.
 
Reaching the 20-point plateau for the third game in-a-row was Marc Matthews, who finished with a game-high 21 on 8 of 17 shooting for the Yellowjackets. The sophomore was named the St. Vincent Healthcare Player of the Game, converting a pair of 3-pointers and all three of his free throws while adding an assist.
 
Senior Tyler Nelson tied Emmanuel Johnson for the team high in rebounds with five, and the latter also finished in double digits with 10 points. Senior Antoine Hosley had 15 points in 23 minutes off the bench for the 'Jackets, who fell to 5-21 overall and 3-13 in GNAC play with the loss.
 
For SPU (19-7, 11-5 GNAC) Borton made it a double-double as he added 10 rebounds to his point total. Mitch Penner and Riley Stockton had seven rebounds apiece, and Shawn Reid was also a double-figure scorer with a dozen points on 4 of 7 shooting.
 
"Seattle Pacific is a very good team," said MSUB head coach Jamie Stevens. "They were a tough matchup for us because of their size and physicality, but our guys still played well. The first four minutes and last four minutes of the first half were really the difference in the game."
 
Penner set the tone with a 3-pointer to open the game, and SPU went on an 8-0 run before MSUB's first basket came on a Johnson layup at 17:04.
 
Both teams went cold for a stretch of more than 3:30 in the first half, as a layup by Bryce Leavitt with 11:06 left was the last scoring until a Matthews jumper with 7:35 to go.
 
SPU's lead was no less than five for the remainder of the first half, and it reached 21 points by halftime as a Reid layup with 10 seconds left made the score 43-20 in favor of the Falcons.
 
The 'Jackets struggled cutting into SPU's lead in the second, as the Falcons held comfortably to an advantage that hovered around 20 points throughout the second. A jumper by Borton with 8:06 left in the game extended the spread out to 25 points at 69-44.
 
On the game the Yellowjackets were held to a field-goal percentage of just 36.1 (22-for-61) while SPU shot an outstanding 53.4 percent (31-for-58). The Falcons also dominated the glass, outrebounding the Yellowjackets 45-25.
 
The Yellowjackets protected the ball well with just three turnovers while generating nine on the game, but SPU won the battle in the paint with 40 points compared to just 26 by MSUB. "Our guys continued to fight hard for the entire game, we just got beat by a good team today," Stevens said.
 
COMINT UP: MSUB closes its 2014-15 season next week with home games against Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington. Both games will tip off at 7 p.m. and the game against the Wildcats on Feb. 28 will be MSUB's Senior Night as Hosley and Nelson will be honored.