Complete Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho (Feb. 8) -- Nick Johnson scored nine of his 14 points in the second half and collected a career-high 11 rebounds to help Seattle Pacific University secure its fourth straight win, 66-57 over Northwest Nazarene in a Pacific West Conference basketball game Thursday night.

John Hubbard (Sr., 6-5, Inglewood, Ca.) scored15 of his 17 points in the first half as the Falcons never relinquished the lead after the first 15 minutes. Seattle Pacific pulled away midway through the second half with a string of 11 unanswered points.

SPU (9-3, 16-4), which has won 14 of its last 16 games, out-rebounded the Crusaders (6-7, 9-13) 23-12 in the second half. Thirteen of those boards came at the offensive end.

The Falcons held the Crusaders scoreless for 6 minutes of the second half.

Meanwhile, Johnson (Jr., 6-3, Burlington, Wa.), who had six offensive rebounds, scored the final two baskets of the run which widened the SPU lead from two points to 67-54. NNU got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

Seattle Pacific, finishing with its lowest point total in the last 38 games, kept pace with West Division leader Western Washington despite shooting a season-low 38 percent (20-53) from the floor. NNU managed to hit just 35 percent (21-60), and SPU is 9-0 when holding teams under 40 percent.

Northwest Nazarene made just 4 of 24 3-point attempts.

Both teams stand at the top of the PacWest in defensive statistics and traded the lead back and forth in the first period, with the Falcons finally forging a 31-27 lead at intermission. Hubbard scored the first four points of a 7-2 run in the final 5:32.

Josh Cooprider led NNU with 16 points and Ryan Marquez added 12 plus nine rebounds. The Crusaders, the fourth SPU opponent held under 60 points in the last nine games, have lost four straight and seven of the last nine.

Brannon Stone (Jr., 6-9, Oak Harbor, Wa.) shot just 2 of 11 but had seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots for SPU. Jesse Keely (So., 6-6, Fircrest, Wa./Bellarmine) came off the bench for a season-high seven points and five boards in only nine minutes.

Seattle Pacific finished with a 39-34 rebounding advantage and was 21 of 26 at the foul line compared to Nazarene's 11 of 15.

The Falcons visit Seattle University Saturday at 7 before playing their final five regular season games at home.

SEATTLE PACIFIC
N. Johnson 14, Hubbard 17, E. Sandrin 7, Bellessa 6, Stone 9, Fox 0, Harris 0, Walker 3, Keely 7, Woodard 3, D. Sandrin 0.

NORTHWEST NAZARENE
Marquez 12, Nielsen 6, Thomas 4, Cooprider 16, Herron 5, Richard 9, Casper 3, T. Johnson 0, Gely 0.

Halftime--SPU 31, NNU 27.