Great matchup awaits. A playoff-type atmosphere awaits Seattle Pacific University's 7th-ranked men's basketball team when it drives north to face one of its fiercest rivals. The Falcons (12-1, 20-2), winners of five in a row, will play defending conference and regional champion Western Washington (10-3, 16-6) before a big, boisterous crowd Saturday night (Feb. 16). A stretch of five consecutive Great Northwest Athletic Conference road games concludes next week with a pair in Alaska.

It figures. Of all the games on the GNAC schedule over the next two weeks, this SPU-Western contest looms largest over not only the league championship race but the NCAA Division II tournament as well. Seattle Pacific currently holds a slight edge over Humboldt State in the standings and, generally, is in good shape with regard to making the playoffs for a fifth straight year. But the Vikings are in a more precarious position. They are well within striking distance of SPU in the GNAC but are just No. 9 in the West Region. Only the top six teams from the region will qualify for the playoffs.

Head-on collision. There are plenty of places which offer hostile environments around the GNAC, but Bellingham on a Saturday night is difficult to beat. Western Washington parlayed home-court advantage to win the West and make the 2001 Final Four. It also has won 17 consecutive home conference games (dating back to a loss to SPU) and 10 in a row overall at Carver Gym. The Falcons have fared quite well on the road this season, winning eight of nine games away from Brougham Pavilion. History predicts a close game Saturday; seven of the past nine meetings have been decided by seven points or less.

Quicker than ever. Never before has an SPU team surpassed 20 wins before its 23rd game or Lincoln's birthday. Seattle Pacific's fourth straight 20-win season was not secured until the dying seconds of last week's 86-83 victory at Northwest Nazarene. It was a good test of a squad which has only had seven games which were under an 8-point spread. Coach Ken Bone saw his team climb out of an 11-point hole in the second half, take the lead on Daniel Sandrin's (Jr., 6-7, Bothell, Wa./Bothell-Portland) two free throws with 24 seconds to go and preserve the outcome when Yusef Aziz (Jr., 6-4, Seattle, Wa./Foster-Highline CC) stole the ball and scored at the buzzer. Previously, Falcon teams had needed at least 23 games for a 20th win.

Nick at Nite. When the Falcons were on the ropes at Nampa, it was Nick Johnson (Sr., 6-3, Burlington, Wa./Burlington-Edison) who spearheaded the comeback. He scored 13 points during a stretch in which his team outscored the Crusaders 27-15 and later drove for an 82-81 lead in the final minute. Johnson finished 7-9 from the field and tallied 19 points. He scored a career-high 28 in the Jan. 12 win over Western, draining 11 of 12 free throws in the final 46 seconds. Johnson is averaging 13.1 points­second on the team to Aziz's 16.2­but his marksmanship is hard to beat. Along with WWU center Mike Palm, he is the only player in the GNAC to rank among the top 10 leaders in both field goal (.554) and free throw (.887) accuracy. Johnson's also heating-up from outside the arc (.378) after making 50 percent of his treys as a junior.

Double trouble. Like Johnson, Brannon Stone (Sr., 6-9, Oak Harbor, Wa.) will actually be playing closer to his hometown this weekend, and Stone continued to assert himself last week with his second and third double-doubles in the last four games. After a 16-point outing at Seattle U., he helped keep SPU within reach of NNU with 11 first-half points. His night ended with 14 plus 10 boards and two blocks. Stone is now No. 6 on the school's career scoring list (needing nine points to become No. 5) and he leads the team in assists (4.4), rebounds (6.0), 3-pointers (39) and blocked shots (1.23) and is No. 4 in scoring (10.5).

There's a "D" in Falcons. In the 72-46 win at Seattle University last week, the Falcons allowed only 16 second-half points and it was the fourth straight game in which they held the opponent under 60 points­the longest such stretch since the advent of the shot clock. All season long, the not-so-secret to Seattle Pacific's success is defense. It leads the GNAC in the three statistical categories: scoring defense (64.7), field-goal percentage (.407) and 3-point percentage (.338). It is 9-0 when holding foes's shooting to 40 percent or less and it's 17-1 when forcing more turnovers. It's been eight games since an opponent shot 45 percent or better.

Put-backs. This week's national ranking is the highest of the season and the best for the program since rising to No. 4 in 1993-94...Seattle Pacific has hit at least 50 percent from the floor in each of its last three games and seven of the last nine...Eric Sandrin (Sr., 6-10, Bothell, Wa./Shorecrest) had a strong second half at Seattle U. and big opening period at NNU. He had 11 boards vs. the Redhawks and scored 10 of his 14 early at Nampa...Stone is 10 steals away from becoming the career leader...The Falcons trail Cal State San Bernardino and Humboldt in the region. Cal State Bakersfield, Montana State Billings and BYU Hawaii round out the top six in the West...Seattle Pacific also leads the conference in offensive field-goal percentage (.496) and scoring margin (+16.1) and is second in free throw percentage (.764), rebounding margin (+5.3) and steals (9.2)...Aziz is fourth among GNAC leaders in field goal percentage (.568), seventh in steals (1.73) and 10th in scoring. Johnson is third in free throw accuracy and 10th in field goal percentage. Daniel Sandrin is fourth in field-goal percentage (.583). Stone is fifth in assists and sixth in blocks.

Opponent & series notes. Saturday's game will be carried live over the Internet at http://www.wwuvikings.com/webcasts.htm. SPU prevailed in the first meeting with Western Washington, 96-89 in Seattle. This game pits Western, the nation's No. 7 offensive team, vs. the GNAC's premier defensive team. The two clubs are 1-2 in rebounding. Seattle Pacific's dominance over Western Washington during the Bone era was broken last season as the Vikings swept both games to snap a streak of eight consecutive losses. SPU leads the series 59-37, including 20-4 since Bone became coach in 1990.

SPU Coaches. In his 11 years as coach of his alma mater, Ken Bone has directed the Falcons to seven NCAA tournament berths, five conference titles and 11 consecutive winning records. His winning percentage of .712 is the best in school history, surpassing even the legendary Les Habegger. From 1995-2000 Bone's teams advanced to the regional championship game five times, including a record 27 wins and Final Four appearance in 2000. Jeff Hironaka is in his 11th year as associate head coach. Jarrett Mentink returns to the staff after a four-year absence this season. George Parker who first served as an assistant in 1986, returns for his 13th year on the staff. Former all-conference forward Reggie Paul joins the staff after five seasons of playing professionally in Europe and Asia.