Vikings fall to No. 16 SPU in GNAC play

No. 16 Seattle Pacific University beat Western Washington University 83-64 Saturday evening at Whatcom Pavilion in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball contest.

The Vikings dropped to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in GNAC play with the loss. The Falcons won their seventh consecutive game to improve to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in GNAC play.

Senior point guard Ricardo Maxwell led the Vikings with 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Junior forward Jeffrey Parker and senior guard Kyle Impero each added 13 points in the loss. Senior forward Colby Mitchell had a team-high 8 rebounds before fouling out

The Falcons had five players record double-digits in scoring in the 19-point victory. Senior forward Mitch Penner led SPU with 17 points and 7-foot University of Washington transfer Gilles Dierickx recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Vikings trailed 38-24 at the half and were led by 8 points from Maxwell. The Falcons led from wire-to-wire in the half, starting with a slam dunk Dierickx. Junior center Joe Rasmussen led all players with 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field.

SPU outscored WWU 45-40 in the second half, and led by as many as 26 points at the 16:14 mark. Maxwell scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and redshirt sophomore Brett Kingma hit a pair of three-pointers.

The Vikings (6-4, 1-1 GNAC) will take next week off for final exams and return to the court Tuesday, December 15 vs. Simon Fraser at Whatcom Pavilion (7 pm).

This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 8:37 AM with the headline "Vikings fall to No. 16 SPU in GNAC play."