BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Oregon men's basketball team's bid for back-to-back conference tournament titles was cut short on Saturday as they fell 78-66 to the Seattle Pacific Falcons in the championship game at Carver Gym.

Western Oregon opponents have jumped out to early leads all tournament and the Falcons would be no different. SPU scored the first six points of the game to establish an early lead, getting two of their first three buckets from Nikhil Lizotte.

The Wolves bounced back and grabbed their first lead of the game with 11:34 left to play in the first half on a Brandell Evans jumper. Moving to the free throw line, Evans created space to bury the 15-footer and pull the Wolves in front at 17-15.

Western Oregon got a big first half from their bench with their reserves out-scoring SPU 28-5. Buster Souza was nearly automatic from the field, starting the game 5-for-6 with 10 points and three rebounds before the break. Darius Lubom added on another 8 points in 13 minutes of work off the bench.

First-half turnovers continued to be an issue for WOU, committing 10 to the 8 of SPU before the break. The Falcons committed just one second-half turnover to stay in single digits while the Wolves totaled 15.

WOU shot 53.9 percent from the field on 16-of-30, but the Falcons were able to keep up with a 15-for-31 line of their own. Coleman Wooten led Seattle Pacific in first-half scoring, dropping 16 points in 17 minutes of work.

The Falcons opened the second half with sharp shooting from 3-point range, hitting three of their first four attempts from deep.  Their lead swelled to 10 before Western Oregon reeled them back in.

Freshman O'landa Baker's big second half helped to keep the Wolves within striking distance. Baker scored 9 of his 14 points after the break, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range, pulling in five rebounds and posting two blocks in 24 minutes.

Western Oregon crept as close as four late, trailing 64-60 with 5:54 left to play, but were never able to pull in front of SPU in the second half.
Seattle Pacific led for 35:25 of the game and did not trail after halftime.

Etan Collins posted 12 points and seven rebounds in the start, shooting 5-for-9 from the field and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc.

Coleman Wooten led all scorers with 25 points, adding 11 rebounds and two assists to earn tournament MVP honors.

The conference tournament title was the fourth for the Falcons overall and their first since the 2015 season.

Western Oregon will now wait to learn if their season will continue with an at-large bid in the NCAA DII Men's Basketball Championships. The selection show will take place at 7:30 p.m. PDT Sunday, March 10. Streaming of the show will be available on NCAA.com and the tournament itself will open play March 16 in regional action.