SEATTLE – The Western Oregon men's basketball team came heartbreakingly close to overcoming a 20-point halftime deficit on Thursday night, falling just shy in their upset bid to the Seattle Pacific Falcons with an 83-82 loss at Royal Brougham Pavilion.

In their second and final meeting of the regular season, Western Oregon (13-6, 7-6 GNAC) had an opportunity to jump into a tie for second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings on Thursday with a win over the conference-leading Falcons. Seattle Pacific (16-5, 12-1 GNAC) just lost their first conference game last week in a surprise upset at the hands of the Alaska Nanooks.

SPU was nearly unstoppable in the first half of play, shooting a red-hot 71.4 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from 3-point range on 20-for-28 and 8-for-11 shooting, respectively. Harry Cavell and Filip Fullerton each scored 13 in the first half for the Falcons while Shaw Anderson added on another 11 points. Anderson finished the night with a game-high 22 points.

Western Oregon had trouble getting their shooting going early, hitting just 12 of 32 shots for 37.5 percent in the opening half of play and not finishing the period with a player in double figures. The cold shooting start resulted in a 20-point deficit going into the locker room at 50-30.

The roles reversed in the second half with the Wolves putting the pedal down on 63 percent field goal shooting and 78.6 percent 3-point shooting. WOU hit 11 of 14 3-pointers in the second half. Senior Jaylyn Richardson was 4-for-6 from deep in the game with 17 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal in the loss.

The Wolves jumped out to a quick 11-3 run to start the second half to draw within 12 after four minutes of play. That rally extended to a 26-9 push over the first 10 minutes of the half, getting within one possession by the 10:22 mark to nearly erase the deficit.

Western gained their first lead of the second half at the 7:54 mark when Tyreek Price hit a 3-pointer on the feed from Darius Lubom to put WOU up 66-64. The Falcons had a run of their own, however, going on a 14-5 spree in the next three minutes to get their lead back out to seven.

After a late missed free throw, SPU held the basketball with an 83-82 lead and 36.6 seconds left to play. After letting the clock roll down inside of 10 seconds, Divant'e Moffitt missed his jumper in the lane, but an offensive rebound for Mehdi El Mardi sealed the win as the Falcons rotated the ball around the exterior for the final three seconds of play to end the game without a Western chance at the win.

Emanuel Gant led the Wolves with 19 points off the bench, pulling in three rebounds and two assists along with two steals. Gant scored 19 of the team's 29 bench points on Thursday.

With the loss, Western Oregon sits in a tie for fifth place in the conference standings, but just one game out of second.

Next up, the Wolves travel to Lacey to take on the Saint Martin's Saints on Saturday, Feb. 8. Tipoff at Marcus Pavilion is set for 7:30 p.m. PST.