With visions of the Final Four dancing in their heads, the SPU men's basketball team entered the postseason with a senior-laden squad and rising expectations. But at the end of an up-and-down year, no hardware was added to the trophy case.

In the end, the team fell two points short of reaching their second West Regional championship game in three seasons. University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) effectively ended SPU's two-year reign as conference champs during the regular season. With a home crowd behind them, the Seawolves also won in the postseason, taking a tight game 56-55 on two late free throws.

"I thought we competed very hard that game," head coach Jeff Hironaka said. "Neither team was real stellar offensively, but it came down to a couple plays. It's a game of inches. The inches we got to possibly win the game came back at the other end."

Though the Falcons saw their two-year hold on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) end, they finished 21-8 overall and third in the conference with a 12-6 record.

Five seniors ended their SPU careers, including center Rob Will and point guard Jared Moultrie, the two remaining links to the Final Four team from 2006.

"Both of them had great careers," Hironaka said of Will and Moultrie. "They meant a lot to our program and took us to some of our highest moments."

After averaging a team-leading 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, Will earned first team all-GNAC honors for the second consecutive season. Senior Marques Echols received second team all-GNAC distinction, averaging 14.4 points and 3.9 assists per game. Honorable mention went to senior JoJay Jackson.

In addition to these individual accolades, the Falcons also boasted several single-game standout performances.

Even before the season started, sophomore Rob Diedrichs dazzled his way to 36 points and nearly helped SPU upset the University of Washington in a November exhibition game against their cross-town Division I opponent.

On Feb. 2, Echols used his shoot-from-the-hip release to nail a school record nine 3-pointers and lead SPU to a 96-65 victory on the road at chilly Alaska Fairbanks.

Later that month, Will made it into the GNAC and school record books by going 13-for-13 from the field en route to 28 points against Alaska Fairbanks. The performance helped Will to convert 22 consecutive shots over the course of three games, setting a conference record for consecutive field goals.

At times, the team as a whole played some exceptional basketball too.

When they dispatched cellar-dwelling Montana State University Billings 90-34 on Feb. 7, SPU's 56-point win established a new GNAC standard for margin of victory.

"It's always good to have those games where you get a nice lead and get everybody to play," Will said. "The game went our way. I think we set almost every defensive record for the GNAC."

That game may have been the most overwhelming victory of the season, but two victories in March proved far more significant for the Falcons.

After falling to conference leading UAA on the road, SPU needed to beat the Seawolves on March 1 to stay in the playoff hunt. Buoyed by their defense and a crowd of over 1,000 fans, the Falcons dealt UAA only their second Division II loss of the year and built momentum for a postseason run.

"This game was special to me," senior JoJay Jackson said. "This night was everything to me."

Against UAA, Jackson hit a key 3-pointer with over a minute left, and Echols drained three of four free throws to close out the game. It wasn't the last time the steely shooting of Echols would help win a game for SPU.

Two weeks later in frigid Anchorage, the Falcons faced a familiar rival in the first round of the West Regional. Central Washington University had beaten SPU twice already, with the latest win in overtime to close the regular season. The Wildcats averaged 101 points against SPU the first two games the teams squared off. This matchup would have a different outcome, however.

Facing a one-point deficit with 5.2 seconds remaining and the season at stake, Echols took an inbounds pass near midcourt, drove toward the basket, and drained a five-foot jump shot at the buzzer. The Falcons prevailed 58-57 to set up the fateful grudge match with UAA.

Having played for five months, the UAA loss ended the season and allowed players and coaches some long-awaited time to rest and reflect on their season. The team's legacy, said Hironaka, came from a continued expectation of reaching the postseason.

"I really thought the seniors stepped up and accepted the challenge," Hironaka said. "We did what we had to do to get ourselves into the [regional] tournament."

For next season, three part-time starters return, including junior Casey Reed, sophomore Brandon Larrieu, and Diedrichs, but the team will be almost all underclassmen, with Reed being the only senior.

"We're going to be really young," Hironaka said. "We'll be a different type of team with different chemistry. We'll have experience, but it's young experience."