AZUSA, Calif. – All four teams at this year's GNAC/PacWest Crossover Challenge have strong histories of success in men's basketball.  And all four have plans for making a deep postseason run this season.

After a good battle against Western Washington on Friday night, Concordia faced Seattle Pacific on Azusa Pacific's home court on Saturday. The Falcons have routinely been a pesky team to solve in recent years and despite Concordia's best efforts to comeback from an early deficit, SPU held on for a 79-70 win.

Bryce Fitzgerald scored a career-high 24 points as a Golden Eagle. He also added his second double-double in four games. He was part of a second half surge that helped bring CUI within striking distance.

During one stretch, Fitzgerald scored 11 straight points for the Golden Eagles and positioned CUI just four points off the pace with under five minutes to go.

Cam Fini was solid off the bench once again as well. He chipped in with 11 points and is off to a great start this campaign as a long-range threat who can also score near the rim.

The Falcons pounced quickly with a few early baskets and built a 20-4 lead before the second media timeout. Shaw Anderson finished with a game-high 30 points and did lots of damage early to help SPU gain control of the contest.

"We got stuck in a really deep hole which we did climb out of. We gave ourselves a chance to win the game and I was proud of the guys for fighting back today after a bad start," explained CUI head coach Ken Ammann.  "Shaw Anderson just destroyed us in the first five minutes of the game and I thought we were ready to go on defense but we were not and we got caught on our heels."

Lance Coleman II smoothly made multiple fade away jumpers in rhythm to help get Concordia back in the game. He scored 20 points against the Falcons and is now shooting 47 percent from the floor in his first four games as a Golden Eagle.

"Ultimately we got a lot out of the last several games," added Ammann. "We've been battling with one major injury and several minor ones along with several pieces of the puzzle that have not gotten comfortable yet. We showed some real signs of the way we need to compete on both ends of the floor and when that comes together I feel like we are going to be a really good team."

"We've played really good teams already this season and it exposes things that we can work on," added Ammann. "Now we know what we need to work on to give ourselves a chance to make a run in the PacWest."

Concordia returns home for a matinee against Bethesda this Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m.

CLICK HERE to buy tickets ahead of time for upcoming CUI home games

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI men's basketball schedule