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BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- The Western Washington University men's basketball team clinched the regular season Great Northwest Athletic Conference title with an 89-87 victory over Seattle Pacific Wednesday night at Whatcom Pavilion.

The 17th-ranked Vikings received 25 points off the bench from junior forward Deandre Dickson (Easton, CA/Bakersfield College) and held off a late SPU charge to improve to 22-5 overall and 16-3 in GNAC play. The Falcons nearly erased a 19-point second-half deficit, but took the loss to fall to 12-15 overall and 8-11 in league play.

WWU will be the No. 1 seed in the six-team GNAC Tournament held March 2-4 at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash. The winner of the conference tournament is awarded the automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Championships.

WWU led by 19 points with 13:58 remaining in the game, and by 12 points with just over 4 minutes remaining, before holding on for the 2-point victory. Trailing 89-86, SPU guard Sharif Khan was fouled with 1 second remaining. After hitting the first free throw, he intentionally missed the second, got the offensive rebound and had his last-second shot fall short of tying the game.

"When you are in first place, you are hunted, you get everybody's best shot," said WWU head coach Tony Dominguez. "We were not at our best at times tonight, but I am definitely proud of how we pulled through at the end."

Dickson led the Vikings with his third 20-point game of the season, going 9-for-11 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 5 rebounds and had 2 blocked shots in 27 minutes of action.

"Deandre was playing with a lot of fire tonight," said Dominguez. "He was phenomenal offensively."

Senior guard Taylor Stafford (Chicago, IL/Evansville) added 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting (3-8 3-pointers) and senior forward Jeffrey Parker (Richmond, CA/Salesian) had 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting (4-5 3-pointers).

Junior guard Blake Fernandez (Mountlake Terrace, WA/Edmonds CC) tied his career high with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, and dished out 5 assists. Redshirt freshman Daulton Hommes (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian) totaled team highs with 8 rebounds and 3 blocks, and added 8 points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field.

SPU freshman forward Tony Miller scored a game-high 29 points (11-24 FG) with 15 rebounds to record his 15th double-double of the season to tie for the GNAC lead. Gavin Long added 17 points on 8-for-14 shooting and Hunter Eisenhower was 5-for-6 from the field (4-5 3-pointers) while scoring 14 points.

The Vikings and Falcons played a back-and-forth first 10 minutes, with starters for both teams remaining on the court until the media timeout at 9:12. With the score tied 21-21, WWU's bench provided a lift going on an immediate 8-2 run to take a 29-23 lead on a Dickson 3-point play. SPU pulled to within four points at 29-25, but the Vikings finished off the half on a 17-12 run taking a 46-37 halftime lead.

Parker led the Vikings with 11 first-half points, shooting 4-for-8 from the field, with Dickson providing 10 points (4-5 FG) in 9 minutes off the bench. WWU shot 57.6% (19-33) from the field, including 7-for-11 from 3-point range. SPU was led by 16 points from Miller and 10 points from Long, while shooting 38.9% from the field (14-36).

The Vikings took early control of the second half going on an early 15-5 run to extend the lead to 19 points at 61 42. SPU would cut into the lead going on a 19-9 run to trail by 9 points at 70-61 with just under 8 minutes remaining in the game. Western stretched its lead to 12 points with under 4 minutes remaining in the game at 84-72, but SPU again wouldn't go away cutting the lead to 2 points at 86-84 with 30 seconds remaining.

Fernandez missed both free throws after being fouled on the inbounds play, but Hommes grabbed the important offensive rebound and hit one-of-two from the line to push the lead to 87-84. After a quick basket by Miller cut the lead to one point at 87-86, Stafford was quickly fouled and converted a pair of three throws to push the lead to 89-86. Khan was fouled by Stafford with 1 second remaining, where he hit the first of two free throws before the last-second shot came up short.

The Vikings (22-5, 16-3) close out the regular season Saturday hosting Saint Martin's at 7 pm at Whatcom Pavilion. Prior to the game, seniors Jeffrey Parker and Taylor Stafford will be honored in a pre-game ceremony. The nationally-ranked WWU women's team will host Alaska Fairbanks at 3 pm as part of the basketball doubleheader at Whatcom Pavilion.

Game Notes: The GNAC regular-season title is the sixth for WWU (4th outright) and first since back-to-back league championships in 2011-12 and 2012-13...the Vikings are 13-2 over last 15 games and has a current 5-game winning streak...Jeffrey Parker moved into 9th place in the GNAC record books with 1,803 career points...is now 41 points shy of the WWU all-time record by Grant Dykstra (1,844 points)...Parker also hit four 3-pointers, moving him into 2nd place in WWU history with 269 career 3-pointers (1st is Jared Stevenson with 279)...Taylor Stafford has scored in double-digits in 26 of 27 games...WWU is currently ranked No. 17 (NABC) and No. 3 in the NCAA II West Region.