SEATTLE, WA (Jan. 24) - Jackie Hollands hit three free throws with less than a minute remaining, and Kelsey Hill rejected Dani Henderson's jumper with ten seconds left, giving the No. 3 Seattle Pacific University women's basketball team a hard fought 78-74 victory over Montana State University-Billings, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game Thursday night.

The Falcons (7-0 GNAC, 16-0 overall) remain one of the final four undefeated teams in the Nation with the narrow win over the Yellowjackets (4-2 GNAC, 7-8 overall).

Hollands connected on a pair of free throws following her offensive rebound with just under one minute to play in the second half, and then once more with ten seconds to go, giving the Falcons a four point lead. Henderson then drove baseline and put up a shot, but Hill got in her way and took the ball out of mid-air.

The Falcons held the Yellowjackets scoreless for the final 3:17, with a barrage of steals and offensive rebounds. Beth Christensen, Libby Magnuson, and Hollands all swooped into the paint to dig for the offensive boards, all coming off of missed three-point attempts.

Hollands led all players with 23 points on 4-7 shooting from behind the arc, with SPU center Hill right behind at 22 points. Hill was limited to three rebounds, but shot an impressive 10-12 from the field, converting both of her free-throw attempts as well.

Magnuson had a game co-high five steals, an honor she shared with Hollands, and had five assists to boot. Christensen, dished her way to a game high 11 assists, while Megan Hoisington led all players with nine boards. Maddie Maloney played only 14 minutes and took only three shots; all of which were behind the arc, but sank all of them for nine points.

The Falcons' bench out performed their opponents', finishing with a 22-15 points advantage, spearheaded by Maloney's nine and Daesha Henderson's seven.

For MSUB, Alira Carpenter had 20 points and two steals, with Shantell Marquis at 18 and Henderson with 15. Carpenter shot 4-6 from three-point range, Marquis had six assists, and Henderson finished one better at seven and four steals.

The game was tied six times, and saw eight lead changes, with SPU holding their largest lead, nine, at 14:00 into the first half. Overall, SPU shot exactly 50 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from behind the arc, compared to MSUB who connected for a 48.4 field goal percentage and 52.9 percent from three point range.

SPU squares off against cross-town rival Seattle University (3-3 GNAC, 12-3 overall) Saturday at 1:30 p.m., as the first game of a double-header during Homecoming weekend. The “Battle for Seattle”, played at Brougham Pavilion, will be broadcasted on CSTV via the following link, http://www.cstv.com/ncaa/divii.

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