January 22, 2009
FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- Coach Julie van Beek said Thursday night's women's basketball game against Alaska Fairbanks was something like a test in the classroom.
It wasn't easy. But the Seattle Pacific Falcons passed.
Maddie Maloney scored 12 points, and Daesha Henderson added 11, and both tallied five during a 12-2 second-half run that carried 14th-ranked Seattle Pacific to a 55-50 women's victory against the Nanooks at the Patty Center.
The Falcons (12-2, 5-0 GNAC) won their sixth straight game and retained their hold on first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference heading into Saturday 8 p.m. PST showdown at No. 2 Alaska Anchorage. (Live Webcast here, live stats here.) The Seawolves improved to 4-0 in the conference and 17-1 overall with a 65-54 homecourt victory against Northwest Nazarene on Thursday.
“We're looking at this like a midterm exam,” SPU coach van Beek said. “We want to see where we are. It's a good thing to learn from. We have a lot of things to work on. It's a good reminder that we have to control the things we can control, like free throws and turnovers.”
Sophomore guard Maloney (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline HS) delivered a solid all-around game for the Falcons. In addition to her dozen points, she had five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Junior guard Henderson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) collected six rebounds.
Freshman guard Jordan Harazin (Colfax, Wash./Colfax HS) came off the bench for 10 points. Senior center Kelsey Hill (Portland) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Falcons.
“Maddie came up huge at the end of the game, Daesha hit a couple of big shots. And Jordan came in in the first half and hit a couple big shots and had eight points,” van Beek said. “Different kids stepped up.”
Nicole Bozek posted a double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds for Fairbanks (5-9, 0-5 GNAC), which now has lost 14 straight to the Falcons. In fact, Rozek had her double-double in the books before halftime with 14 points and 12 boards.
Seattle Pacific pulled out the victory in spite of a frosty shooting night. The Falcons, who came in as the top-shooting team in the GNAC (45.2 percent) hit just 32.1 percent (18 of 56), including just 7 of 26 (26.9 percent) from 3-point range. The Nanooks shot 33 percent from the floor (17 of 51).
The Falcons trailed by as many as nine points during the first half at 22-13 before getting within 27-25 at the break. They were down 41-38 just beyond the midpoint of the second half when they went on their 12-2 run to take a 52-45 lead with 3:20 remaining. Alaska Fairbanks never got closer than two after that.
“We only saw them play man-to-man on film, and they came out in a 3-2 zone, and we had to adjust to something that we hadn't practiced this week,” van Beek said. “They were very, very deliberate with the ball. They tried to stall and we tried to speed the game up. But when you're not hitting wide-open 3s, you have to break down their zone.”
NCAA Women's Basketball
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Patty Center, Fairbanks, Alaska
(No. 14) Seattle Pacific 55, Alaska Fairbanks 50
SEATTLE PACIFIC (12-2, 5-0 GNAC)
Maloney 4-10 2-4 12, Henderson 4-7 2-4 11, Harazin 3-4 2-4 10, Hill 2-7 2-2 6, Rohrbach 2-7 1-2 6, Reich 2-3 2-3 6, Burns 1-9 0-0 3, Cannon 0-1 1-2 2, Hoisington 0-6 0-0 0, Sims 0-1 0-0 0, Gorman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-56 12-21 55.
ALASKA FAIRBANKS (5-9, 0-5 GNAC)
Bozek 6-14 4-4 18, Hamsley 3-6 0-0 9, Milliken 4-6 1-2 9, Edwards 3-10 1-4 7, Brown 1-10 4-4 6, Tigpen 0-5 1-2 1, Bruketta 0-0 0-0 0. Totls 17-51 11-16 50.
Seattle Pacific............25 30 -- 55
Alaska Fairbanks........27 23 -- 50
3-point goals -- SPU 7-26 (Maloney 2-6, Harazin 2-3, Rohrbach 1-3, Henderson 1-4, Burns 1-7, Hoisington 0-1, Sims 0-1,Gorman 0-1), UAF 5-16 (Hamsley 3-4, Bozek 2-8, Brown 0-4. Fouled out -- UAF: Edwards. Rebounds -- SPU 37 (Hill 9, Henderson 6, Maloney 5), UAF 40 (Bozek 16). Assists -- SPU 15 (Maloney 4), UAF 11 (Hamsley 6). Technical fouls -- None. Total fouls -- SPU 16, UAF 16. A -- 166.
