LACEY, Wash. -- Talk about nice round numbers: For the 10th consecutive season, the Seattle Pacific women's basketball team has put 20 victories into the book.
And the Falcons have every intention of adding a few more this winter.
Daesha Henderson and Kelsey Burns scored 13 points apiece, and Seattle Pacific had four players in double figures altogether on Thursday night in leading from wire to wire on the way to a 65-48 victory against Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball game.
The Falcons (20-4 overall, 13-2 GNAC), who are ranked No. 8 in the country and No. 1 in the West Region, are now one step closer to wrapping up the West's top spot and the chance to host the NCAA Division II regional tournament next week.
“It was a good win on the road, especially since we were short-handed,” said Falcons coach Julie van Beek, who was without the services of starting guard Maddie Maloney because of an illness. “We shot the ball well and we played good defense. We held them to below their average, and kept their field goal percentage down. And we kept them off the line.”
Seattle Pacific, which pulled into a tie with Alaska Anchorage for first place in the conference, concludes regular-season play on Saturday in Nampa, Idaho, against Northwest Nazarene, which is vying for third place in the GNAC and a chance to play in regionals. Anchorage closes at home against Montana State Billings.
Henderson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) contributed much more than just her 13 points on Thursday. She also dished out nine assists and pulled down seven rebounds, leading the Falcons in both departments.
“Daesha was pretty amazing,” van Beek said. “She was the heart and soul for us. She knew she had to step up, and she did.”
Saint Martin's came in averaging 71.7 points and shooting 42.3 percent from the field. The Saints finished 23 points shy of their average and hit just 37 percent for the game (20 of 54). They also took just eight free throws, hitting six. NCAA record-setter Jamey Gelhar didn't get to the line all night, so was not able to add to her streak of 78 in a row.
“Daesha guarded Gelhar, and that's a tough task,” van Beek said. “Nyesha (Sims) gave us some real good minutes off the bench, gave us an offensive lift, and did a good job defensively.
Megan Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS) and Sims (Portland, Ore.) chipped in 10 points apiece for Seattle Pacific.
Saint Martin's (16-11, 7-8 GNAC) was led by the double-double of Dara Zack, who had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
SPU scored the first five points of the game and led by as many as 12 points during the first half before settling for a 32-23 lead at halftime. The Saints cut the lead down to five at 35-30 with 15:43 still showing on the clock, but the Falcons responded with an 8-1 run, with Henderson assisting on three of those baskets.
Henderson, who had a career-high 11 assists in a nonconference game against Merrimack on Jan. 2, came into Thursday's contest averaging 3.91 per game, fourth-best in the GNAC.
Saint Martin's was still down just 10 at 48-38 with nine minutes left in the game when Burns (Seattle/Kennedy HS) effectively sealed it with back-to-back 3-pointers, pushing SPU's lead to 54-38. The Saints never got closer than 12 after that.
“It was a five-point game (at 35-30), but eventually, you could tell that our defense wore them down,” van Beek said.
The Falcons kept their opponent below 50 points for the fifth game in a row. Seattle Pacific came in allowing just 57.4 points per game, ranking No. 21 among the country's 275 Division II schools in defense.
SPU hit 51.9 percent for the game (27 of 52), and were 60 percent from behind the 3-point arc, with Burns going 3 of 5 and Henderson 2 of 2 from downtown. Led by Henderson's nine, the Falcons had 22 assists on their 27 baskets.
