Box score, play-by-play
BILLINGS, Mont. -- The regular season is winding down, and the big games are coming up. The winners will be those who have something in reserve.
Count the Seattle Pacific Falcons in that group.
Sophomore guard Nyesha Sims came off the bench for a career-high 17 points on Wednesday night, helping the Falcons survive a Montana State Billings rally and pull away to a 62-47 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball victory in Alterowitz Gymnasium.
Sims surpassed her previous career high of 13 points, which she set in last year's regular-season finale at Northwest Nazarene. Led by her 17, plus seven from reserve junior forward
Caitlyn Rohrbach (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale HS), SPU's bench players outscored their Billings counterparts, 31-2.
The 18th-ranked Falcons (19-3, 10-1 GNAC) win their sixth straight and pull within half a game of Western Washington (20-3, 11-1 GNAC) heading into Saturday's 7 p.m. Brougham Pavilion battle against the Vikings.
“I felt happy that we won in a hard place to play,” SPU coach Julie van Beek said. “Nyesha was able to score a lot of points and get five rebounds, Caitlyn had a huge night (seven points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals), and that was just big for us.
“We just had good balance tonight,” she added. “I felt really good that we were able to win on the road without our leading scorer (Daesha Henderson) scoring.”
Now, the Falcons can turn their focus to Western, which has a bye in this week's first round of games, so will be well rested for the Saturday showdown. But with the rare Wednesday night game, Seattle Pacific's players will have an extra day to get rested and ready to go, even though part of that day will be spent traveling back home.
Western Washington, ranked No. 21 nationally, and No. 2 -- one spot ahead of SPU -- in the West Region, won the first game of this season's series on Jan. 23 in Bellingham, 54-40.
“We told the kids there are 282 teams in Division II, and 20 teams with three or fewer losses -- and we're one of them,” van Beek said. “We're in the right spot, but we have to finish strong.”
Sims (Portland, Ore.) hit 7 of 11 from the floor, including a putback with 13:41 to play after the Yellowjackets had whittled a 17-point SPU lead all the way down to 35-33. That shot ended a string of nine straight misses and started a 10-2 scoring run for the Falcons. Billings (10-12, 3-8 GNAC) was never closer than nine points the rest of the night.
Senior forward Megan Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS) added 11 points, for the Falcons, and junior center Melissa Reich (Bothell, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) chipped in 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Sarah McNamee led the Yellowjackets with 19 points. Kayla Ryan, who averages a team-leading 14.1, was limited to 10, and spent a good portion of the first half on the bench in foul trouble.
Seattle Pacific bolted to a 21-4 lead in the first eight minutes of the game, hitting eight of its first 15 shots while Montana State Billings was hitting just 1 of 8. But the Falcons went cold, draining just four of their final 15 to end the half, and the Yellowjackets pulled within 33-27 by the intermission.
After a putback by Reich to open the second half pushed SPU's lead back to 35-27, Billings scored the next six points to get within two. But then the shooting momentum turned around, with the Falcons hitting six of their next 12 while forcing the Jackets into a 2-of-11 cold spell.
“We found a way to win,” van Beek said. “We did a good job of offensive rebounding in the second half, we were able to score off that and we were able to get some points in the transition.”
Seattle Pacific now has kept five of its last six opponents below 50 points. In addition to another strong defensive performance, the Falcons had one of their best nights of taking care of the ball. They had just 15 turnovers, their third-lowest total of the season and their sixth straight game with fewer than 20.
With Reich's nine setting the pace, SPU had a decisive advantage on the boards, 46-35. That was a marked improvement from last month in Seattle when Billings had the edge, 33-32, although the Falcons put a 68-52 victory into the books.
NCAA Women's Basketball
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Alterowitz Gymnasium/Billings, Mont.
(No. 18) Seattle Pacific 62, Montana State Billings 47
SEATTLE PACIFIC (19-3, 10-1 GNAC)
Harazin 1-5 3-4 6, Henderson 0-6 0-0 0, Hoisington 4-10 2-2 11, Maloney 2-5 0-1 4, Reich 4-8 2-2 10, Gorman 0-5 2-2 2, Smith 0-0 1-2 1, Thralls 0-0 2-3 2, Sims 7-11 1-2 17, Murray 1-3 0-0 2, Rohrbach 3-8 0-0 7. Totals 22-61 13-18 62.
MONTANA STATE BILLINGS (10-12, 3-8 GNAC)
McNamee 8-15 0-0 19, Jacobs 2-5 0-0 4, Stanhope 3-11 0-0 6, Kautzmann 1-8 1-2 3, Ryan 3-6 4-6 10, Hansen 0-4 0-0 0, Lott 0-0 0-0 0, Reed 0-0 0-0 0, Porter 1-4 0-2 2. Totals 18-53 5-10 47.
Seattle Pacific ....................33 29 -- 62
Montana State Billings .....27 20 -- 47
3-point goals -- SPU 5-24 (Harazin 1-4, Henderson 0-5, Hoisington 1-2, Maloey 0-2, Gorman 0-4, Sims 2-4, Murray 0-2, Rohrbach 1-1). MSB 6-17 (McNamee 3-5, Stanhope 3-9, Kautzmann 0-2, Hansen 0-1). Fouled out -- None. Rebounds -- SPU 46 (Reich 9, Hoisington 8, Rohrbach 7), MSB 35 (Jacobs 8). Assists -- SPU 17 (Maloney 4, Rohrbach 4), MSB 14 (Stanhope 3, Hansen 3). Technical fouls -- None. Total fouls -- SPU 11, MSB 15. A -- 384.
