SEATTLE -- When the game was on the line, the Seattle Pacific Falcons won it at the line.
Daesha Henderson scored 16 points, and swished six free throws in the last 76 seconds, then Nyesha Sims clinched it with two free throws with 6.8 seconds to go as Falcons advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Division II West Regional women's basketball tournament on Saturday night by defeating Alaska Anchorage, 52-48.
That earned Seattle Pacific a Monday night contest against Chico State for the regional championship. The 7 p.m. tip-off in Brougham will be the Falcons' third consecutive trip to the West finals, having lost to Anchorage in the previous two. Monday's winner will advance to the Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Mo.
The Falcons (26-3) hit 11 of their 14 free throws in the final 2:57 of the game in Brougham Pavilion after going just 5 of 12 up to that point. Down by two with 1:37 left, SPU finished with a 9-3 scoring run.
“We wanted it so bad,” said senior guard Henderson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS). “The last two years, we've lost to them in the Sweet 16. Deep down, we knew it was our game and our time.”
SPU beat Anchorage (24-5) in all three games this year. Just one week ago, the Falcons came from behind for a 67-60 victory at Anchorage to wrap up sole possession of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship.
All of that gave Saturday's game a championship feel, even though it was a semifinal game.
“And it (felt that way) last week at Anchorage, too,” Falcons coach Julie van Beek said. “It was a huge victory. You have to beat the best to be the best, and Anchorage has been the best in the region the past two years, at least in the postseason.”
Senior forward Megan Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS) added 12 points and eight rebounds for Seattle Pacific, and junior center Melissa Reich (Bothell, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) finished with 12 points.
Sophomore reserve guard Sims (Portland, Ore.), in addition to hitting those two decisive free throws to give her seven points for the night, pulled down a career-high eight rebounds.
Alaska Anchorage was led by the 11 points of Nicci Miller. No one else was in double figures for the Seawolves.
ON A SEE-SAW MOST OF THE NIGHT
While the Seawolves had a nine-point first-half lead (12-3, thanks to a 12-point scoring run) and the Falcons led by as many as eight in the second half (32-24), the rest of the night was back and forth, with a total of 10 lead changes.
“If anything, we wanted it so bad in the second half that we quit doing the little things right,” van Beek said. “We were playing hard, but not always playing smart. That hurt us a little bit, so I was relieved that we were able to come back.”
Anchorage took a 45-43 lead on a putback and free throw by Hanna Johansson with 1:37 left. Henderson was fouled with 1:16 to play and hit both shots for a 45-45 tie.
Johansson missed a jumper with 53 seconds showing, Reich came down with the rebound and was fouled. She made the first, but missed the second with 50.9 seconds showing. Nicci Miller got the rebound for the Seawolves, but was immediately called for traveling, returning the ball to SPU in frontcourt.
Johansson drew her fifth foul with 37.6 seconds to play, sending Henderson to the line. Both shots bounced away, but Reich rebounded the second one. Henderson wound up with the ball again, and Kelsie Gourdin picked up her fifth foul with 28.7 seconds left. This time, Henderson hit nothing but net on both free throws making it 48-45.
Anchorage's Nikki Aden went to the line for two with 18.9 seconds to play, but made just the first one. Hoisington rebounded the missed second shot and once again, the ball went to Henderson, who was fouled with 15.4 seconds to go and again drained both to make it a two-possession game at 50-46.
A driving lay-in by Aden cut the lead to 50-48 with 8.2 seconds left. Sims was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play and swished her two free throws for a 52-48 advantage at 6.8 seconds to go. Anchorage, out of timeouts, came down court, and Kaitlin McBride missed a long 3-pointer. Henderson corralled the rebound with three seconds to play, and the clock expired.
Henderson said it was no problem putting the two missed foul shots out of her mind when she returned to the line four more times during the final seconds of the game.
“Everyone gets a little jittery,” she said “I missed my first one, thought about it too much rather than refocusing, then missed again. But Mel got the board, we got it back, I got fouled again, and I knew going to the line, I was like, 'It's my normal thing, I do it every day, I'm good at it.'”
DEFENSE GETS IT DONE
The Falcons, one of the best defensive teams in all of Division II, helped themselves tremendously at that end of the court again. They kept the Seawolves 25 points below their 73.4 average, and 11 points below their season shooting percentage of .425. (Anchorage hit just .315 on Saturday, 17 of 51.)
SPU hit 37.2 percent for the game (16 of 43). The teams deadlocked on the boards at 37-37.
The Falcons have faced Chico State once this season, beating the Wildcats at the GNAC-CCAA Challenge at Bellingham in December, 63-44.
“We're going to celebrate tonight. And tomorrow, when we get back on that floor, we'll turn that page,” van Beek said. “We've never been to the Elite Eight with this group of kids, and we want to do that. The bottom line is we're going to enjoy today, but we still have another step to climb.”
NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
West Regional Semifinal
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Seattle Pacific 52, Alaska Anchorage 48
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (24-5)
Aden 3-10 1-2 8; Gourdin 3-9 2-3 8; Johansson 2-8 3-4 7; Gruwell 3-7 0-0 9; McBride 1-3 0-0 2; Miller 4-12 2-2 11; Stepovich 1-5 0-0 3; Herrin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-54 8-11 48.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (26-3)
Hoisington 5-11 1-2 12; Maloney 0-3 0-1 0; Reich 5-7 2-3 12; Harazin 0-6 1-2 1; Henderson 4-8 6-8 16; Sims 2-3 2-6 7; Rohrbach 0-4 2-2 2; Murray 0-1 2-2 2; Gorman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-43 16-26 52.
Alaska Anchorage.............. 19 29 - 48
Seattle Pacific..................... 26 26 - 52
3-point goals--UAA 6-21 (Gruwell 3-6; Aden 1-5; Stepovich 1-5; Miller 1-4; McBride 0-1), SPU 4-18 (Henderson 2-5; Hoisington 1-4; Sims 1-2; Murray 0-1; Harazin 0-3; Maloney 0-2; Rohrbach 0-1). Fouled out--UAA-Johansson; Gourdin, SPU-None. Rebounds--UAA 37 (Miller 9), SPU 37 (Hoisington 8; Sims 8). Assists--UAA 8 (Aden 3; Johansson 3), SPU 13 (Henderson 5). Total fouls--UAA 26, SPU 19. Technical fouls--UAA-None, SPU-None. Att.-551.
