THE SCHEDULE:     Thursday, Jan. 27: SPU at Ak. Anchorage, 6:15 p.m. PST 
                                   Wells Fargo Center/Anchorage, Alaska 
                                   Live Webcast        Live stats 

                                  Saturday, Jan. 29: SPU at Ak. Fairbanks, 2:00 p.m. PST 
                                  The Patty Center/Fairbanks, Alaska 
                                   Live Webcast        Live stats


        Weekly release, with complete stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – If it seems as if the Seattle Pacific Falcons just finished playing their two Great Northwest Athletic Conference rivals from Alaska … that's because they just did.

But, thanks to a quirk in the schedule, the Falcons will do it again, this time on the road as they visit Alaska Anchorage on Thursday night and Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday, seeking to stay in the conference title hunt.

SPU is coming off a split of two Homecoming week games, having fallen by one point to Saint Martin's last Thursday, 54-53, then bouncing back to down Western Oregon on Homecoming Saturday, 64-54.

The Falcons wound up a very busy Christmas break against their Alaska counterparts four weeks ago. On New Year's Day, they beat Fairbanks in Brougham Pavilion, 80-64. Then on Jan. 3 – the last of four games in six days – Seattle Pacific fended off Anchorage, 71-67.

IT'S TV TIME FOR THE FALCONS
Seattle Pacific hits the Pacific Northwest airwaves next Wednesday, Feb. 2. The Falcons trek north to Bellingham for a GNAC showdown against first-place Western Washington in Carver Gym. The game will be shown live on FSN Northwest, with tip-off at 6 p.m.

That contest is part of a nine-game package between the GNAC and FSN, and it is the only women's game that will be shown.

This is the second time in the past three season that the Falcon women have been on television. The last time was in February 2009 when SPU scored a 66-55 victory against Northwest Nazarene in a game that was shown nationally on the CBS College Sports network.





FOLLOW IT LIVE
All Seattle Pacific home games and almost all GNAC road games will have live Webcast and live stats feeds available online. Fans can find the appropriate links by clicking on the Live Stats or Webcast icons on the live coverage home page. The only exceptions will be no live Webcast from the game at Western Washington on Feb. 2 (that contest will be carried live by Fox Sports Northwest television), and no live stats from the game at Saint Martin's on Feb. 19.

CLOSING IN ON 300 WINS
Now, it's down to three victories for Seattle Pacific head coach Julie Heisey to reach 300 for her career. Her 297th went into the books last Saturday when the Falcons downed Western Oregon on Homecoming day in Brougham Pavilion, 64-54. Heisey, now in her 15th year as a head coach, is 297-146 overall. In her sixth year at SPU, she is 135-27 with the Falcons.

SO WHAT'S THIS WEEK'S STORY?
--The Falcons have won their last four games against Alaska Anchorage, something that has never happened previously. That included a 67-60 come-from-behind victory in Anchorage last season.
--Anchorage was the slight favorite to win last season's conference titie, but SPU won it instead. This year, Seattle Pacific came in as the conference favorite, but heads to UAA trailing Western Washington by two games.
--SPU has won 18 straight games against Fairbanks. The last loss to the Nanooks was 75-71 at Fairbanks on Jan. 12, 2002.
--In her 15th year as a head coach and her sixth at Seattle Pacific, Julie Heisey is three wins away from her 300th.

SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Taking on their Alaska counterparts for the second time in less than a month isn't necessarily the way SPU head coach Julie Heisey would have written the schedule. But she said the Falcons are eager to take it on as it comes.

“Obviously, our conference schedule is a little bit odd this year – we're going to play Anchorage and Fairbanks again before we play Western,” Heisey said. “It's a good challenge. I think our team has played well on the road, for the most part.”

While every game is a potential measuring stick of a team's progress, seeing the Seawolves and Nanooks twice in such a short time span gives Heisey's team an even better opportunity for comparison.

“It'll be nice to see where we're at and see how much different we are now than we were at the first of January,” she said.

Anchorage, in particular, presents a challenge on its home court.

"They do a great job of starting the half with such high intensity," Heisey said. "We have to make sure that we're just as intense, that we're matching their intensity, or that our intensity is higher than theirs. ... That's where every possession counts. You have to want it, and you have to make sure you go get it."

SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES (15-5, 6-3 GNAC)
All-time series: SPU leads, 38-15. Current series streak: SPU won 4. Last time: SPU 71, Alaska Anchorage 67 (Jan. 3, 2011 at Seattle). Alaska Anchorage on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: UAA has hit an unusual skid of late, dropping two of its last three. The first of those was a 61-53 decision at Saint Martin's on Jan. 15 – the same Saints team that returned to the court five days later and won at SPU last Thursday, 54-53. Then last Saturday, the Seawolves got hammered on their home court by Western Washington, 81-61. Anchorage has lost just five times at home in the past five seasons, and the last team to win there by double digits was SPU, 67-34, in 2006. The Seawolves' most dangerous weapon is 6-2 junior forward Hanna Johansson, who averages a team-leading 13.9 points and is No. 2 for UAA at 6.4 rebounds. Senior guard/forward Nikki Aden (11.9 points) and sophomore forwards Alyssa Horn (10.6 points, 7.0 rebounds) also can do plenty of damage. Statistically, Anchorage is the GNAC's toughest defensive teams, in terms of fewest points allowed (53.2) and lowest opponents' shooting percentage (35.8).

SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS (1-15, 1-8 GNAC)
All-time series: SPU leads, 46-12. Current series streak: SPU won 18. Last time: SPU 80, Alaska Fairbanks 64 (Jan. 1, 2011 at Seattle). Alaska Fairbanks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Since their New Year's Day visit to Seattle, Alaska Fairbanks has gotten into the win column with a 76-71 homecourt victory against Central Washington on Jan. 6. The Nanooks are led in scoring by senior center Nicole Bozek, a native of Mariner High School in Mukilteo, about an hour north of Seattle. Bozek averages 14.6 points per game and is coming off a 28-point outing last Saturday against Simon Fraser. She has four games of 20-plus this season, including 22 against SPU on Jan. 1. Junior guard Autumn Greene averages 10.7 points and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds. Greene tallied 12 points, but grabbed just two boards against SPU last time. Greene has a pair of double-digit rebounding performances so far, with a high of 13 at Western Oregon on Jan. 15.

HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(GNAC ranking) 
                                SPU             UAA             UAF
Points                    66.1 (5)       70.9 (2)       59.1 (10)
Points allowed    57.6 (3)       53.2 (1)       76.2 (10)
Rebounds             41.3 (1)       41.2 (2)       39.4 (5)
Assists                 16.3 (1)       14.0 (6)          9.1 (10)
Steals                      9.2 (6)       13.7 (1)          6.3 (10)
Blocks                     1.9 (9)         3.3 (5)          2.5 (7)
Turnovers            17.6 (4)       16.9 (2)       24.4 (10)
FG percentage    .403 (4)       .392 (6)       .351 (10)
3-pt percentage .280 (7)       .275 (8)       .268 (10)
FT percentage    .714 (5)       .709 (6)       .708 (7)

A .400 HITTER

Now in her third and final season at SPU, senior forward Caitlyn Rohrbach (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale HS) has raised her field goal shooting percentage every year. She shot .357as a sophomore, .391 as a junior, and is at .449 midway through this season. Now, she also has pushed past the .400 mark for her career, coming into this week at .401. Rohrbach was at .399 for her career prior to last week's games, then shot a combined 8 for 18 (.444) to top .400.

102 POINTS IN 42 DAYS
That's how much the Falcons have improved their free throw shooting in the past month and a half. SPU was hitting .612 through its first six games of the season. In last week's two games, the Falcons went a combined 22 of 29, and now have bumped their average to .714, the fifth-best mark in the GNAC.

REICH MOVES INTO GNAC TOP 10 IN ONE CATEGORY…
Senior center

, who has 115 total and averages 7.2 per game.

… AND NEARS THE ALL-TIME TOP 20 IN TWO CATEGORIES
With 576 career rebounds, Reich now ranks 29th on the all-time GNAC list. She started the season in 43rd place. Reich needs 78 more to join the top 20, and with 10 regular-season games left plus postseason play, that seems very reasonably within reach. Last week, Reich past former SPU star Valerie Gustafson's career total of 565, and is one solid game away from exceeding the 584 that Megan Hoisington collected from 2007-10.

Besides her rebounding, Reich is now 21st on the GNAC career list for blocked shots with 63. She needs three more to supplant Alana Erickson of Saint Martin's (65 blocks from 1999-2003) for a place among the top 20.

RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
Former SPU star Mandy Wood now has the second-highest total of 3-pointers made for her GNAC career. Western Washington's Amanda Dunbar passed Wood last week, and now has 236. Wood drained 234 from 2003-06.

BENSON THRICE A TOP-10ER
Redshirt freshman forward Katie Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) now has not one spot in the GNAC top 10, but three. She already was among the conference leaders in 3-point shooting, and still is No. 6 at 40.9 percent. She has moved up in overall field goal and free throw shooting, as well. Benson ranks No. 6 in field goal percentage this week at 48.6, moving up from last week's No. 13 at .479. And, she now has made enough free throws to qualify for a spot among the conference leaders, ranking No. 9 at 74.4 percent.

THE GOOD-HANDS PEOPLE

As the Falcons gradually have cut down on turnovers while continuing to pass the ball with precision, that has started to show up in the individual statistics, too. SPU has three players among this week's GNAC top-10 for assist/turnover ratio. Senior guard Maddie Maloney (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline HS) is tied for fourth at 1.6; junior guard Jordan Harazin (Colfax, Wash./Colfax HS) is sixth at 1.5, and junior guard McKayla Gorman (Parker, Colo.) has joined the group in a tie for 10th at 1.2.

MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th free throw made – Maddie Maloney (has 98).
200th point – McKayla Gorman (has 177).
200th field goal made – Maddie Maloney (has 193), Nyesha Sims (has 181).
300th rebound – Caitlyn Rohrbach (has 293).
300th coaching victory – Julie Heisey (has 297).
500th point – Nyesha Sims (has 461).
600th rebound – Melissa Reich (has 576; No. 600 would put her above that total in points and rebounds).

MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100th game – Maddie Maloney (has 100).
100th steal – Melissa Reich (has 100).
400th point – Jordan Harazin (has 401).

FUN WITH GNAC NUMBERS
Points – 1, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) 19;4; 13, Nyesha Sims 11.1.
Rebounds – 1, Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) 11.5; T5, Sims 7.2; T9, Melissa Reich 6.9.
Assists – 1, (tie) Kristina Collins (SFU) and Luv Rattler (CWU) 4.5; T7, Maddie Maloney 3.1.
Assist/turnover ratio – 1, Kaitlin McBride (UAA) 1.9; T4, Maloney 1.6; 6, Jordan Harazin 1.5; T10, McKayla Gorman 1.2.
Steals – 1, Shantell Marquis (MSUB) 2.6 (44 total); 3, Maloney 2.4 (39 total).
Blocked shots – 1, Rylee Peterson (WOU) 2.4 (40 total); T11, Reich 0.7 (11 total).
Field goal percentage – 1, Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) .620; 6, Katie Benson .486.
3-point percentage – 1, Megan Pinske (WWU) .458; 6, Benson .409.
Free throw percentage – 1, Sara Zahler (WOU) .875; 9, Benson .744.

Click on this link for a look at GNAC statistical leaders. Click on this link to see how Seattle Pacific and GNAC players and coaches stack up nationally in NCAA Division II.

POLLING PLACE
Seattle Pacific stayed among the top 25 teams in this week's USA Today/ESPN Division II coaches' poll, which was released on Tuesday. The Falcons are right at No. 25, receiving 107 points in the voting. They were No. 20 last week.

Lander (S.C.) remained No. 1 with its 19-0 record, receiving 27 of the 29 first-place votes and 722 points.
The West Region still has five teams among the top 25, with Western Washington moving up two places to No 8. Alaska Anchorage fell two places to No. 17 after falling by 20 points at home to Western last Saturday. Dixie State moved up two spots to No. 11, and Grand Canyon stayed steady at No. 12. Cal State Monterey Bay heads the 'others receiving votes' list this week, ranking No. 26.

The first regional rankings, which ultimately determine which eight teams from the West advance to the NCAA Tournament, are due to be released on Wednesday, Jan. 26.

UP NEXT
The road calls the Falcons again next week. They'll visit Western Washington in Bellingham on Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. for the FSN Northwest regionally televised game. Then on Saturday, Feb. 5, the cross the mountains to Montana State Billings, seeking to even the score with the Yellowjackets in a 4:15 p.m. PST game after Billings pulled off a 59-50 upset in Brougham Pavilion on Jan. 8.

TICKET TALK
Tickets for SPU's home games can be purchased at Brougham Pavilion (3414 3rd Ave. W.) on game day. Ticket windows open one hour prior to the listed start times.

Reserved seats are $8 for center court and $7 for the foul lines. General admission tickets are priced at $6 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. Groups or teams of 10 or more may qualify for special general admission rates by calling (206) 281-2085 at least 72 hours in advance.

SPU students who show their school identification will be admitted free to all home games.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for results, schedules, news and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.


GNAC STANDINGS 
                                                 GNAC     Overall
Western Washington             8-0         15-1
Seattle Pacific                         6-2         12-4
Alaska Anchorage                  6-3         15-5
Northwest Nazarene             5-4         10-7
Saint Martin's                          5-4         10-7
Montana State Billings          5-4           9-8
Western Oregon                     5-4          7-10
Central Washington              1-7           6-9
Simon Fraser                         1-7           4-9
Alaska Fairbanks                  1-8           1-15

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