GNAC-CCAA CHALLENGE SCHEDULE
All games at Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.         
Friday, Dec. 9            Western Washington vs. Chico State, 5:00 p.m.
                                     Live Webcast        Live stats
 
                                     Sonoma State at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                     Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
Saturday, Dec. 10    Western Washington vs. Sonoma State, 5:00 p.m.
                                     Live Webcast        Live stats
 
                                     Chico State at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                     Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons wind up their academic finals this week. But more early-season women's basketball exams await them in the gym when they play host to the GNAC-CCAA Challenge.
 
The two-day tournament is set for Friday and Saturday in Brougham Pavilion as the Falcons will welcome Sonoma State, Chico State and Western Washington to town. Western plays the 5 p.m. opening game of both doubleheaders, facing Chico State on Friday and Sonoma State on Saturday. SPU takes the floor for the 7 p.m. nightcap against the opposite opponent.
 
This is the second portion of the two-phase tournament between the rival Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Seattle Pacific split the first portion on the opening weekend of the season in the San Francisco Bay area, losing to UC San Diego, then bouncing back to beat San Francisco State.
 
The Falcons are coming in on a definite high, having led wire to wire last Saturday night in an 82-66 victory against Western Washington in Bellingham.
 
SPU's schedule goes quiet next week. The only remaining game before Christmas is Monday, Dec. 19 when Pacific Lutheran comes to Brougham. That also will be the last non-conference contest for the Falcons.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live stats and live Webcasts will be available for all four of this week's tournament games. Links can be found at the top of this story.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The Falcons are 22-6 all-time in GNAC-CCAA Challenge games, including 4-0 in Seattle.
--This is the seventh straight season these teams have gotten together. SPU lost to both Sonoma and Chico in 2005 and 2006, but has swept the two games for the past four years.
--The current SPU seniors are 16-2 all-time against CCAA schools, including 4-0 against Chico State and 3-0 against Sonoma State.
--In last year's tournament at Sonoma State in Rohnert Park, Calif., Nyesha Sims hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lift the Falcons past Chico State on the final night, 57-56.
--Natasha Smith, Chico's spark plug guard, suffered a season-ending knee injury one week before last year's game against Seattle Pacific. When the teams met in the 2010 NCAA Division II West Regional championship game in Brougham Pavilion, Smith had 12 points to help keep it close before the Falcons pulled out a 76-68 victory.
--In various preseason tournaments through the years, the Falcons are 30-0 in Brougham Pavilion. That includes 22-0 in the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic (which also has gone by other names), 4-0 in GNAC-CCAA Challenge games, and 4-0 in the Falcon Classic/Falcon Invitational.
 
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
After a disappointing loss at Simon Fraser, Falcons coach Julie Heisey was delighted to see her players respond the way they did last Saturday night at Western Washington.
 
“One of the things that has been my biggest concern and frustration this year was our defense, and I thought we played very good defense on a good team, a team that really can score,” Heisey said. “We wanted to rebound well, and we did.”
 
But there was more to the story that.
 
“The other thing is, what's our mentality? Are we going to set the tone?” Heisey said. “From the opening tip, we came out and really attacked and showed we really wanted to win, and I think we played the majority of the game that way. This was our best defensive effort. We still had some lulls where we didn't score – some of that is timing and execution because it's still early December. But I didn't feel like we had a defensive lapse. Just that intensity and focus is a huge confidence builder.”
 
SONOMA STATE SEAWOLVES: 2-2, 1-2 CCAA (tie 8th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 9-3. Current series streak: SPU won 5. Last time: SPU 64, Sonoma 49 (Dec. 10, 2010 at Rohnert Park, Calif.). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: The Seawolves, coming off a 9-18 season, have split their first four games, two of which have gone to overtime (a 55-54 victory against Colorado Mesa in the season opener, and a 64-59 loss at Cal State Monterey Bay last Saturday). Sonoma State had a 15-point lead midway through the second half against Monterey Bay before the Otters stormed back. Junior 6-foot-1 center Elizabeth Day is coming off a career-high 19 points against Monterey Bay, and averages 7.8 points for the season. Senior 5-6 Jaclyn Bisordi is Sonoma's leading scorer at 10.3 points per game, and is the only Seawolf averaging in double figures. She went for a game-high 17 against the Falcons in last year's game. No one else had more than nine for Sonoma.
 
CHICO STATE WILDCATS: 3-2, 2-1 CCAA (tie 4th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 12-4. Current series streak: SPU won 5. Last time: SPU 57, Chico State 56 (Dec. 11, 2010 at Rohnert Park, Calif.). Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: Chico State can come at teams with any number of effective weapons. Jazmine Miller, a 5-foot-7 sophomore guard, is leading the offensive charger with her average of 12.4 points per game, and 5-6 junior point guard Synchro Bull is close behind at 10.2. Then there's 5-5 senior guard Natasha Smith. She's averaging just 6.6 points at the moment, but is capable of putting up big numbers. She was scoring at a 14.5 clip early last December when she went down with a season-ending knee injury. The Wildcats kept it together, going 15-12 overall, 12-10 in the CCAA and qualifying for the conference tournament. Last Saturday, Chico took a 24-24 halftime tie into the locker room at national No. 12-ranked Cal Poly Pomona before the Broncos came to life in the second half and pulled away to a 70-55 victory. Miller had 18 points for the Wildcats.
 
HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(GNAC / CCAA rankings)
                                                SPU                        SONOMA              CHICO
Points                                     69.9 (3)                  56.8 (8)                  59.6 (7)
Points allowed                     62.1 (5)                  52.5 (2)                  59.0 (8)
Rebounds                              39.1 (5)                  35.0 (10)               35.4 (8)
Assists                                  15.9 (3)                  10.5 (7)                  11.2 (5)
Blocks                                     2.0 (T7)                  2.3 (5)                    1.4 (T8)
Steals                                      7.6 (8)                    8.5 (10)                10.4 (4)
Fewest turnovers               19.3 (5)                 18.5 (6)                  19.2 (8)
FG percent                            .443 (3)                 .416 (2)                  .389 (7)
3-point percent                   .380 (1)                  .254 (10)               .343 (5)
FT percent                            .772 (1)                  .717 (4)                 .800 (1)
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- The Falcons wiped out most of a 12-point second-half deficit, getting as close as three in the late going before falling to Simon Fraser in their GNAC opener last Thursday night in the Clan's West Gym, 79-74.
-- Senior guard Nyesha Sims logged a double-double of 10 points and 13 on Saturday, and sophomore forward Katie Benson pumped in a career-high 24 points, leading SPU past Western Washington in Bellingham, 82-66.
                                                                                                                           
NUMBER ONE TIMES TWO
The Falcons have shot their way to the top of the GNAC statistical lists for 3-pointers and free throws. SPU is .380 from downtown (49 of 129). Leading the way is sophomore Betsy Kingma (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) who has drained an even 50 percent of her attempts (10 of 20). Close behind is Rachel Murray at .467 (7 of 15), good enough to rank No. 4 in the conference.
 
At the foul line, Seattle Pacific is hitting at a .772 clip (98 of 127). Not only is that 34 points better than No. 2 Northwest Nazarene (.748), it's a phenomenal 135 points ahead of where the Falcons were a year ago after seven games (.637). Junior forward Rachel Murray (Eglington, New South Wales, Australia) leads the team and the GNAC with her .889 percentage (16 of 18), and senior guard Jordan Harazin (Colfax, Wash./Colfax HS) is tied for fifth at .833 (15 of 18).
 
BUT WAIT – THERE'S MORE
Thanks to a pair of high-scoring performances last week, sophomore forward Katie Benson has taken over the GNAC scoring lead. Benson pumped in 22 points in last Thursday's 79-74 loss at Simon Fraser, then came back with a career-high 24 in last Saturday's 82-66 victory at Western Washington. Benson's average is 17.6 points per game, slightly ahead of Western Oregon's Rylee Peterson, who averages 17.3.
 
Benson has set the scoring pace for SPU in four of this season's seven games – and that's the last four a row, with three of those performances topping 20 points.

Click on this link for a look at complete GNAC statistics.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Senior guard Nyesha Sims racked up 10 points and 13 rebounds last Saturday for her first double-double of the season and the sixth of her career. The other five for Sims were all put into the books last season.
 
That also was SPU's second double-double of the year. Katie Benson had the first one when she tallied 12 points and collected 11 rebounds in a 70-59 victory against Cal State East Bay on Nov. 18. She has two career double-doubles.
 
Sims and Benson are the only two current Falcons with double-doubles.
 
PASSING HER WAY TO A PR
Senior center Joani Reimer (Ferndale, Wash./Lynden Christian HS) set a career high last Thursday when she earned two assists against Simon Fraser. Just 48 hours later, she came back and did it again, tying that mark with two more assists against Western Washington.
 
EVERYONE GETS INTO THE ACT
Not only did all 12 active Falcons get into the game last Saturday at Western Washington, all 12 of them got into the scoring column. While that sort of thing isn't going to happen every night, Seattle Pacific has been getting some outstanding production from its reserves all season.
 
In seven games so far, the players off the bench have combined for their own point-rebound double-double in five of them – and the Falcons have won all five. That included 23 points and 10 rebounds at Western. The reserves teamed up for a season-high 36 points in an 89-66 victory against Harding University on Nov. 19, and had a season-high 21 rebounds in a 56-37 win against San Francisco State on Nov. 12.
 
The only two games SPU has lost were when the reserves didn't manage a double-double: 79-74 at Simon Fraser (25 points, but just seven rebounds) and 68-47 to UC San Diego (five points, four rebounds).
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100^th field goal – Rachel Murray (has 94).
100^th steal – Nyesha Sims (has 81).
400^th point – Katie Benson (has 389).
400^th rebound – Nyesha Sims (has 397).
 
TICKET TALK
Tickets for SPU's home games can be purchased at Brougham Pavilion (3414 3rd Ave. W.) on match day. Ticket windows open one hour prior to the listed start time for all home games.

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 a look at news, notes, schedule and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.              
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons play host to Pacific Lutheran on Monday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. in the final non-conference game of the season. They'll have another 10 days off after that before resuming GNAC play on Dec. 29 at home against Western Oregon University at 7 p.m. The final game of 2011 will be on the final day of 2011 when Saint Martin's makes a 4 p.m. visit to Brougham Pavilion on New Year's Eve.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                             GNAC   Season
Simon Fraser                       2-0          5-1
Western Oregon                  2-0          2-6
Alaska Anchorage               1-0          5-2
Seattle Pacific                      1-1          5-2
Western Washington          1-1          4-2
Northwest Nazarene           1-1          5-3
Saint Martin's                       1-1          4-5
Alaska Fairbanks                0-1          3-6
Montana State Billings       0-2          3-4
Central Washington           0-2          2-3