THE SCHEDULE:         Thursday, Feb. 17: SPU at W. Oregon, 5:15 p.m. 
                                       New P.E. Building/Monmouth, Ore. 
                                       Live Webcast        Live stats 

                                       Saturday, Feb. 19: SPU at Saint Martin's, 5:15 p.m. 
                                       Marcus Pavilion/Lacey, Wash. 
                                       Live Webcast        No Live stats


        Weekly release, with complete stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – Some success on the road this week could go a long way to assuring that the Seattle Pacific Falcons get to play some extra women's basketball at home in two weeks.

The Falcons head out of town for the final time in Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season play when they visit Western Oregon on Thursday at 5:15 p.m., then head back to Seattle before taking a short trek south to Lacey on Saturday for a contest at Saint Martin's, also at 5:15.

With just four games left on the conference schedule, Seattle Pacific is trying to secure homecourt advantage for at least the first round of the GNAC Tournament. The right combination of results could seal that deal by the end of the week.

The Falcons – riding their first two-game winning streak since mid January – wind up the regular season next week in Brougham Pavilion with an unusual Tuesday-Thursday combination against Simon Fraser and Western Washington, respectively, both at 7 p.m.





MAGIC NUMBER UPDATE
The top eight teams in the final standings qualify for the inaugural GNAC Tournament, with the top four playing host to first-round games on Monday, Feb. 28. The two highest remaining seeds after the first round will be at home for the semifinials on Wednesday, March 2, and the highest-seeded survivor of those two games will host the championship on Saturday, March 5.

Seattle Pacific already has clinched a spot in the tournament. To clinch homecourt for the first round, the Falcons need any combination of SPU wins, plus losses by these contending teams that add up to the following numbers: 1 vs. Northwest Nazarene, 3 vs. Western Oregon, and 4 vs. Saint Martin's.

MILESTONE 300TH WIN FOR HEISEY
SPU head coach

took the microphone, with teammates Melissa Reich and Maddie Maloney at her side, and made the announcement to the crowd.

Heisey, in her 15th year as a head coach and in her sixth season at Seattle Pacific, is 300-151 overall, including 138-32 with the Falcons. Among active NCAA Division II coaches, she is now 35th in overall victories – one more than Van Girard at Cal State Dominguez Hills, who also had a chance at his 300th on Saturday, but the Toros fell to San Francisco State, 62-47. Craig Roden of West Alabama is right ahead of Heisey with 302. He got No. 300 on Jan. 27. The next notch up the active list? That's Greg Bruce of Western Oregon, who has 332 heading into this week.

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 at www.spufalcons.com. The only exception will be no live stats from Saturday's game at Saint Martin's. A video feed of that game will be available, but there is no audio.

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
Looming story lines from this week's games:

--SPU has won 26 straight games against Western Oregon. The Wolves swept two from the Falcons in 1981-82. But Seattle Pacific has taken every game since then, including a 64-54 decision on Jan. 22 in Brougham Pavilion.
--Saint Martin's came to Seattle brimming with confidence on Jan. 20 after coming from behind for a 61-53 homecourt victory against then-No. 11 Alaska Anchorage the previous Saturday. Then, the Saints did it again, scoring six of the final seven points to stun the Falcons, 54-53. SPU had won 12 in a row against Saint Martin's.

SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Coach Julie Heisey will be glad to take back-to-back wins any time. But she was especially happy to take them last week against Northwest Nazarene (65-62) and Central Washington (79-58).

“We have persevered,” Heisey said. “As good as Thursday night's win was where we had to gut it out, it was good to get a win (against Central) where we had a nine-point lead at halftime and we were able to extend that lead in the second half and truly have a tag-team operation going where all our kids got to play and did a really good job.”

In addition to a pair of tough opponent this week in Western Oregon and Saint Martin's, SPU will be logging some miles prior to taking the court.

“It's always hard to play at Western Oregon. It will be interesting to go down there in the middle of the week and come back and go back to Lacey,” Heisey said. “Both of these teams are hard match-ups because they're all guards, and they just drive, drive, drive – but they can also shoot 3's. So you have to mix up defenses. Hopefully, you don't give up too much of your zone, but you have to play a good man-to-man, too.

SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES (9-13, 7-7 GNAC)
All-time series: SPU leads, 26-2. Current series streak: SPU won 26. Last time: SPU 64, Western Oregon 54 (Jan. 22, 2011 at Seattle). Western Oregon on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: Western Oregon is coming off a split in Alaska last week, having beaten Fairbanks on Thursday before falling 71-47 at Anchorage on Saturday. The Wolves are led in scoring by senior guard Sara Zahler, whose 13.1-point average ranks No. 8 in the GNAC and includes a game-high 16-point outing at Seattle Pacific last month. Junior forward Rylee Peterson, at 5-11, is by far the conference's top shot blocker at 2.5 per game. Her 54 blocks is 24 more than the No. 2 total of 30 by Western Washington's Lauren Hefflin. Peterson also ranks No. 6 in GNAC rebounding at 6.8 per game. With Zahler leading the conference at 85.3 percent (58 of 68), the Wolves set the GNAC's free throw-shooting pace at 74.2 percent (296 of 399). Ironically, the Wolves hit just 60 percent against SPU in January (9 of 15) while the Falcons shot 80 percent that night (16 of 20).

SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS (13-9, 8-6 GNAC)
All-time series: SPU leads, 45-12. Current series streak: Saint Martin's won 1. Last time: Saint Martin's 54, SPU 53 (Jan. 20, 2011 at Seattle). Saint Martin's on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: After their monster week with back-to-back victories against Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific, the Saints have played .500 ball since then. That included last week's split in Alaska, with a 64-48 loss at Anchorage, and a 65-57 victory at Fairbanks. Senior forward Dara Zack, who went for 11 points in the Jan. 20 win at SPU, continues to fill up the hoop, averaging 15.5 points to rank No. 2 in the conference scoring race. She's also tied for 12th in rebounding at 6.4 per game and shoots at a 45.9 percent clip to rank No. 10. Senior guard Roni Jo Mielke, who buried the game-winning jumper from the left of the foul line with 13.6 seconds left last month in Seattle, is the GNAC's fifth-best 3-point shooter at 39.1 percent.

HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(GNAC ranking) 
                                      SPU           WOU          StM
Points                         66.3 (5)     64.0 (7)     62.1 (9)
Points allowed         57.7 (3)     70.0 (8)     58.9 (4)
Rebounds                  40.9 (1)     37.0 (9)     39.0 (5)
Assists                       16.0 (2)     11.4 (9)     11.8 (8)
Steals                            9.1 (6)     10.2 (3)       8.8 (7)
Blocks                           2.1 (9)       3.6 (4)       2.2 (8)
Turnovers                  17.9 (4)     22.4 (9)     18.5 (5)
FG percentage          .409 (3)     .389 (6)     .374 (8)
3-pt percentage        .291 (8)     .302 (5)     .337 (3)
FT percentage           .709 (7)     .742 (1)     .724 (3)

POLLING PLACE
Seattle Pacific is not among the top 25 teams in this week's USA Today/ESPN Division II coaches' poll, which was released on Tuesday. The Falcons received 26 points in the voting for the No. 32 spot on the list.

Clayton State of Georgia replaced Lander (S.C.) atop the poll after Lander was hit with its first loss last week. Clayton State (24-0) is the lone remaining unbeaten D-2 team.

The only rankings that really matter to SPU now are those for the West Region – and the Falcons were sitting at No. 10 on last Wednesday's list. Seattle Pacific needs to finish in the top eight to advance to next month's NCAA West Regional tournament. Current West No. 8 Chico State lost twice last week. Also ahead of SPU on last week's West  list was No. 9 Hawaii Pacific. However, the Sea Warriors play at national No. 10 Grand Canyon on Thursday, and at national No. 12 Dixie State on Saturday – then face those same two teams at home next week.

TURNING THE TABLES
When the Falcons visit Saint Martin's on Saturday, they clearly will be out for some redemption after falling 54-53 to the Saints at home last month. During the five-plus seasons coach Julie Heisey has been in charge at SPU, her teams have made good on four of their seven “turn-the-tables” opportunities. The Falcons did it twice last year, beating Grand Canyon and Western Washington in rematch games.

Their only try so far this season came up short when Montana State Billings managed to secure a two-game season sweep on Feb. 5 at Billings. Seattle Pacific will have at least one more chance get even with an opponent when Western Washington comes to town for the regular-season finale on Feb. 24. The Vikings won on Feb. 2 in Bellingham, 67-57.

RED-LETTER WEEK FOR GORMAN
Some players have big nights. Junior guard McKayla Gorman had that kind of a week. In last Thursday's 65-62 victory against Northwest Nazarene in Brougham, Gorman (Parker, Colo.) tied her career highs with nine points and three steals, ald also logged the first blocked shot in college.Then last Saturday against Central Washington, Gorman got the start in backcourt – just the fourth time as a Falcon that she has opened the game – and delivered in a big way with a career-best 14 points in a 79-58 romp past the Wildcats.

For the two games combined, Gorman shot 6 of 12 from the floor, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range, and was 7 of 8 from the line. She wound up with three rebounds, four assists and three steals in 37 total minutes.

CAREER BESTS IN BUNCHES
A total of six Seattle Pacific players combined to set four new career highs and tie seven others last week.

McKayla Gorman was responsible for two of the four new ones, with 14 points against Central Washington (five more than her previous best) and one block against Northwest Nazarene. Freshman guard Aubree Callen (Jerome, Idaho) earned a career-high five assists against Central, topping her previous best of three (at Western Washington on Feb. 2). The other new high was two assists for freshman forward Katie Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS), also coming against Central.

Tying career highs were Gorman (three steals vs. Northwest Nazarene), sophomore Michelle Teng (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS, two rebounds vs. Central), Callen (three steals vs. Central, one block vs. NNU), freshman Betsy Kingma (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS, one steal vs. Central), senior Maddie Maloney (three blocks vs. NNU) and Benson (two steals vs. Central).

600 SQUARED
Senior center Melissa Reich (Bothell, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS), who already had scored her 600th point on Jan. 15 at Northwest Nazarene, became just the 26th player in GNAC history to join the 600-600 club when she collected rebound No. 600 last Thursday at home against that same NNU team. So how close is she to 700-700? Scoring is definitely within reach, as she now has 677 points with a minimum of five more games (four regular season and at least one – possibly more in the postseason).

The rebounding mark will be a tougher challenge, however, as Reich currently has 609. On the other hand, she needs just 12 more boards to join the SPU all-time top-10. The No. 10 spot on the Falcon career rebounding list currently belongs to Barb Engebretson (1976-78) with 620. 

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT ...
As long as 600 pojnts is the topic of conversation, Maddie Maloney (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline HS) reached that career milestone last Thursday. In so doing, she became the 107th player in GNAC history to get there.

NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Seattle Pacific is known around the GNAC for its tough, tenacious defense. The Falcons also are in good company nationally. Their average of 57.7 points allowed per game ranks 40th among 294 NCAA Division II teams. The national leader is West Region foe Cal State Monterey Bay at 50.0 per game.

In addition, SPU has a top-25 ranking in rebounding margin. With 7.2 more boards per game than their opponents, the Falcons are No. 23 in D-2. The leader is Adams State of Colorado, with 12.5 more rebounds per game than its opponents.

Individually, the highest-ranked Falcon in any category is senior guard Maddie Maloney, who is No. 70 in steals at 2.4 per game.

CAREER MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th rebound – Rachel Murray (has 96), Katie Benson (has 84).
100th assist – Nyesha Sims (has 92).
200th assist – Jordan Harazin (has 192).
500th SPU point – Caitlyn Rohrbach (has 491; has 779 career).

CAREER MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100th game – Caitlyn Rohrbach (has 101).
200th point – Katie Benson (has 210), McKayla Gorman (has 208).
200th field goal made – Nyesha Sims (has 202).
300th coaching victory – Julie Heisey (has 300).
500th point – Nyesha Sims (has 508).
600th point – Maddie Maloney (has 606).
600th rebound – Melissa Reich (has 609).

FUN WITH GNAC NUMBERS
Points – 1, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) 19.5; 19, Nyesha Sims 10.4.
Rebounds – 1, Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) 11.9; 5, Sims 7.0.
Assists – 1, Kristina Collins (SFU) 4.4; 10, Maddie Maloney 2.9.
Assist/turnover ratio – 1, Kaitlin McBride (UAA) 1.9; T3, Maloney and Jordan Harazin 1.5; T9, McKayla Gorman 1.3.
Steals – 1, Shantell Marquis (MSB) 2.7 (59 total); 2, Maloney 2.4 (53 total).
Blocked shots – 1, Rylee Peterson (WOU) 2.5 (54 total); 11, Melissa Reich 0.8 (17 total).
FG percentage – 1, Raincock-Ekunwe (SFU) .618; 8, Katie Benson .470.
3-point percentage – 1, Heather Adams (NNU) .438; 2, Katie Benson .411.
FT percentage – 1, Sara Zahler (WOU) .853; 8, Benson .776.

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

UP NEXT
Just like that, the regular season is coming to a close, with the final two games next week in Brougham Pavilion. Conference newcomer Simon Fraser makes its first GNAC visit on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., followed by rival Western Washington on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7. The latter game will be Senior Night to honor Maddie Maloney, Melissa Reich and Caitlyn Rohrbach.

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             14-0         21-1
Alaska Anchorage                  12-3         21-5
Seattle Pacific                            9-5         15-7
Montana State Billings             9-5         13-9
Saint Martin's                             8-6         13-9
Western Oregon                       7-7          9-13
Northwest Nazarene                7-8       12-11
Simon Fraser                            3-11       6-13
Central Washington                 2-13       7-15
Alaska Fairbanks                     1-14        1-21