THE SCHEDULE:
Thursday, January 23       Western Oregon at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, January 25       Saint Martin's at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                               Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                               Live Webcast        Live stats


         Weekly release, with complete update stats (PDF) 
 
SEATTLE – Their current winning streak started at home. The Seattle Pacific Falcons now have a chance to keep it going at home.
 
With two more women's basketball road victories in the book, SPU is back in Brougham Pavilion this week to wind up the first half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule. Western Oregon will visit on Thursday, and conference co-leader Saint Martin's comes in on Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
 
The Falcons (11-4, 4-3 GNAC) had lost three straight games – all at home – before turning back Montana State Billings in a 63-57 victory on Jan. 11. Last week, they added to that with an 82-77 victory at Northwest Nazarene on Thursday, and a 73-65 win at Central Washington on Saturday.
 
SPU is 4-3 at home, and 7-1 away from Brougham Pavilion, including 5-1 in true road games and 2-0 on neutral courts.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live stats and free live Webcasts will be available from both of this week's games, and for all GNAC contests through the rest of the regular season. The Webcasts are through Stretch Internet, the conference's official video streaming provider. Appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
WOW – WHAT A WACKY SEASON
With the first half of the GNAC schedule winding down, not only is no team running way with the title chase, no team is alone in first place …or second … or third … or even fourth.
                             
There are, however, four teams tied for first. Alaska Anchorage, Montana State Billings, Saint Martin's and Western Washington all come into the week with 5-2 records. A year ago at this time, Western was unbeaten at 7-0, and Simon Fraser had just one loss (6-1).
 
In a year living up to the anyone-can-beat-anyone mantra, last-place Central Washington won at Simon Fraser, and Saint Martin's lost at Alaska Fairbanks, but then bounced back to knock off Alaska Anchorage on the Seawolves' floor. Among the four co-leaders, Anchorage has beaten Billings, and Western Washington topped Saint Martin's.
 
At least half of those four teams are going to have three losses by the end of Thursday, when Saint Martin's is at Billings, and Anchorage visits Western.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- In 2013, the Falcons ended the first half of the GNAC schedule at 4-5, 10-7 overall.
-- The conference's No. 2 and 3 scorers and rebounders will share the court on Thursday. Seattle Pacific's Katie Benson is second in both (20.7 points, 9.9 boards), and Western Oregon junior forward Dana Goularte is third (17.6 points, 9.1 rebounds).
-- When Benson takes the court on Thursday, it will be her 100^th game in an SPU uniform.
-- In the last two games, Benson has played the last 11:17 (4:58 at NNU, 6:19 at Central) with four fouls. She never picked up her fifth foul, but did pick up a combined three field goals, two free throws, five rebounds, three assists, and one blocked shot.
-- The Falcons swept both games from Western Oregon last year, giving coach Julie Heisey an all-time record of 16-1 against them.
-- This will be Heisey's first game against new Wolves coach Holli Howard-Carpenter.
-- The SPU-Saint Martin's game will be a match-up of the conference's two best defenses, both in terms of fewest points allowed (59.8 for the Saints, 62.5 for the Falcons) and opponents' field goal shooting (.343 for the Saints .367 for the Falcons).
-- That game also will feature three of the GNAC's best free throw shooters: the Saints' Angela Gelhar (No. 3 at .865), and SPU's Suzanna Ohlsen (No. 5 at .848), and Katie Benson (No. 7 at .835).
-- Heisey is 15-2 all-time against Saint Martin's and coach Tim Healy, who is in his 18^th season as the Saints' head coach.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES: 5-10, 2-5 GNAC (tie 8^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 33-3. Current series streak: SPU won 2. Last time: SPU 64, WOU 55 (Feb. 2, 2013 at Seattle). Wolves on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: Western Oregon has had a tough go of it so far, and has lost four of its last five games, but gave Simon Fraser all it could handle last Saturday in Monmouth before the Clan pulled away, 56-47. Dana Goularte, a 6-foot junior forward, is doing a lot of everything for the Wolves. She leads the team and ranks No. 3 in the GNAC in scoring (17.6) and rebounding (9.1). She has five double-doubles. Goularte also tops WOU in field goal shooting (.517, third-best in the GNAC), and is accurate from behind the 3-point arc (.474). Senior 5-7 guard Chantel Divilbiss averages 12.7 points per game. While they are the most dangerous threats, the Wolves do have others who can fill up the hoop. Jordan Mottershaw, a 5-10 freshman guard, score 19 in an 81-77 win at Fairbanks on Jan. 11, and Kelsey Henry, a 6-1 sophomore forward, went for 17 in last Thursday's 78-58 loss to Western Washington.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS: 11-5, 5-2 GNAC (tie 1^st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 47-13. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 71, CWU 67 (Jan. 31, 2013 at Seattle). Saints on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: Saint Martin's was picked for an eighth-place finish in the GNAC preseason coaches poll, receiving just 29 points. But the Saints have been playing way above that. They won at Alaska Anchorage two weeks ago, 85-78, then beat Simon Fraser last Thursday in Lacey, 83-81. Saint Martin's doesn't always pile up the points – its average of 68.5 is ninth in the 10-team GNAC. But the Saints are tough defensively. They're the only conference team allowing less than 60 points a game (59.8). And opponents have a tougher time shooting against them (.343) than against any other team in the GNAC. Chelsea Haskey, a 6-1 senior forward, averages 13.4 points per game, with 5-6 junior guard Angela Gelhar close behind at 12.8. Haskey also pulls down an average of 7.1 rebounds. She came up big against  SPU last year, with 39 points and 19 rebounds in the two games combined as each team won at home.
 
COACH JULIE HEISEY SAYS …
(On this week's games)
"Both teams play very hard – they're just good, fundamental players, and that's characteristic of both teams. They both have a lot of drivers, but they're also good at driving and kicking and making the extra pass and hitting open 3s. We have to be aware of that."
 
(On Western Oregon)
Dana Goularte is a very good all-around player. Chantel Divilbiss is a really smart player, a good defender and a good shooter. Those are two players I remember from last year."
 
(On Saint Martin's)
"They always cause you problems defensively because (coach Tim Healy) is really good at switching defenses, and they're very good at running a match-up zone. It's hard to play against because no one else runs anything like it. Saint Martin's is hard to guard because they're always moving, both away from the ball, as well as with the ball. They're well coached, they play hard, and they create problems offensively and defensively by their style of play."
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- Suzanna Ohlsen scored 21 points, getting 10 of those in the last 1 minute, 50 seconds of the game, and Betsy Kingma also tallied 21 for her career high as SPU came from behind, then hung on to beat Northwest Nazarene last Thursday in Nampa, 82-77.
-- Katie Benson scored 23 points, getting six of those in the last 6:19 while she was playing with four fouls, and SPU survived a back-and-forth battle against Central Washington to beat the Wildcats last Saturday in Ellensburg, 73-65.
                                                                                         
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
The Falcons did not have a double-double last week. Senior forward Katie Benson is the only SPU player in the double-double log this season, recording six.
 
2013-14 double-doubles:
Katie Benson (6 season, 16 career): 20 pts-10 reb vs. Humboldt State, Nov. 8; 20 pts-17 reb vs. Point Loma Nazarene, Nov. 16; 31 pts-14 reb at Azusa Pacific, Nov. 23; 26 pts-12 reb at Alaska Anchorage, Dec. 7; 19 pts-14 reb vs. South Dakota Mines, Dec. 19; 18 pts-10 reb vs. Montana State Billings, Jan. 11.
 
TIMELY SWIPES FOR SUZANNA
Suzanna Ohlsen's second steal of the game last Thursday at Northwest Nazarene was the 100th of her career. But her fourth of the game and 102nd overall turned out to be much bigger.
                               
The theft by the junior guard came with 2:14 left and the Falcons clinging to a 69-68 lead after having been down 68-65 just one minute earlier. It eventually led to a driving lay-in and one for Ohlsen, which she converted for a 72-68 advantage. Those became the first three of 10 points that Ohlsen (Monroe, Wash. / Monroe HS) scored in the last 1 minute, 50 seconds, as SPU hung on for an 82-77 victory.



 
HEATING UP FROM DOWNTOWN
A week ago, junior guard Betsy Kingma (Bellevue, Wash. / Newport HS) took over the spot on the SPU list as the most recent player to hit five or more 3-pointers in a game when she drained five in a 63-57 victory against Montana State Billings on Jan. 11.
 
Last Thursday at Northwest Nazarene, Kingma revised that stat line again, sinking six treys – all during the first half – to help beat the Crusaders, 82-77. The last time a Falcon hit that many in a game was Daesha Henderson, who had six on Feb. 27, 2010 against Central Washington.
 
FRESHMAN'S PHENOMENAL WEEK
Not only did Hannah Rodrigues (Eugene, Ore.) tally a career-high 10 points last Thursday at Northwest Nazarene, she got them with a perfect shooting night: 5 of 5 from the floor.
 
This time, the double-digit scoring performance officially goes into the book for the freshman guard / forward, who has become a contributing fixture in the starting lineup in place of injured Aubree Callen. Rodrigues also had 10 points on Dec. 14 in an 84-38 victory against Warner Pacific. But since that was just an exhibition game, those stats did not count.
 
Rodrigues kept it going last Saturday at Central Washington, hitting both of her shots from the floor (one of them a 3-pointer, and sinking 4 of 5 from the free throw line, including a pair with 13.1 seconds left as the Falcons hung on, 73-65.
For the week, she totaled 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot in 66 minutes.
 
AROUND THE WEST
While four GNAC teams come into this week knotted for first place, Cal Poly Pomona is enjoying a two-game lead atop the California Collegiate Athletic Association standings. The 14th-ranked Broncos are 12-2 overall, 9-1 in conference play. Behind them, three teams – Cal State Stanislaus (10-4, 7-3 CCAA), UC San Diego (10-4, 7-3) and Cal State East Bay (10-7, 7-3) are tied for second.
 
In the Pacific West, Azusa Pacific and Academy of Art are tied for first at 8-1. Azusa is 10-5 overall, but is not yet eligible for the NCAA Tournament this year because it is in just its second year as a Division II member. Art is 11-6 overall. Close behind is Hawaii Pacific at 7-2 (11-4 overall).
 
In non-conference games, which will factor into the West Region rankings when they start coming out in February, the GNAC went 6-3 against CCAA schools and 23-10 against the Pacific West. The CCAA dominate the Pac West, 19-3.
 
POLLING PLACE
Even though they've gotten back on track by winning three straight games – the last two of those on the road – the Falcons did not receive any votes in this week's USA Today Sports / WBCA coaches poll that was released on Tuesday. For the second straight week, the GNAC does not have any teams in the top 25. However, Alaska Anchorage is atop the 'others receiving votes' list with 56 points, just three points behind No. 25 Minnesota State-Mankato.
 
The only West Region team in the top 25 is Cal Poly Pomona, which move up three places to No. 14. Also from the GNAC, Northwest Nazarene (12), Saint Martin's (10), Simon Fraser (8) and Montana State Billings (3) all received votes.
 
Bentley of Massachusetts (16-0), one of five remaining undefeated teams, is still No. 1.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100^th block            Katie Benson (has 92)
100^th game           Katie Benson (has 99)
200^th assist          Suzanna Ohlsen (has 188)
200^th point            Maddey Pflaumer (has 187)
400^th point            Betsy Kingma (has 377)
                                                                     
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100^th steal             Suzanna Ohlsen (has 104)
700^th point             Suzanna Ohlsen (has 711)
1,400^th point          Katie Benson (has 1,434)
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
- -Katie Benson 21^st in NCAA D2 scoring (20.7 points per game). She also is 35^th in rebounding (9.9).
-- SPU is tied for No. 12 in blocks per game (5.1), a jump of three spots from last week. The Falcons jumped seven spots in free throw shooting, now 24^th at .761.

Click on this link to see how the Falcons and other GNAC teams and players stack up nationally.
 
TRACKING THOSE GNAC TOP 10s
SPU has four of its starters among the top 10 in various GNAC statistical categories.
-- Katie Benson 2^nd in scoring (20.7), 2^nd in rebounds (9.9), tie 4^th in steals (2.2), 5^th in blocked shots (1.6), 5^th in field goal shooting (.504), 7^th in free throw shooting (.835).
-- Betsy Kingma tie 2^nd in 3-pointers made per game (2.1), tie 6^th in minutes (31.3).
-- Suzanna Ohlsen tie 4^th in minutes (32.1), 5^th in assists (4.1), 5^th in free throw shooting (.848), tie 7^th in assist / turnover ratio (1.4), tie 8^th in steals (1.9).
-- Maddey Pflaumer tie 8^th blocked shots (1.1).

Click on this link for complete GNAC statistics.      
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for results, stats, news, and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons start the second half of the GNAC schedule with a three-game road trip. The first two of those are next week, with a visit to Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C., on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m., and then a stop in Bellingham to face Western Washington on Saturday, Feb., 1 at 5:15 p.m. The Falcons will look to even the score against both teams, as Western won in Brougham, 84-77, and Simon Fraser prevailed, 63-60, earlier this month.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                GNAC                    Overall
Alaska Anchorage                 5-2                        12-3
Montana State Billings         5-2                        12-5
Saint Martin's                         5-2                        11-5
Western Washington            5-2                          9-6
Seattle Pacific                        4-3                         11-4
Simon Fraser                         4-3                        10-5
Northwest Nazarene             3-5                        10-6
Alaska Fairbanks                  2-5                           8-7
Western Oregon                    2-5                          5-10
Central Washington              1-7                          6-10