THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Dec. 4 Alaska Fairbanks at No. 23 SPU, 7:00 p.m. Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
Live Webcast Live stats Saturday, Dec. 6 No. 18 Alaska Anchorage at No. 23 SPU, 7:00 p.m. Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
Live Webcast Live stats Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF) SEATTLE – Turn up the lights. Focus the camera. Tip off the action.
The Seattle Pacific Falcons will do all of the above on Thursday night when they open the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball schedule in Brougham Pavilion. The undefeated and now nationally ranked Falcons (5-0) will play host to the fast-starting Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks (6-2) at 7:00 p.m.
Not only will fans in Brougham be able to watch it all unfold, so will a regional television audience. The game will be beamed around the Pacific Northwest by ROOT Sports. It is the first of 10 GNAC contests that the network will show this season.
On Saturday, two top-25 teams will square off as No. 23 SPU takes on No. 18 Alaska Anchorage at 7:00 p.m.
The Falcons will be returning to on-court action for the first time in more than a week since rolling past San Francisco State on Thanksgiving Eve in Seattle, 84-54. That gave them a 5-0 start for the second straight season.
FOLLOW IT LIVE
ROOT Sports is available on various channel numbers, depending on a viewer's particular cable system. In the Puget Sound area, it is available on Channel 30 for Comcast subscribers and Wave Broadband, 627 for Comcast HD, 37 for Wave Broadband-East King County and Zito Media, 426 for Dish, and 687 for DirecTV.
For out-of-area fans, the Falcons will offer their usual free live Webcast and live stats. The Webcast will be through Stretch Internet, the official internet provider of the GNAC. Appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
TV TIDBITSThursday's game will be the SPU's fourth television appearance in the past seven seasons. It also will be their third from Brougham Pavilion.
On Feb. 9, 2009, SPU defeated Northwest Nazarene, 66-55, as a nationwide audience watched on the CBS College Sports network, and nearly 1,300 fans came into the gym.
Then on Feb. 2, 2011, the Falcons went to Western Washington and were within one point at halftime before the Vikings pulled away to win, 67-57.
Katie Benson, then a redshirt freshman, came off the bench for eight points and five rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
SPU and eventual conference champion Montana State Billings clashed in Seattle last Jan. 11, with the Falcons pulling out a 63-57 victory.
TRIPLEHEADER TREATHoop fans can spend a good chunk of Saturday in Brougham Pavilion watching three games. The girls teams from Kings and Shorecrest high schools will play two games, with the junior varsity tipping off at 3:30, and the varsity at 5:00. The Seattle Pacific-Alaska Anchorage game will follow at 7:00. OHLSEN: T-MINUS 13 POINTS AND COUNTINGFalcons senior point guard
Suzanna Ohlsen is on the verge of joining a still-very elite Falcons club. Ohlsen (Monroe, Wash. / Monroe HS) comes into this week with 987 career points, just 13 away from the 1,000-point milestone.
Suzanna Ohlsen When that happens – and at her current average of 17.6 points per game, it could be as soon as Thursday – Ohlsen will become the 21
st player in history of the program -- now in its 40th year -- to reach the millennium milestone. The most recent to do so was
Katie Benson (now playing professionally in England) on Feb. 14, 2013. Benson finished her career with 1,645 points, the fifth-highest career total for the Falcons.
In addition, Ohlsen will be the 60
th player in GNAC history to get to 1,000, and will be one of three active players who have done it. (Erin Chambers of Simon Fraser and Kayleen Goggins of Montana State Billings are the others.)
By season's end, Ohlsen might get some company in that department. Senior guard
Aubree Callen begins this week with 782 points.
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?-- SPU is
12-1 all-time in GNAC openers. That includes a 5-0 record when that opener has been in Brougham Pavilion.
-- The last
conference opener at home was in the 2012-13 season, when the Falcons got past Northwest Nazarene, 76-69.
-- This is the
second straight year and the
third time overall that Seattle Pacific has
begun GNAC play with the Alaska schools. Last December, SPU won at Fairbanks, 71-68, but came up short at Anchorage, 77-65.
-- The only time the Falcons
did not win their first GNAC game was in 2011 when they dropped a 79-74 decision at Simon Fraser.
Julie Heisey -- Coach
Julie Heisey, now beginning her 10th season in charge at Seattle Pacific, is
8-1 in GNAC openers.
-- Seattle Pacific enters the week as
one of 38 unbeaten teams in NCAA Division II.
Northern State of South Dakota,
Wayne State of Nebraska, and
Southeastern Oklahoma are on top at 7-0. The Falcons are one of 14 teams with a 5-0 record. Also included in that group is Alaska Anchorage.
-- SPU has
won 25 straight games against Alaska Fairbanks, its longest winning streak against any conference team.
-- The last win in the series for the Nanooks was 75-71 in Fairbanks on Jan. 12, 2002.
-- Anchorage has
swept the two-game series from the Falcons the past two seasons. SPU's last victory was 67-62 against the then-No. 8-ranked Seawolves on Feb. 2, 2012, in Brougham Pavilion.
-- When they take on UAA, the Falcons will be facing a team that begins the week leading the GNAC in five major statistical categories: offense (84.6 points per game), defense (47.8 allowed), rebounding (50.2), blocked shots (5.0) and steals (18.2). All of those except for blocked shots rank in the Division II national top 10.
-- Heisey is 18-0 all-time against Fairbanks, and 11-11 against Anchorage.
8-0 against Nanooks coach Cody Bench.
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 6-2, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 54-13.
Current series streak: SPU won 25.
Last time: SPU 69, UAF 56 (March 1, 2014 at Seattle).
Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Just like in 2013, the Nanooks are bringing a 6-2 overall record into the GNAC opener, thanks in part to a balanced attack that features three players averaging in double figures, and one more who is close.
Jordan Wilson, a 5-foot-11 sophomore forward, is scoring at a clip of 14.6 points per game, and is an outstanding shooter no matter where she is on the court: .522 overall, and .545 from behind the 3-point arc. She went off for 25 points against SPU in last year's game at Fairbanks. Senior guard
Benissa Bulaya is averaging 12.8 points per game. Sophomore forward
Kaillee Skjold, at 5-11, has been a force on the scoreboard at 11 points per game, and on the board with an average of 8.6. Stephanie Toumson, a 6-1 junior forward, also delivers in both of those departments at 9.3 points and 6.4 rebounds. Fairbanks is averaging 81.3 points per game, a 10-point jump from last season's mark of 71.2.
SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 5-0, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 39-21.
Current series streak: UAA won 4.
Last time: UAA 76, SPU 65 (Feb. 27, 2014 at Seattle).
Seawovles on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage wasted no time getting everyone's attention, opening the season with a 67-61 come-from-behind exhibition victory at Pacific-12 member Utah on Nov. 5. The Seawolves were down 15-0 and 17-1 during the first seven minutes of the game, but went on a 10-2 run in the final 4:20 to pull off the upset. Of their five counting games since then, all of them have gone into the UAA win column. That includes a 72-63 decision against Yale of the Ivy League last week in the Great Alaska Shootout. The Seawolves have five players averaging double-figure point totals. At the top of that pile is 5-8 junior guard
Jessica Madison at 13.8 per game. Then there's the double-double average of 6-0 freshman forward of
Leah Bonner at 12.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. She double-doubled in her first three games, with highs of 19 points against Christian Brothers and 16 rebounds against Chaminade. Senior guard
Alli Madison (12.2), senior forward
KeKe Wright (10.2), and junior forward
Megan Mullings (10.0) are the others with double-digit averages.
FALCONS REPLAY--
Suzanna Ohlsen scored 16 points and had five steals while playing just 19 minutes, and the Falcons shot better than 50 percent for the first time this season to roll pas San Francisco State in a non-conference game last Wednesday,
84-54.
SPU TABBED 4TH IN GNAC
Western Washington is the preseason favorite, and
Seattle Pacific was picked for a fourth-place finish in the upcoming Great Northwest Athletic Conference season.
The Falcons, who tied for fifth place last year with an 11-7 GNAC record (18-9 overall) received 56 points in the
preseason coaches poll.
Western, second last year behind
Montana State Billings, was chosen as the clear favorite by conference coaches. The Vikings hauled in nine of the 10 first-place votes for 81 points. Alaska Anchorage received the other first-place vote and 70 points for second place, while Simon Fraser was third with 63 points.
MAKIN' SOME NATIONAL NOISEFor the first time since last Dec. 17, Seattle Pacific is part of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association / USA Today Sports
national top 25.
The Falcons, who were nowhere to be found in the preseason rankings, but were high on the "others receiving votes" list last week (No. 29 overall), are No. 23 in the poll that was released on Tuesday.
It was almost exactly one year ago that SPU was last in the top 25, sitting at No. 9 on Dec. 17, 2013, after climbing as high as No. 6.
Those aren't the only rankings in which the Falcons can be found this week. They also are No. 5 in this week's national
Division II Media Poll, sponsored by the D2 Sports Information Directors of America. SPU also is No. 1 in that organization's
West Region poll for the second straight week.
ONE WASN'T ENOUGH FOR SHIMSophomore guard
Rachel Shim has steadily earned more regular playing time early in the year, and last Wednesday made the most of a season-high 15 minutes by recording not one, but two career highs.
Rachel Shim Shim (Sammamish, Wash. / Skyline HS) scored nine points and hauled down five rebounds in the 84-54 victory against San Francisco State. The point total beat her previous high of eight, set last January against Western Oregon. On the boards, the 5-7 Shim more than doubled her previous best of two, set twice, most recently on Nov. 14 against Fresno Pacific.
She also tied a career high by handing out two assists.
SPEAKING OF DOUBLING UP …Shim wasn't the only Falcon leaving some old career highs way behind in the San Francisco State game.
Courtney Hollander Freshman guard
Courtney Hollander (Lynden, Wash. / Lynden Christian HS) collected eight rebounds, exactly twice as many as she had on Nov. 22 when the Falcons downed Azusa Pacific, 77-65. Fellow freshman
Erica Pagano (Happy Valley, Ore.) had five rebounds, beating her old mark of two, and yet another freshman,
Jordan McPhee (Des Moines, Wash. / Mount Rainier HS) tallied six points to eclipse her previous high of three.
AS CLOSE AS IT GETS TO A SURE THINGOne season removed from winning the national free throw shooting title, SPU already is in the chase for another one, thanks to six players – yup, six – with success rates of 80 percent or better. The Falcons are No. 4 nationally in this week's rankings at .817 (103 of 126). That is the top mark in the GNAC, albeit not by much ahead of Western Washington's .815.
Maddey Pflaumer Senior center / forward
Maddey Pflaumer (Issaquah, Wash. / Issaquah HS) leads the way for Seattle Pacific at .885 (23 of 26). Also above 80 percent are
Betsy Kingma (.857),
Aubree Callen (.840),
Suzanna Ohlsen (.833),
Rachel Shim (.833), and
Stacey Lukasiewicz (.800).
And, in the all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end department: Ohlsen's consecutive free throw streak finished at 49 on Nov. 22 in Bellingham when the Falcons beat Azusa Pacific, 77-65. She hit her first one, but the second one bounced off the rim.
FUN WITH NATIONAL NUMBERSClick on
this link to see where SPU and its players rank in Division II statistics. Click on
this link to see how other GNAC teams and players rank.
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th 3-pointer Aubree Callen (has 97)
Suzanna Ohlsen (has 94)
100th assist Betsy Kingma (has 94)
100th rebound Molly Grager (has 97)
1,000th point Suzanna Ohlsen (has 987)
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEKNone
AROUND THE GNACClick on
this link for results, stats, news, and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
UP NEXTWith academic finals set for next week, the Falcons get a breather from competition until the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 13, when they play host to
Northwest University of Kirkland. That game has a special 2:00 p.m. tip-off time, and will be SPU's final home game the month. The calendar year will finish on the road at the Las Vegas Challenge on Dec. 17 against
Dixie State at 5:00 p.m. and Dec. 18 against
Holy Names at 12 noon.
Seattle Pacific's GNAC schedule will resume on New Year's Day against arch-rival
Western Washington in Bellingham at 7:00 p.m.
GNAC STANDINGS
GNAC OverallAlaska Anchorage 0-0 5-0
Seattle Pacific 0-0 5-0
Alaska Fairbanks 0-0 6-2
Montana State Billings 0-0 5-2
Western Washington 0-0 5-2
Simon Fraser 0-0 4-2
Central Washington 0-0 3-2
Northwest Nazarene 0-0 2-3
Saint Martin's 0-0 2-4
Western Oregon 0-0 1-4
