Box Score
        Box score, play-by-play
 
SEATTLE – Whenever the Seattle Pacific Falcons mounted a comeback on Thursday night, Alaska Anchorage had an answer.
 
And more often than not, it was from downtown.
 
Kylie Burns pumped in 19 points, getting 15 of those from behind the 3-point arc, and the Seawolves went on a decisive 11-0 run beyond the midpoint of the second half to beat SPU in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball game, 76-65.
 
The loss in Brougham Pavilion dropped the Falcons (17-8, 10-7 GNAC) into a fifth-place tie with Saint Martin's in the standings. The regular season concludes on Saturday at 7 p.m. when Alaska Fairbanks comes to town. That will be Senior Night, with a ceremony at 6:45 p.m. honoring Mechela Barnes, Katie Benson, and Riley Butler.
                                                                   
Both the SPU and Anchorage (19-6, 12-5 GNAC) are in next week's conference tournament at Saint Martin's. Seattle Pacific will be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed, regardless of Saturday's outcome, and will play either Anchorage, Western Washington or Simon Fraser in the first round on Wednesday. (Click on this link for tiebreaker scenarios.)
 
No matter who the opponent is, coach Julie Heisey made it clear that the Falcons will need to tighten up on defense and take better care of the ball. On Thursday, they had 18 turnovers, leading to 19 UAA points, and saw the Seawolves connect on 11 of 22 from 3-point land, more than any team has hit this season against Seattle Pacific.
 
"The bottom line is, every time we had a chance to take the lead or were in a position to do something good, we made mistakes, or they had answers," Heisey said. "We have to find ways to be consistent. We have to defend on every single possession – that's the only constant we have. We can't give up an easy shot, although granted, they hit shots tonight."
 
Senior forward Benson (Snohomish, Wash. / Snohomish HS) led the Falcons with 19 points before fouling out with 4:52 left in the game. That total lifted her past 1,600 points and into No. 5 on Seattle Pacific's all-time scoring list. She took over that spot from Lori Robinett, who scored 1,606 from 1986-89.
 
Freshman forward / guard Hannah Rodrigues (Eugene, Ore.) tallied career highs of 17 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Suzanna Ohlsen (Monroe, Wash. / Monroe HS) pumped in 15 points, and sophomore center Maddey Pflaumer (Issaquah, Wash / Issaquah HS) grabbed nine boards.
 
"The sad thing is we lost in a game where we did a lot of things right," Heisey said. "We rebounded very, very well. (SPU owned the boards, 43-31, after the Seawolves had a dominant 59-42 advantage in December's game at Anchorage.) "Last time, they had 25 offensive boards; tonight, we gave them eight. Hannah Rodrigues had an amazing game – she did a lot of thing well defensively, she hit big shots, and got big rebounds when we needed them. And Katie gave us a lift in the second half."
 
Down 35-30 at halftime, the Falcons pulled into a 46-46 tie on a trey by Barnes (Tacoma, Wash. / Bellarmine Prep HS) with 12:50 remaining. The Seawolves went back in front, but were still up just 57-54 with 8:19 remaining.
 
From there, they rang up the next 11 points to make it 70-57 with 5:20 to go. SPU countered with an 8-0 surge, closing to 70-65 with 2:41 left on a foul line jumper by Ohlsen.
 
But the Falcons went scoreless the rest of the way, as Anchorage put up the final six points of the game.
 
"We got down by 13, and cut it to five. But in our conference, you cannot make two mistakes in a row," Heisey said. "If you do, you're going to get beat. Too many times, we gave up a lay-up and gave up a 3 with a turnover."
 
After trailing through most of the first half, Seattle Pacific had a chance to tie the score by halftime, as Pflaumer rebounded an Anchorage miss with eight seconds remaining. But Jessica Madison swiped an errant pass and launched a 35-foot shot from the right side that swished through as the buzzer sounded.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Alaska Anchorage 76, Seattle Pacific 65
 
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (19-6, 12-5 GNAC)
Alysha Devine 3-4 4-6 10, Kylie Burns 5-10 4-4 19, Jenna Buchanan 3-11 1-2 9, Kiki Robertson 1-5 1-2 3, Jessica Madison 4-11 2-2 12, Alli Madison 0-2 0-0 0, Christina Davis 4-4 3-6 13, Alyssa Hutchins 0-0 0-0 0, KeKe Wright 4-7 2-2 10, Emily Craft  0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-55 17-24 76.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (17-8, 10-7 GNAC)
Hannah Rodrigues 4-7 6-8 17, Katie Benson 6-11 7-7 19, Maddey Pflaumer 3-8 1-2 7, Suzanna Ohlsen 6-13 2-2 15, Betsy Kingma 0-7 0-0 0, Stacey Lukasiewicz 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Shim 0-2 0-0 0, Molly Grager 1-2 0-0 2, Mechela Barnes 2-98 0-0 5, Riley Butler 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-59 16-19 65.
 
Alaska Anchorage               35           41           -- 76
Seattle Pacific                      30           36           -- 65
 
3-point goals – UAA 11-22 (Burns 5-6, Buchanan 2-5, Robertson 0-1, J. Madison 2-8, Davis 2-2), SPU 5-23 (Rodrigues 3-4, Benson 0-1, Ohlsen 1-5, Kingma 0-6, Shim 0-2, Barnes 1-5). Fouled out – SPU: Benson. Rebounds – UAA 31 (Wright 7), SPU 43 (Pflaumer 9).Assists – UAA 14 (Buchanan 4, Robertson 4), SPU 11 (Benson 3). Turnovers – UAA 11, SPU 18. Total fouls – UAA 19, SPU 19. Technical fouls – None. A – 214.
 
Next game – Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific, Saturday, Brougham Pavilion, 7:00 p.m.