THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 12        Seattle Pacific at Central Washington, 7:00 p.m.
                                          Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                          Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 14        Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene, 1:00 p.m. PST
                                         Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho        
                                         Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – So few games left in the women's basketball season. So much still on the line for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
With six contests remaining on the regular-season schedule, SPU will take to the road for the first two of those, visiting Central Washington in Ellensburg on Thursday night at 7:00, then returning home after that game and flying off to Idaho the next morning, where Northwest Nazarene will be waiting for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off on Saturday in Nampa.
 
The Falcons (17-3, 9-3 and second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference) are coming off of last Saturday's 64-55 Homecoming victory against Montana State Billings in Brougham Pavilion.
 
Even with its lofty record, nothing is guaranteed heading into this week. SPU still needs at least one more victory to clinch a spot in the conference tournament (awarded to the top six finishers in the standings), set for March 4, 6 and 7 at Montana State Billings. And, if the Falcons can hang on to at least second place through the next three weeks, they would receive a first-round bye and not have to play until the tournament semifinals on the 6th.

FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live stats and free live Webcasts will be available from both of this week's game. Both will be through Stretch Internet, the official Internet provider of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM INCLUDES OHLSEN FOR 3^RD TIME
Senior point guard Suzanna Ohlsen has been voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team for the third straight season.

 

Ohlsen (Monroe, Wash. / Monroe HS) has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average as a biochemistry major. She is just the second Seattle Pacific player to make the team for three years in a row. The only other Falcon to do that was Caitlyn Rohrbach from 2009-11).
 
The NCAA Division II District 8 team is voted upon by sports information directors from the GNAC, California Collegiate Athletic Association and Pacific West Conference. Nominees must have at least a 3.30 GPA and be either a starter or significant reserve. Ohlsen was the only GNAC player named to the five-player squad.
 
She now will be placed on the national ballot for a spot on the Academic All-America team. Ohlsen was a third-team Academic All-America selection last year.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons begin the week on a three-game winning streak.
-- Those victories came against the three teams that represented the GNAC in last year's NCAA West Region tournament: Simon Fraser (89-76 on Jan. 29), preseason coaches poll favorite Western Washington (72-68 on Jan. 31) and defending conference champion Montana State Billings (64-55 last Saturday). Seattle Pacific thus swept all three season series.
-- The Falcons have a chance to claim two more sweeps this week, having scored an 81-65 victory against Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 15, and a 67-52 decision against Central Washington on Jan. 17, both in Brougham Pavilion.
-- The series against Central Washington is the second-longest of any SPU opponent. Thursday's game will be the 74^th all-time between the in-state rivals. The only series that has gone longer is the one against Western Washington (82 games).
-- Seattle Pacific generally has had its way against Northwest Nazarene, winning 28 of the 33 games.
-- But the Crusaders have pulled out a season split each of the past three years, with two of those wins coming in Nampa. Last year, each team won on the other's home court.
-- This will be the final competitive game in Idaho for Falcons redshirt senior Aubree Callen. She played her prep basketball at Jerome High School, 135 miles southeast of NNU's Nampa campus.
-- Coach Julie Heisey's all-time record against Central Washington is 17-2. She is 15-4 against Northwest Nazarene, her alma mater.





SCOUTING THE CEN. WASHINGTON WILDCATS: 11-10, 6-7 GNAC (5^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 44-29. Current series streak: SPU won 5. Last time: SPU 67, CWU 52 (Jan. 17, 2015 at Seattle). Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: If any team is likely to come out playing with fire in its collective eyes, this is the one. Central was one second away from an upset victory at Western Washington last Saturday, but wound up on the short end, 62-61. Even so, with an 11-10 overall record, the Wildcats, under first-year coach Jeff Harada, have double-digit victories for the first time since 2007-08, when they finished 13-13. Then there's the added incentive of getting into the GNAC Tournament for the first time ever, and Central figures to need at least two or three more wins in its final five games to make that a reality. Leading the offensive attack for the Wildcats is 6-foot senior forward Courtney Johnson. She averages 13 points per game. One of the reasons for Central Washington's improvement is 5-5 freshman spark plug guard Jasmin Edwards. She averages 12.8 points per game and dishes an average of 4.4 assists. Junior forward / center Jasmine Parker, at 6-1, nearly double-doubled last month against the Falcons with a 16-point / 9-rebound performance.
 
SCOUTING THE NW NAZARENE CRUSADERS: 5-17, 3-10 GNAC (9^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 28-5. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 81, NNU 65 (Jan. 15, 2015 at Seattle). Crusaders on the Web.
Crusaders in a nutshell: Just like Central Washington, NNU was a tick short of winning at Western Washington last week, falling on a buzzer-beating shot, 70-69. Though still mathematically alive to make the GNAC Tournament, the Crusaders would have to win out and get lots of help through the final three weeks. After a stunning 79-64 win at Alaska Anchorage on New Year's night – still the only loss for the Seawolves – Northwest Nazarene has lost nine of its last 10. The team has some good balance offensively, with four players averaging in double figures. Setting the pace is 5-8 junior guard Taylor Simmons at 13.4 points per game. She led the Crusaders with 17 last month at SPU. Also in double digits are freshman guard Ellie Logan (12.2), freshman guard / forward CoCo Gall (11.2), and junior forward Kate Cryderman (10.2). NNU and Seattle Pacific are dead even on offense – 74.1 points per game. But where the Falcons allow just 61.7, the Crusaders give up an average of 80.1.
 
FALCON REPLAY
-- Suzanna Ohlsen scored 20 points, Aubree Callen had 19, and SPU limited Montana State Billings to just 27 percent shooting for the day, quashing a late-game comeback effort by the Yellowjackets to secure a 64-55 victory on Homecoming Saturday. 

CALL IT A DRAW BETWEEN FORMER HS TEAMMATES

When Molly Grager and Kate Cryderman played at Juanita High School in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, they were the only two seniors on the 2011-12 Rebels squad. Grager then went off the Seattle Pacific, and Cryderman headed to New Mexico Highlands.

Now that Cryderman has transferred to Northwest Nazarene, she and Grager will get to share the same court – albeit from opposite sides – for the second time this season.
 
The first meeting, an 81-65 Falcons victory on Jan. 15 in Seattle, was virtually dead even. Cryderman started for NNU, and had 10 points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 29 minutes. Grager came off the bench for SPU, played 29 minutes, and contributed six points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists, and two steals.
 
REGIONAL RANKINGS OUT NEXT WEEK
For all of the rankings that come out during the year, the only set that matters in the end is the NCAA West Region rankings. They come out for the last three Wednesdays of the regular season, and the first set is due next Wednesday, Feb. 18, with subsequent releases on Feb. 25 and March 4.

 
Each of the eight regions around the country gets eight entries into the 64-team NCAA Division II Tournament.  For the West, the GNAC, CCAA, and Pacific West tournament champions get the automatic berth for their respective conferences.
 
Then, the next five highest-ranked teams from among the non-champions are awarded the other slots. The top-ranked team earns the right to be the regional tournament host.
 
SENIOR NIGHT IS COMING
The final two home games of the regular season are next week, and that means Senior Night is at hand.
 
The Falcons will honor Aubree Callen, Betsy Kingma, Suzanna Ohlsen, and Maddey Pflaumer in a ceremony just prior to the contest against Western Oregon on Saturday, Feb. 21. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

That game will be the capper to a busy day in Brougham Pavilion, as the SPU men play Montana State Billings at 3:00 p.m. in a game that will be televised regionally on ROOT Sports.
 
MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY INCH
Although scoring her 1,000^th career point was quite the accomplishment on Jan. 31 when the Falcons beat Western Washington in Brougham Pavilion, another part of redshirt senior guard Aubree Callen's game has been just as noteworthy of late:
 
Her rebounding.
 

In the past four games, the 5-foot-9 Callen (Jerome, Idaho) has collected 31 rebounds – an average of 7.7 per game. That included five at Western Oregon, nine against Simon Fraser, 10 against Western Washington, and seven against Montana State Billings.
 
All of that has pushed Callen into the team lead with an even 100 boards for the season, an average of 5.0 per game. The closest teammate to her is sophomore forward / guard Hannah Rodrigues, who is actually very close with 95, an average of 4.8 per game.
 
POLLING PLACE
Seattle Pacific climbed three spots to No. 18 in this week's USA Today Sports / WBCA national coaches poll. The Falcons received 229 points in the voting. They have been as high as No. 8 this season. Undefeated Lewis University of Illinois (23-0) remained No. 1. Alaska Anchorage, despite winning both of its games and improving to 22-1, slipped one spot to No. 3 behind Fort Hays State of Kansas (also 22-1).

In the D2SIDA national poll, SPU moved up to eight places to No. 15. The Falcons also leapfrogged Humboldt State into No. 2 on the D2SIDA West Region list. Both of those polls are voted on by sports information directors.

AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage shows no signs of slowing down any time soon in the GNAC, but things have gotten interesting in the other two West Region conferences.
 
Humboldt State and Cal State Dominguez Hills are now tied for first in the California Collegiate Athletic Association after the Toros hung on for a 59-58 victory on their home floor last Saturday. The entire game was played within a 12-point range. Both teams are 14-2 in the conference; Humboldt is 18-3 overall, and Dominguez Hills is 19-5. Cal Poly Pomona (13-3 CCAA) and Cal State San Bernardino (11-5) are both 15-5 overall. Everyone else has at least eight losses.
 
Hawaii Pacific is clinging to first place in the Pacific West at 13-2 (18-4 overall) after halting a two-game losing streak. But Cal Baptist, winner of six straight, is right on the Sharks' heels at 12-2 (19-3 overall). All other Pac West teams have lost at least eight games.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
SPU is (out of 289 Division II teams) …
--  4^th in free throw percentage (.789)
-- 10^th in 3-point percentage (.383)
-- 16^th in field goal percentage (.458)
-- 38^th in fewest turnovers per game (14.4)
-- 39^th in assist / turnover ratio (1.03)
-- 39^th in blocked shots (4.2)
-- 42^nd in average points scored (74.2)
 
Individually, Betsy Kingma is 28^th in 3-point shooting percentage (.420) and 32^nd in 3-point makes per game (2.75). Aubree Callen is 28^th in free throw percentage (.877). Suzanna Ohlsen is 41st in steals (2.47) and 46th in field goal shooting (.519).
 
Click on this link to see how the Falcons rank in all Division II statistics. Click on this link to see how other GNAC teams and players stack up nationally.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
300^th rebound       Maddey Pflaumer (has 285)
700^th point             Betsy Kingma (has 689)
 
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100^th free throw    Maddey Pflaumer (has 100)            
300^th assist            Suzanna Ohlsen (has 302)
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for results, stats, news, and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The home schedule concludes next week as the Falcons will seek some measure of redemption when Saint Martin's and Western Oregon come to Brougham Pavilion. The Saints are in town on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 7:00 p.m. WOU visits on Saturday, with a special 5:30 p.m. tip-off time. The Falcons lost to both teams in their home gyms last month, 67-62 at Western Oregon and 68-66 at Saint Martin's.

 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                GNAC    Overall
Alaska Anchorage               12-1        22-1
Seattle Pacific                        9-3        17-3
Western Washington            9-4        15-7
Simon Fraser                          8-5        12-9
Central Washington              6-7        11-10
Saint Martin's                          5-7          8-12
Alaska Fairbanks                   5-8        13-10
Montana State Billings          4-8        12-10
Northwest Nazarene             3-10        5-17
Western Oregon                     2-10        5-15