THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 26     Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 6:15p.m. PST
                                       Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska.
                                       Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 28      Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 6:15 p.m. PST
                                       Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska             
                                       Live Webcast        Live stats
 
  
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – Coaches say it all the time: If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.
 
On Thursday night, the Seattle Pacific Falcons get their chance at the team currently deemed the best in NCAA Division II.
 
SPU tips off the final week of the regular season by visiting the brand-new Alaska Airlines Center for a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest against No. 1-ranked Alaska Anchorage. The Falcons and Seawolves get going at 6:15 p.m. Pacific time.
 
At 15-1 in GNAC play and 25-1overall, Anchorage already has wrapped up the conference crown, leading second-place Seattle Pacific (12-4, 20-4 overall) by three games with just two games remaining.
 
But the Falcons have plenty at stake. A victory on Thursday in Anchorage or on Saturday at Alaska Fairbanks (6:15 p.m. PST) will clinch the No. 2 seed and a bye directly into the GNAC semifinals. A loss by Western Washington on Saturday at Simon Fraser also would secure that second seed, though the Falcons would rather take care of business themselves.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live stats and free live Webcasts will be available from both of this week's game. The Webcasts 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.
 
NOT EVERY DAY YOU GET TO TAKE ON NO. 1
Opportunities to play against the No. 1 ranked team in the country are rare. Just this season, Alaska Anchorage is the fifth team – all from different conferences – to stake a claim to the top rung in the USA Today Sports / Women's Basketball Coaches Association national poll.
 
The last time Seattle Pacific got a chance to play a No. 1 team was Feb. 19, 2009, when the opponent was … Alaska Anchorage. The Seawolves came to Brougham Pavilion that night with a 24-1 overall record and an 11-0 mark in the GNAC.
 
But none of that mattered. Except for a 2-2 tie that lasted for all of 10 seconds, the Falcons, ranked 14^th and owners of a 16-4 record and 9-2 conference mark, led all the way. In fact, it often was a double-digit lead, once by as many as 15 points early in the game, as SPU put a 54-42 victory into the books.
 
Senior center Kelsey Hill had a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead SPU.
 
On that night, the two oldest players on SPU's current roster – redshirt seniors Aubree Callen and Betsy Kingma – were high school juniors. And it probably would be safe to say current freshmen Courtney Hollander, Jordan McPhee and Erica Pagano hadn't yet heard of Seattle Pacific. They were just in 7th grade.





SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The Falcons and Western Washington are the only teams alive for the No. 2 spot in the final standings. If they wind up tied, SPU owns the tiebreaker by virtue of having won both regular-season games against the Vikings.
--While those two settle Nos. 2 and 3, Anchorage is locked in at No. 1, as is Simon Fraser at No. 4. Below that, the other six teams in the conference – from 6-10 Montana State Billings, Central Washington and Saint Martin's, all the way down to 4-12 Western Oregon – are still mathematically alive for the tournament berths.
--SPU will make its first appearance at the Alaska Airlines Center on Thursday. Falcon teams are 1-1 so far in the new building: Volleyball lost in September, but men's basketball won in overtime earlier this month. The Seawolves previously played their home contests in the Wells Fargo Center.
--When it takes the court against Anchorage, Seattle Pacific will be out to avenge its first – and worst – loss of the season. On Dec. 6 in Brougham Pavilion, UAA scored the first seven points of the game and led all the way in an 85-58 rout.
--SPU's longest current conference winning streak is against Alaska Fairbanks: 26 in a row. The last win in the series for the Nanooks was 75-71 on Jan. 12, 2002 in Alaska.
--Senior point guard Suzanna Ohlsen scored the 1,000th point of her career on Dec. 4 in a 75-45 conference-opening win against Fairbanks in Brougham Pavilion. She has added 315 points since then, and starts this week just 12 points away from taking over the No. 9 spot on SPU's all-time scoring list from Mandy Wood (1,326 from 2002-06).
--Falcons coach Julie Heisey is 11-12 all-time against Anchorage, but is 0-5 against second-year Seawolves coach Ryan McCarthy. SPU's last victory in the series was 67-62 on Feb. 2, 2012 in Seattle.
--Heisey is 19-0 against Fairbanks and 7-0 against fourth-year coach Cody Bench.
 
SCOUTING THE AK. ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 25-1, 15-1 GNAC (1^st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 39-23. Current series streak: UAA won 5. Last time: UAA 85, SPU 58 (Dec. 6, 2014 at Seattle). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage gets it done by being solid in multiple aspects of the game, as evidenced by some of its national statistical rankings: No. 5 in offense (81.0 points per game), No. 1 in scoring margin (22.2 points per game more than their opponents), No. 1 in steals (15.2), No. 5 in rebounding margin (10.7 more per game than opponents), and No. 6 in offensive rebounds (18.0 ). Megan Mullings, a 6-foot-1 junior forward, is No. 6 in field goal shooting for Division II at 60 percent per game – a mark she hit spot on by draining 6 of 10 against SPU in December. Sophomore guard Kiki Robertson ranks 10^th nationally in assists at 5.8 per game, and her importance was magnified on New Year's night when she was sidelined and Northwest Nazarene pulled off a 79-64 upset. Five players average in double figures, led by the 13.2 of Mullings. One other key to UAA success is an intangible one: The Seawolves bring a level of intensity that other teams must match or exceed if they want a chance to win the game.
 
SCOUTING THE AK. FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 13-13, 5-11 GNAC (tie 8^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 55-13. Current series streak: SPU won 26. Last time: SPU 75, UAF 47 (Dec. 4, 2014 at Seattle). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Fairbanks got off to a terrific start, winning its first five games of the season in non-conference play, then going 4-2 through the first three weeks of the GNAC schedule. But it has been tough going ever since. The Nanooks begin the week having lost four straight and nine of their last 10. There are plenty of options on offense, as seven players have led Alaska Fairbanks in scoring in different games. Jordan Wilson, a 5-11 sophomore guard, is the team leader at 15.4 points per game, ranking No. 6 in the GNAC. She had 16 in December at SPU. Senior 5-6 guard Benissa Bulaya averages 11.6. The Nanooks are the second-best rebounding team in the conference at 39.8 per game, and have two players in the GNAC's top 10: sophomore 5-11 forward Kaillee Skjold tied for No. 7 at 6.5, and junior 6-1 forward Stephanie Toumson tied for No. 9 at 6.3. Wilson grabs 5.6 per game.
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- Suzanna Ohlsen scored 15 points, and Maddey Pflaumer added 10, but Saint Martin's limited SPU to its lowest offensive output of the season last Thursday as the Saints prevailed in Brougham Pavilion, 68-52.
-- Aubree Callen scored 21 points, Ohlsen added 19, and together, they accounted for Seattle Pacific's final eight points on Saturday – all at the free throw line – as the Falcon hung on to beat Western Oregon, 69-64.
 
BACK AT A NICE ROUND NUMBER: 20
When the final buzzer sounded last Saturday against Western Oregon, the Falcons had their 20th victory of the season in the books.

That marked the 18^th time in the 40-year history of the program that SPU has reached the 20-win level. However, it was the first time it happened since 2010-11, when the final record was 20-9. That was the last of 12 consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins.
 
The first 20-win campaign was 1998-99 when coach Gordy Presnell, then in the second of his 18 years at the helm, guided the team to a 24-6 record. Coach Julie Heisey now has seven of the 18 teams that have reached the big 2-0.
 
DOUBLE FIGURES IS DO-ABLE FOR CALLEN
At her current single-season career best average of 15.8 points per game, there's no question that redshirt senior guard Aubree Callen will finish this season with a double-figure average.

 

But Callen also is on the brink of pushing her career average into double figures.
 
Callen (Jerome, Idaho) starts this week with 1,089 points through her 111 games in a Seattle Pacific uniform – an average of 9.8 points per game. The Falcons are guaranteed at least three more games, and likely more than that, assuming they make the NCAA Tournament.
 
But in the three that they definitely will play (two this week and the GNAC Tournament semifinal), Callen would need a total of 51 points to reach 1,140 through114 games – an average of exactly 10 per game.
 
RETURN TO SENDER
Note to SPU opponents: Drive into the key and shoot at your own risk when Maddey Pflaumer is on the floor—especially during the past four weeks.
 

The gritty senior center – who brings a let's-get-to-work attitude every night – has had at least one blocked shot in each of the last seven games, and is averaging two blocks per game during that time. That includes back-to-back games of three blocks each: at Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 14, and at home against Saint Martin's last Thursday.
 
Pflaumer's  total of 33 blocks is tops on the team, and her average of 1.6 per game ranks No. 4 in the GNAC.
 
Through that same batch of seven games, Pflaumer also corralled 30 rebounds, an average of 4.5. Of those, 11 have come off of the offensive glass to provide second-chance opportunities.
 
POLLING PLACE
In spite of splitting last week's two games, the Falcons remained No. 5 in the NCAA West Region rankings that were released on Wednesday. Only No. 1 Alaska Anchorage and No. 2 Humboldt State swept their two games last week. Everyone else split, except for No. 6 Hawaii Pacific, which won its only game.

The final set of region rankings comes out next Wednesday. After that, the winners of the GNAC, CCAA, and Pacific West tournaments earn automatic bids to the NCAA. The five higheset-ranked teams among the non-winners also get berths.

Seattle Pacific is ranked No. 19 in this week's USA Today Sports / WBCA national poll, a drop of four places from last week. The Falcons received 204 points in the voting.
 
Alaska Anchorage retained the top spot, although it's still not unanimous. The Seawolves received 21 of the 32 first-place votes for 783 points. Lewis University of Illinois got 10 first-place votes and 772 points; Limestone College of South Carolina had one first-place vote and 706 points. Humboldt State is the other West Region team in the top 25, up seven places to No. 15.
 
SPU is 20^th this week's D2SIDA national poll, voted on by sports information directors. Alaska Anchorage remins No. 1 in that poll. In the D2SIDA West Region poll, the Falcons went down one place to No. 3 behind Anchorage and Humboldt.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
SPU is (out of 289 Division II teams) …
-- 3^rd in free throw percentage (.790)
-- 8^th in 3-point percentage (.384)
-- 22^nd in field goal percentage (.448)
-- 26^th in blocked shots (4.4)
-- 44^th in scoring (73.5)
-- 47^th in assist / turnover ratio (0.99)
--48^th in fewest turnovers per game (14.7)
 
Individually, Aubree Callen is 22^nd in free throw percentage (.882) and Suzanna Ohlsen is 43^rd (.859). Ohlsen also is 39^th in steals at 2.48 per game and 41^st in scoring (18.1). Betsy Kingma is 38th in 3-point percentage (.400) and 40th in 3-point makes per game (2.67).
 
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.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage is the only team from the three West Region conferences to have clinched a regular-season title so far.
 
In the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Humboldt State now has a one-game lead on Cal State Dominguez Hills with two games left. The Lumberjacks (22-3 overall, 18-2 CCAA) won both of their games last week, while the Toros (22-6, 17-3) dropped a 68-60 road decision at UC San Diego. Humboldt finishes with tough home games against UCSD and Cal Poly Pomona. It was Pomona that handed the Jacks their worst loss of the season, 85-52 on Jan. 23.
 
Hawaii Pacific has clinched no worse than a tie for first in the Pacific West. The Sharks are 21-4 overall, 16-2 in the conference, two games ahead of Cal Baptist (14-4, 21-5 overall) with two to go. HPU finishes with middle-of-the-pack Dominican and last-place Holy Names at home; Cal Baptist has lower-rung Fresno Pacific on the road and Notre Dame de Namur at home.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100^th rebound       Courtney Hollander (has 90)
300^th assist            Aubree Callen (has 295)
300^th point             Hannah Rodrigues (has 279)
300^th rebound       Suzanna Ohlsen (has 293)
1,100^th point          Aubree Callen (has 1,089)
 
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
300^th rebound       Maddey Pflaumer (has 305)
1,300^th point          Suzanna Ohlsen (has 1,315)
                                                                                        
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for results, stats, news, and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament is set for next Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, March 4, 6, and 7, in Alterowitz Gymnasium at Montana State Billings. This is the first time Billings will serve as the host school. The last three tournaments were played at Saint Martins, and the inaugural one in 2011 was played at individual campus sites.
 
If the Falcons earn the No. 2 seed, they will have a bye on Wednesday, and will play in the semifinals on Friday, either at 11 a.m. or 1:15 p.m. Pacific time. If they wind up as the No. 3 seed, they'll get a 4:15 or 6:30 p.m. Pacific time first-round game on Wednesday the 4th. The championship game is Saturday the 7th at 4:15 p.m. PST.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                GNAC    Overall
Alaska Anchorage              15-1        25-1
Seattle Pacific                      12-4        20-4
Western Washington          12-5        18-8
Simon Fraser                       10-7        14-11
Montana State Billings         6-10      14-12
Central Washington              6-10      11-13
Saint Martin's                          6-10        9-15
Alaska Fairbanks                   5-11      13-13
Northwest Nazarene             5-11        7-18
Western Oregon                     4-12        7-17