Box Score

        Box score, play-by-play
 
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Control the controllables. Coach Julie Heisey says it to her Seattle Pacific women's basketball team at every opportunity when talking about rebounding and turnovers.
 
But on Thursday night, it was No. 1-ranked Alaska Anchorage that was in control of those controllables – and of the game.
 
Megan Mullings scored a career-high 29 points – more than double her season average of 13.2 – and the Seawolves used one double-digit scoring run in each half to beat 19^th-ranked SPU in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest, 83-70.

Senior center Maddey Pflaumer scored 16 points for Seattle Pacific, hitting 7 of 10 from the floor as the Falcons played for their first game in the new Alaska Airlines Center. She also grabbed five rebounds. Senior point guard Suzanna Ohlsen added 15 points and a team-high seven assists, and redshirt senior guard Aubree Callen chipped in 14 points.
 
With the loss, the Falcons (20-5, 12-5 GNAC) fell into a second-place tie with idle Western Washington.
 
To clinch the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye for next week's conference tournament, SPU must win Saturday's regular-season finale at Alaska Fairbanks (6:15 p.m. Pacific time), or have Western lose at home that same night to Simon Fraser. If both teams finish with identical records, the Falcons own the tiebreaker and get the higher seed.
 
But the Nanooks have a chance to get into the GNAC Tournament for the first time ever, so will be coming at Seattle Pacific with everything they have.
 
"We have to finish strong and take care of the little things," Heisey said in looking ahead to Saturday's game. "We've gotta rebound and make sure we take care of the ball. Fairbanks has nothing to lose and so much to gain."
 
Anchorage (26-1, 16-1 GNAC), which posted an 85-58 victory at Seattle Pacific in December, already has clinched the regular season title and will be the top seed next week in Billings, Mont.
 
The Seawolves had a 43-35 rebounding advantage. Nearly half those – 21 – came at the offensive end, leading to 22 second-chance points.
 
They got another 22 points by forcing the Falcons into a season-high 27 turnovers.
 
"Even though we prepared well, I think their pressure got to us again," Heisey said. "Not in a crazy way, but it wears you down. We boxed out well at times, but we've got to do it every time. We shot 54 percent in the second half, but we had 26 shot attempts (hitting 14), and they had 39 (hitting 16). And when you have 27 turnovers, you're not going to win very many games."
 
QUICK START WASN'T ENOUGH
SPU hit three of its first five shots – all from 3-point range – and took a 9-4 lead. Anchorage ran off six straight points, part of a 10-3 surge that produced a 14-12 edge with 10:29 left in the first half. But the Falcons then went scoreless for the next 6 minutes, 9 seconds, as UAA rang up 12 in a row for a 26-12 advantage.
 
Down 37-25 at halftime, Seattle Pacific twice closed the margin to seven, the last time at 51-44 on a driving lay-in by Pflaumer (Issaquah, Wash. / Issaquah HS) with 13:16 left in the game. UAA responded with a 10-0 run to make it 61-44, and the Falcons never got closer than 10 the rest of the night.
 
"It was such a game of spurts, because I thought we started off the game really well defensively and offensively," Heisey said. "Megan Mullings is a very good player. She's an amazing jumper, and she had a big night (hitting 11 of 14 from the field). But Alli Madison was just 4 of 13, Jessica Madison was 4 of 14, and Kiki Robertson was 3 of 11. So there, we did some really good things (defensively). But we were inconsistent."

 

The 15 points for Ohlsen (Monroe, Wash. / Monroe HS) gave her 1,330 for her career and moved her up to No. 9 on the team's all-time scoring list. Ohlsen passed  Mandy Wood, who had 1,326 from 2002-06.
 
Thursday's game as the first time since 2009 that the Falcons squared off against a No. 1-ranked team. That contest also was against Alaska Anchorage, albeit in Brougham Pavilion, and SPU won it, 54-42.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska
 
(No. 1) Alaska Anchorage 83, (No. 19) Seattle Pacific 70
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (20-5, 12-5 GNAC)
Maddey Pflaumer 7-10 2-3 16, Suzanna Ohlsen 5-11 1-2 15, Aubree Callen 3-10 6-6 14, Stacey Lukasiewicz 1-2 6-7 8, Hannah Rodrigues 1-5 5-6 7, Betsy Kingma 2-9 0-0 6, Jordan McPhee 2-3 0-0 4, Courtney Hollander 0-0 0-0 0, Molly Grager 0-1 0-0 0, Rachel Shim 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 20-24 70.
 
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (25-1, 15-1 GNAC)
Megan Mullings 11-14 7-9 29, Alli Madison 4-13 4-5 12, Jessica Madison 4-14 0-0 11, Kiki Robrtson 3-11 3-5 9, KeKe Wright 2-6 3-5 7, Jenna Buchanan 3-8 0-0 6, Alysha Devine 2-5 0-0 5, Sierra Afoa 1-3 2-2 4, Jerica Nelson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-74 19-26 83.
 
Seattle Pacific                     25           45           -- 70
Alaska Anchorage             37           46           -- 83
 
3-point goals – SPU 8-21 (Ohlsen 4-5, Kingma 2-9, Callen 2-4, McPhee 0-1, Rodrigues 0-2), UAA 4-17 (J. Madison 3-8, Devine 1-1, Robertso 0-1, Buchanan 0-5, A. Madison 0-2). Fouled out – None. Rebounds – SPU 35 (Pflaumer 5, Rodrigues 5), UAA 43 (Robertson 9). Assists – SPU 18 (Ohlsen 7), UAA 21 (Robertson 9). Turnovers – SPU 27, UAA 14. Total fouls – SPU 18, UAA 22. Technical fouls – None. Attendance – 1,692.
 
 
Next game
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks
Saturday, 6:15 p.m. PST
The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska