THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Jan. 21       Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 8:00 p.m. PST
                                         Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska.
                                         Live Webcast        Live stats                      
 
Saturday, Jan. 23       Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 7:00 p.m. PST
                                         The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
                                         Live Webcast        Live stats
 

        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
               
SEATTLE – For the second time in 11 months, the Seattle Pacific Falcons get to take the court against the top-ranked women's basketball in the country.
 
Quite a way to start off their longest – and coldest – road trip of the year.
 
SPU heads to Alaska this week for a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference games. First up is No. 1-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time, followed by Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
 
The 20-1 Seawolves (7-1 GNAC) moved up to the top rung of this week's Women's Basketball Coaches Association national poll, displacing West Texas A&M. They had been No. 2 the past two weeks, receiving one first-place vote each week.
 
In terms of air distance, the Falcons will fly approximately 3,200 miles. That's nearly 800 more than their previous longest trip this year, from Seattle to Azusa, Calif., down to San Diego, then back to Seattle during preseason play in November.
 
During the two days the team is in Anchorage, temperatures won't get above freezing, ranging from the upper teens to the upper 20s. But that'll still be way warmer than Fairbanks, as the mercury there isn't expected to get above zero, ranging from minus-11 to minus-3.
 
IT'S DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN
If the thought of playing against No. 1-ranked Anchorage in Alaska sounds familiar … well, it should.
 
It was on a Thursday night late last February when the Falcons were in the same scenario. The only difference was the Seawolves were then in their second week of being regarded as the best team in NCAA Division II. SPU stayed within striking distance for a good chunk of the game, but Anchorage used a pair of double-digit scoring runs – 10-0 in the first half, 12-0 in the second half – to take command on the way to winning, 83-70.
 
Counting Thursday's contest, Seattle Pacific's last three games against a No. 1 team all will have been against Anchorage. The first of those was on Feb. 19, 2009, in Brougham Pavilion. Those Seawolves were 24-1 overall, but except for a 2-2 tie, the Falcons led all the way in a 54-42 victory.
 
Alaska Anchorage is the fourth team to occupy the No. 1 spot this season.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Free live Webcasts and live stats will be available for all GNAC games. Webcasts will be through Stretch Internet, the conference's official internet provider. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.

 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Thursday's game at Anchorage will be SPU's first against a ranked opponent this season.
-- The most recent time the Falcons played a ranked team was last March 13 against Humboldt State in the first round of the NCAA West Regionals in Anchorage. SPU, ranked No. 24 that week, beat the No. 21 Lumberjacks, 77-62.
-- The Falcons will be trying to snap a five-game losing streak.
-- They're also looking to break through against Alaska Anchorage for the first time since Ryan McCarthy took over as Seawolves coach in 2012-13. The Seawolves are 6-0 against SPU since then.
-- The last SPU win in the series was 67-62 in Seattle on Feb. 2, 2012.
-- On the other hand, Seattle Pacific has had things go its way against Alaska Fairbanks of late, beating the Nanooks 27 straight times.
-- The last win for Fairbanks in the series as 75-71 on Jan. 12, 2002 in Alaska.
-- However, those Falcon-Nanook games have been much more competitive during the four years Cody Bench has been at the coaching helm. Of the eight games between her team and SPU coach Julie Heisey's squad, four have been relatively close, with final margins of 7, 11, 3, and 6 points.
-- Heisey is 20-0 against Fairbanks and 11-13 against Anchorage.
-- Seattle Pacific is coming off its first overtime game of the season, taking rival Western Washington to an extra five minutes last Saturday before falling three points short, 70-67.
-- The Falcons were back to crashing the boards last week, out-rebounding Simon Fraser, 42-29 (with 22 at the offensive end), and Western Washington, 33-31.They had out-rebounded their first seven opponents, then went through a stretch when the other team had more in three of four games.
 
SCOUTING THE AK. ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 20-1, 7-1 GNAC (tie 1^st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 39-24. Current series streak: UAA won 6. Last time: UAA 83, SPU 70 (Feb. 26, 2015 at Anchorge). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: There's a reason Anchorage is 20-1. …OK, there are lots of reasons senior-dominated Anchorage is 20-1. Within the GNAC, it ranks No. 1 on offense, No. 1 on defense, as well as No. 1 in rebounds assists, and steals. The one glitch on UAA's record is a 71-62 loss at Western Washington on Dec. 5 in the second conference game of the season. The Seawolves have beaten their six GNAC opponents since then by 22, 20, 51, 37, 24, and 24. Anchorage has four players – all of them seniors – averaging in double-digit scoring, led by 6-foot-1 forward Megan Mullings at 16.3 points per game to rank No. 5 in the conference. No surprise she averages that many points – she's easily the GNAC's top shooter at a phenomenal  62.7 percent, which ranks No. 5 in Division II. She also pulls down a team-leading 5.5 rebounds. Jenna Buchanan, a 5-8 guard, is No. 7 at 14.0 (and shoots 51 percent); 5-8 guard Jessica Madison averages 11.0, and 5-7 guard Keiahnna Engel averages 10.6.  Junior guard Kiki Robertson keeps the offense flowing with her 5.2 assists per game, and also comes with 2.4 steals per game, second-best in the conference.
                                                                                                                                            
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 7-11, 2-6 GNAC (tie 9th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 56-13. Current series streak: SPU won 27. Last time: SPU 79, UAF 66 (Feb. 28, 2015 at Fairbanks). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Fairbanks got off to a solid start with a 5-2 record that was forged in part by a four-game winning streak. One of those victories was 88-77 at home against the same Wisconsin-Parkside team that later came to SPU and won by seven. Things then went south with a seven-game losing streak, including the first four in GNAC play. Setting the offensive pace for the Nanooks is 5-11 junior forward Jordan Wilson, No. 2 in the conference scoring race at 17.4 points per game. She played a big role to help UAF get back on the winning track a couple weeks ago with a sweep of the Oregon schools, scoring 35 against Concordia and 25 against Western Oregon. Coming into this week, she has a string of 16 consecutive double-digit games going. The Nanooks took a big hit in December when senior center Stephanie Toumson, who was averaging 15.2 points and a team-high 9.4 rebounds, went out with a season-ending injury after nine games. Kaillee Skjold, another 5-11 junior forward, averages 11.4 points and nearly doubled that with 20 last Saturday at Central Washington. She also is a solid rebounder at 6.2 per game. Junior guard Jaylee Mays averages 12.9 points, going for 25 – nearly half of Fairbanks' total – in a 74-57 loss at Northwest Nazarene last Thursday.
                                                                                                                                                                            
FALCON REPLAY
-- Simon Fraser limited the Falcons to just 25 percent shooting from the field on the way to a 76-47 victory last Thursday in Brougham Pavilion.
-- Jordan McPhee poured in a career-high 28 points before being forced to the sideline with an injured ankle, but Taylor Peacocke scored 19 for Western Washington on Saturday, including the tie-breaking free throw with 2.1 seconds left in overtime, as the Vikings got past SPU, 70-67.
                                                     
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Sophomore Courtney Hollander says …
(On the chance to play No. 1-ranked Anchorage)
"Alaska has always been that hard game, especially playing up there, it's hard. That's part of the challenge of it. We're going to go in with nothing to lose, just going to go in and fight as hard as we can. That's another advantage of (our team) being very young is not very many of us have played up there very often, so we don't know what to expect. But that makes it better in a way, because we're just going to go out and play hard, so I think it will be good for us."
 
Coach Julie Heisey says …
(On last Saturday's significant improvement)
"That was way more like it. John Wooden has at the top of his pyramid of success competitive greatness. You have to be in tough situations to see where your competitive greatness comes from. I thought in the second half tonight, we showed competitive greatness.
 
(On getting back on track)
"Sometimes, you don't just win overnight, you have to take steps to win. Our response (on Saturday) was we showed the right steps. We rebounded (a 33-31 edge), we played great defense, we got a lot of second shots. Moments when things were going well we played well as a team. We had confidence that we can do the things we practiced."

 
Guard Stacey Lukasiewicz says …
(On everyone's contributions against WWU)
"That's the way this team can play every single game. Courtney (Hollander) and Jordan (McPhee) hit some insane shots. When you have players like that who can just completely take over a game, and everyone was hitting big shots, Molly (Grager) was running the floor, our post defense was huge … We had a lot of fun together. The bench brought such great energy, and that just carried us on in those moments."
 
PAST ONE HALFTIME, AND APPOACHING ANOTHER
Last Thursday's home game against Simon Fraser pushed SPU just beyond the midpoint of the regular season. That was the 14th game on a schedule of 27.
 
The trip to Alaska will bring the Falcons to the midpoint of the 20-game GNAC schedule.
 
The second half of the conference docket will be a bit friendlier to the Falcons. Of those 10 games, six will be in Brougham Pavilion, including a stretch of four straight that begins next week.
 
20-20 SCORING VISION
Most nights, getting one player into the 20-point scoring neighborhood is noteworthy. The Falcons had two last Saturday night against Western Washington – and given who it was, the odds are likely that it will happen again during the next 2½ seasons.

 

Sophomore guard Jordan McPhee (Normandy Park, Wash. / Mount Rainier HS) poured in a career-high 28 points. That beat her previous college best of 21, set on New Year's Eve afternoon in a 52-49 victory at Central Washington.
 
Fellow sophomore Courtney Hollander (Lynden, Wash. / Lynden Christian HS) went for 21 points against Western, eclipsing her old mark of 20, which she logged on Dec. 5 in Brougham Pavilion against Concordia.
 
The last time a pair of SPU players went for 20 or more in the same game was New Year's Night 2015 at Western Washington when Suzanna Ohlsen poured in 24 and Aubree Callen added 22.

 

NOTABLE NIGHTS FOR NEWBIES
Their minutes still aren't many, but redshirt freshman center Julia Haining and freshman guard Riley Evans are finding a way to be producting whenever they get some.
 
Haining (Lynnwood, Wash. / Inglemoor HS) grabbed a career-high four rebounds against Simon Fraser on Thursday. In that same game, she also came up with her first college steal.
 
Evans (Terrigal, Australia) scored her first basket as a collegian in that same Simon Fraser game, draining a jumper late in the fourth quarter.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Seattle Pacific has six double-doubles in the book through the first 15 games. Sophomore forward Courtney Hollander leads the way with four.
 
2015-16 double-doubles:
Courtney Hollander (4 season / 4 career)
13 pts-13 reb vs. Fresno Pacific, Nov. 14
17 pts-13 reb at Point Loma, Nov. 24
20 pts-10 reb vs. Concordia, Dec. 5
11 pts-12 reb at Northwest Nazarene, Jan. 2
 
Stacey Lukasiewicz (1 season / 1 career)
13 pts-12 reb vs. W. Oregon, Dec. 3.
 
Jordan McPhee (1 season / 1 career)
20 pts-10 reb vs. Concordia, Dec. 5.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Among the 318 programs in Division II, SPU ranks …
56th in rebounding margin (+4.9)
63rd in offensive rebounds (42.0)
69th in free throw shooting (.724)
 
Click on this link to see how SPU stacks up nationally. Click on this link to see where GNAC teams and players rank within Division II.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th assist            Stacey Lukasiewicz (has 88)
100th field goal       Stacey Lukasiewicz (has 99)
                                    Jordan McPhee (has 88)
300th point               Brianne Lasconia (has 288)
                                    Jordan McPhee (has 283)
                                    Courtney Hollander (has 276)
 
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100th field goal      Courtney Hollander (has 100)
400th point             Hannah Rodrigues (has 402)       
                                               
AROUND THE WEST
New week, same story: The West Region still has two teams with just once loss. Alaska Anchorage is 20-1, with a 7-1 GNAC record, part of a three-way tie atop the conference standings with Montana State Billings and Western Washington (both 11-5 overall).
 
Cal Baptist is 15-1 overall, including 7-1 in the Pacific West. But the Lancers are still second in the conference standings behind Academy of Art (9-0, 14-5 overall). Azusa Pacific (13-3, 7-1 conference) is the other Pac West team looking very much like a contender for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
 
UC San Diego still has the best overall record in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (14-2), but is still in second place at 7-1, half a game behind Cal State Dominguez Hills, 9-0 in the conference, though just 11-6 overall. Cal State Stanislaus (12-4, 8-2) and Cal State East Bay (13-4, 7-2) also have solid records.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific begins the second half of the GNAC schedule with four straight home games. That stretch starts next Thursday, Jan. 28, at 7:00 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion against Northwest Nazarene at 7:00 p.m. as the Falcons seek to turn the tables after falling 66-65 in Nampa, Idaho, on Jan. 2. Then on Homecoming Saturday, Jan. 30, Central Washington visits for a 5:00 p.m. tip-off. SPU beat the Wildcats in Ellensburg on New Year's Eve, 52-49.
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                                        GNAC                 Overall
Alaska Anchorage               7-1           20-1
Montana State Billings         7-1           11-5
Western Washington             7-1           11-5
Simon Fraser                   5-3            7-6
Central Washington             4-4           11-5
Seattle Pacific                3-5            6-9
Northwest Nazarene             3-5            5-9
Saint Martin's                 3-5            5-10
Alaska Fairbanks               2-6            7-11
Western Oregon                 2-6            3-13
Concordia                      1-7            3-13