SODEXO TIP-OFF CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday, Nov. 11                    Western Washington vs. Humboldt, State, 1:00 p.m.
                                                Seattle Pacific vs. Fresno Pacific, 5:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
 
Saturday, Nov. 12                Western Washington vs. Fresno Pacific, 1:00 p.m.
                                                Seattle Pacific vs. Humboldt State, 5:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
                               LIVE WEBCASTS (all games)        LIVE STATS (all games)


        Weekly release (PDF)
        Tournament Central (HTML)
 
SEATTLE – For the past two weekends, the Seattle Pacific Falcons have gotten some positive results – even though those results didn't officially go into the book.
 
Starting this weekend, those women's basketball results do officially go into the book.
 
With four starters and a bevy of veteran players, the Falcons have their official start to the season this week when they host the annual Sodexo Tip-Off Classic in Brougham Pavilion.
 
SPU will welcome West Region opponents Humboldt State, Fresno Pacific and Western Washington to town for the two-day tournament. The Falcons play the 5:00 p.m. game each day, facing Fresno on Friday and Humboldt on Saturday. Western takes on the opposite opponent in the 1:00 p.m. game.
 
Seattle Pacific comes into the weekend off two exhibition victories: 53-45 at Seattle University on Oct. 29, and 72-56 at home against George Fox last Saturday.
 
This will be the first of three tournaments for Seattle Pacific. The West Region crossover is next Friday and Saturday in Bellingham, and the SPU Classic is Friday and Saturday, Dec. 16-17, in Brougham.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All tournament games will have live Webcasts with play-by-play commentary, and live stats available. The Webcasts will be through Stretch Internet, the official Internet provider of the Great Northwest Athletic conference. Veteran Falcons announcer Tom Gialanella will be on the play-by-play. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
BACK TO A FAMILIAR SODEXO FORMAT
This year's Tip-Off Classic will feature both men's and women's games once again, as it has so many times in the past.
 
With women's games set for 1:00 and 5:00 each day, the men will fill the 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. slots. The Seattle Pacific men make their official regular-season debut under first-year head coach Grant Leep on Friday at 7 against Humboldt State. Conference stablemate Simon Fraser plays at 3 on Friday against Hawaii Hilo.
 
SPU and Simon keep the same time slots, but swap opponents on Saturday.
 
Last year, scheduling twists led to the Falcon women and men hosting separate Sodexos.
 
SODEXO TICKET TALK
Tickets will be available at the Brougham Pavilion wind beginning 60 minutes before the first game each day, and continuing through the evening. Prices are $9 for reserved seating, $6 for adult general admission, and $3 for senior citizens (65 and older) and non-SPU students. One ticket will be good for all four games on that particular day.
 
SPU students, faculty, and staff presenting a current valid ID card will be admitted free. Complimentary programs will be available inside at the entrance to the gym.
 

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Seattle Pacific met these same two teams – albeit in reverse order – during last year's season-opening West Region Challenge at Humboldt State. The Falcons rolled past the host Lumberjacks on the first night, 82-58, and won by an even bigger margin the next day against Fresno Pacific, 89-43.
-- SPU is 32-9 all-time in season-openers. One of those was a 78-45 rout of Fresno Pacific in the 2014 Sodexo tournament.
--The Falcons have won their last four season openers and 15 of the last 16. The one miss was in 2011 when UC San Diego rolled to a 68-47 victory.
-- SPU and Humboldt have played 29 times over the years. The majority of those were when both schools were members of the same conference – the Pacific West from 1998-99 through 2000-01, and then the GNAC from 2001-02 through 2005-06, after which the Lumberjacks left for the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
-- Regardless of conference, the Falcons have had the upper hand. They and Humboldt split their first two meetings. But SPU now has won 27 in a row against the team that is one of its top regional rivals.
-- Those wins have ranged from last year's 24-point blowout to the epic overtime game in the 2014 Sodexo tournament when Seattle Pacific came from six points down in the final three minutes, and pulled way to an 83-74 victory.
-- Coach Julie Heisey is 7-0 vs. Humboldt State and 3-0 vs. Fresno Pacific.
-- However, she will be going head-to-head for the first time against new head coaches in each program: Tim Beauregard at Fresno, and Michelle Bento-Jackson at Humboldt.
 
SCOUTING THE FRESNO PACIFIC SUNBIRDS
All-time series: SPU leads, 5-1. Current series streak: SPU won 4. Last time: SPU 89, FPU 43 (Nov. 14, 2015 at Arcata, Calif. Sunbirds on the Web.
Sunbirds in a nutshell: Coming off a 5-20 season, Fresno Pacific has a new head coach in Tim Beauregard. He gets to start off with two of the team's top three scorers returning. Setting the pace on offense is 5-foot-9 junior guard / forward Megan Lee, who averaged 10.9 points last winter. She also pulled down 3.0 rebounds per game. Hannah Ramirez, a 5-4 senior guard, was third on the team in scoring at 7.8 points, and was the leading rebounder with an average of 5.8. Those two, along with 5-2 senior guard Abrina Salas were nearly dead even as Fresno Pacific's top playmakers. Lee and Salas each had 48 assists; Salas totaled 47. The Sunbirds won their only exhibition game, hanging on to beat Bethesda on Monday night, 75-71. Bree Alvarez poured in 25 points, Lee had 21, and Ramirez recorded a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
SCOUTING THE HUMBOLDT STATE LUMBERJACKS
All-time series: SPU leads, 28-1. Current series streak: SPU won 27. Last time: SPU 82, HSU 58 (Nov. 13, 2015 at Arcata, Calif.). Lumberjacks on the Web.
Lumberjacks in a nutshell: From who's calling the shots to who's taking the shots, this is a new-look team. That starts at the top, as the long-time wife-husband tandem of head coach Joddie Gleason and assistant Skip Gleason headed to the Northwest, where they are now on the staff at Seattle University. Humboldt also graduated two of its top three scorers (Amanda Kunst the leader at 12.8 points; A'Jaee Foster the No. 3 at 9.0 and a team-high 6.4 rebounds). Kiana Brown, was close behind Kunst at 12.3 points per game and would have been a junior, is not returning. Altogether, the Lumberjacks lost players who accounted for about 54 of the 63 points the team averaged. The top returning scorer and rebounder is 6-foot senior guard Teylor McMiller, who averaged 6.6 points and 5.5 rebounds. Humboldt split a pair of exhibition games, beating Simpson of California, 61-51, but falling to Southern Oregon, 89-72.
 
SODEXO SNIPETS
--This is the 12th Sodexo tournament. The food services company took up sponsorship in 2005. It was known previously by other sponsor names.
-- Seattle Pacific has a near-perfect record in the tournament. The Falcons are 29-1 overall, including 21-1 during the Sodexo years. Their only loss came last year in the final game of the tournament against Wisconsin Parkside, as the Rangers won, 60-53.
-- Hannah Rodrigues of the Falcons was named to last year's all-tournament team.
 
EXHIBITION EXCERPTS
-- Junior forward Courtney Hollander has been SPU's leading scorer in the first two exhibition games. Hollander (Lynden, Wash. / Lynden Christian HS) poured in 21 when the Falcons beat Seattle U, 53-45, on Oct. 29. Then in last Saturday's 72-56 win against George Fox, she led the way with 14.
-- It won't officially go onto her tally of nine career double-doubles, but Hollander did have one in last week's game, as she grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with her 14 on the scoreboard.
-- The Falcons have been steady from behind the arc. They hit 9 of 20 (45 percent) against Seattle U, and 7 of 18 (38.9 percent) against George Fox for a combined 16 of 38 (42.1 percent) in the two games. Hollander has led the way, draining 6 of her 9 tries.
-- SPU passed the ball very well through both games, with assists on 14 of 18 baskets (spread among seven players) against SU and 19 of 22 (with 10 players earning at least one) against George Fox.
-- The Falcons' bench bunch came up big vs. GFU, contributing 41 of the 72 points. Senior guard Brianne Lasconia led the way with 12. The reserves had 15
 
COACH JULIE HEISEY SAYS …
(On the official start of the season)
It's exciting to have real games. We're going into a bit of an unknown. Fresno Pacific has a new coach with a new system. Humboldt has a new coach also. So it's lots of unknowns, but in many ways, that's a good thing. You go in and just really have to focus on the things we can control."

 

(On what the team took away from its two exhibition games)
"We played against two different styles, and we did well and learned a lot. Hopefully, we'll learn some more before we have (this week's) games. I like our depth. I like that we've been able to have balanced scoring in both games. We've done a good job of rebounding, but we can still get better. And our defense has helped us generate some points as well as just change the tempo of the game."
 
(On what the emphasis is this weekend)
"We just have to focus on what our foundation is and who we are on offense and defense. Hopefully, that foundation is good enough that it's going to be successful in most situations, and we'll have to make some adjustments along the way."
 
FROM MAROON TO RED
Coach Julie Heisey and Hailee Bennett have decided that the freshman guard will redshirt this season and officially begin her college career in 2017-18.
 
The 5-foot-7 Bennett (Kalispell, Mont.) saw action in last Saturday's 72-56 exhibition win against George Fox in Brougham Pavilion, getting onto the floor for five minutes. She missed both of her shots, but did come up with two steals.
 
At Glacier High School in Kalispell, Mont., Bennett made the all-state team three straight years. She became Glacier's all-time assists leader, and scored more than 1,000 points during her career.
 
NO DEARTH OF DOUBLE-DOUBLES.
As they begin the 2016-17 season, the Falcons have three players who have logged double-doubles during their careers.

 

Courtney Hollander leads the way with nine, having recorded all of those last year. In one of those, she scored a career-high 20 points (Dec. 5 at home vs. Concordia). In another she set a career-high 13 rebounds (Nov. 14 vs. Fresno Pacific), which she subsequently matched in two other double-double performances.
 
Senior guard Stacey Lukasiewicz (Centennial, Colo.) has one, going for 13 points and 12 rebounds at home against Western Oregon last Dec. 3. Junior guard Jordan McPhee (Normandy Park, Wash. / Mount Rainier HS) also has one, getting hers just two nights later against Concordia with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th point       Rachel Shim (has 92)
100th rebound     Erica Pagano (has 82)
200th rebound     Stacey Lukasiewicz (has 192)
                  Brianne Lasconia (has 189)
400th point       Jordan McPhee (has 360)
                  Brianne Lasconia (has 356)
500th point       Hannah Rodrigues (has 463)
                  Courtney Hollander (has 441)
 
AROUND THE GNAC
This is the first full weekend of play for GNAC schools. In addition to SPU and Western Washington being at the Falcons' tournament in Seattle, Central Washington is at a tournament being hosted by Concordia in Portland, Saint Martin's is at Western Oregon's tournament, Montana State Billings is at a Cal State San Marcos tournament, Simon Fraser is at a Dixie State tournament, while Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Fairbanks are hosting tournaments.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons take a short drive to Bellingham next weekend for the West Region Crossover, hosted by Western Washington. SPU plays at 5:00 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, facing UC San Diego the first night and Azusa Pacific the second. In each game, the Falcons will be seeking to turn the tables after losing to both last year in California: 73-60 to UCSD, and 70-56 to Azusa. Next week's tournament will be played at Whatcom Community College, as Carver Gym on the Western campus is still undergoing renovation.