WEST REGION CROSSOVER CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday, Nov. 18                    Seattle Pacific vs. No. 17 UC San Diego, 5:00 p.m.
                                                Whatcom CC Pavilion / Bellingham, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 19               Seattle Pacific vs. Azusa Pacific, 5:00 p.m.
                                                Whatcom CC Pavilion / Bellingham, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
NONCONFERENCE
Tuesday, Nov. 22                Evergreen State at Seattle Pacific
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with updated stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons had most things go their way to get the women's basketball season started last weekend.
 
The challenges will get considerably tougher this weekend.
 
After sweeping their two Sodexo Tip-Off Classic games by margins of 51 and 31 points, the Falcons head north to Bellingham for contests against UC San Diego and Azusa Pacific in the West Region Crossover tournament.
 
The Tritons, a long-time West rival, will be across the court from SPU on Friday at 5:00 p.m., followed by Azusa Pacific on Saturday at 5. Both games will be played in the Whatcom Community College Pavilion, which is serving as a temporary home for host Western Washington while its own Carver Gym is being renovated.
 
SPU arrives in Bellingham having won all four of its outings so far – exhibitions against Seattle University (53-45) and George Fox (72-56), then the Sodexo triumphs against Fresno Pacific (90-39) and Humboldt State (67-36).
 
The Falcons ae home for a single non-conference contest on Tuesday, Nov. 22, when Evergreen State comes up from Olympia. That one tips off at 7:00 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion, and will be the final game prior to the start of Great Northwest Athletic Conference play on Dec. 1 at Western Oregon.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All tournament games will have live Webcasts and live stats available. The Webcasts will be through Stretch Internet, the official Internet provider of the Great Northwest Athletic conference. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
HOLLANDER, McPHEE SHINE AT THE SODEXO
SPU juniors Courtney Hollander and Jordan McPhee were among the five players named to the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic all-tournament team.

 

Hollander led the Falcons in scoring and rebounding for the tournament with 26 points and 13 boards. That included team highs of 16 and 8, respectively, in Saturday's 67-36 rout of Humboldt State. She shot 62.5 percent for the two games, hitting 10 of 16, including 4 of 6 from behind the 3-point line.

 

McPhee contributed 18 points and nine rebounds for the two games. She tallied 10 of those points in Friday's 90-39 romp past Fresno Pacific. She topped the 50 percent mark from the field, hitting 7 of 13 (53.8), and had an 80 percent night (4 of 5) against Fresno. She also had four assists and four steals.

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- This is the third straight year the Falcons have opened the season against Fresno Pacific, Humboldt State, UC San Diego, and Azusa Pacific, and the fourth year in a row they have played all four of those schools in preseason tournaments.
-- Last year, SPU swept Humboldt State and Fresno on Humboldt's home court, but lost to UCSD and Azusa Pacific in Azusa.
-- Seattle Pacific swept all four schools in 2013 and again in 2014.
--The 2014 wins against San Diego (71-66) and Azusa (77-65) both came in Bellingham, and marked the last time SPU got off to a 4-0 start. Matter of fact, the team won its first six games that year.
-- Aside from Humboldt State, which the Falcons used to play twice a year when Lumberjacks were part of the GNAC, their series against UC San Diego is the second-longest of any West Region opponent. The teams have met 15 times, with Seattle Pacific owning an 11-4 advantage. The only regional series with a longer history is the one against Chico State (18 games).
--This is the 12th year in a row the Falcons and Tritons have played – all since Julie Heisey became SPU's head coach in 2005.
--But it also might be one of the last games between the schools, as UCSD has announced that it intends to move up to NCAA Division I.
-- Last year was the first time in seven meetings that Azusa Pacific beat the Falcons.
-- A couple of SPU's more dramatic games in recent years came against these teams. In 2012 in Bellingham, the Falcons scored the last four points of overtime – all on free throws – to pull out a 76-74 victory against APU. The following November in Azusa. Betsy Kingma's buzzer-beating 3-point boosted the Falcons past UC San Diego, 66-63.
--The Falcons have played several members of the NAIA Cascade Collegiate Conference over the years, although has not gone against Evergreen State since Nov. 21, 2001. The most recent CCC opponent was Northwest of Kirkland on Dec. 13, 2014.
--Coach Julie Heisey's teams are 8-4 vs. UC San Diego and 5-1 vs. Azusa Pacific.
 

SCOUTING THE UC SAN DIEGO TRITONS: 2-0, 0-0 CCAA
All-time series: SPU leads, 11-4. Current series streak: UCSD won 1. Last time: UCSD 73, SPU 60 (Nov. 20, 2015 at Azusa, Calif.). Tritons on the Web. Tritons in a nutshell: Ranked No. 17 in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association preseason poll, UC San Diego already has a big win in its back pocket, as it defeated No. 2 Cal Baptist in last weekend's San Marcos Classic, 82-74. That came on the heels of an 88-64 rout of Montana State Billings in the San Marcos opener. Taylor Tanita, a 5-foot-4 junior point guard, had much to do with San Diego's success. She had 21 points (on 8-of-11 shooting), nine assists and three steals against CBU, and averaged 14.5 points, 8.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.5 steals in the two games to earn CCAA Player of the Week honors. Sophomore 5-6 guard Joleen Yang was went for double-digit scoring in both games, including 17 against Cal Baptist, and 6-1 junior forward Dalayna Sampton was big on the boards with seven against Billings and 10 against CBU.
 
SCOUTING THE AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS: 1-2, 0-0 PACIFIC WEST
All-time series: SPU leads, 6-1. Current series streak: APU won 1. Last time: APU 70, SPU 56 (Nov. 21, 2015 at Azusa, Calf.). Cougars on the Web.
Cougars in a nutshell: With a brand-new starting five and many new players on its roster, Azusa pulled out a 70-68 victory against Cal State Dominguez Hills in its opener last weekend in the CCAA / Pac West Challenge, but then fell to Cal Poly Pomona in its other tournament game, 67-56. The Cougars also came up short in a non-conference contest at Cal State Los Angeles on Tuesday, 64-61, despite taking a six-point lead into the fourth quarter. Of the four Cougars who combined for 52 of their 70 points against SPU last winter, three graduated, and one did not return. Gabrielle Kaiser, a 6-foot-1 forward, and 5-7 guard Abbey Goodsell are each averaging 14.3 points for Azusa, with 5-7 guard Tara Casey close behind at 12.7. Goodsell also top the team at 5.0 rebounds per game. Casey and 5-4 guard Zoe March are sharpshooters from the floor at .524 and .550, respectively.
 
SCOUTING THE EVERGREEN STATE GEODUCKS: 0-2, 0-0 CCC
All-time series: SPU leads, 3-0. Current series streak: SPU won 3. Last time: SPU 102, ES 47 (Nov. 21, 2001 at Olympia, Wash.). Geoducks on the Web.
Geoducks in a nutshell. Evergreen dropped both of its game at the Adidas Northwest Classic in Kirkland on Veterans Day Weekend, falling 71-35 to Montana State Northern and 87-57 to Great Falls. Senior post player Autumn Moorcroft, who stands 5-10, is averaging 9.5 points through the first two games. Gabi Fenumiai, a 6-foot senior post player, is pulling down a team-high 4.5 rebounds per game. Asiyah Davis, a 5-6 junior forward, posted the opening weekend's top scoring performance with 15 points against Great Falls, getting nine of those from behind the 3-point line. She was one of three Geoducks in double-figure scoring in that game.
 
THE FALCONS SAY …
Coach Julie Heisey:
(On the first weekend)
"Obviously, there are always things we can get batter at. Games make practice more meaningful. But we (won) two in-region games, everybody got to play, and we learned things."
 
(On the defense, especially vs. Humboldt)
"I thought we played great defense. It's really hard to play defense when you're not always scoring. I was proud of our kids for staying in the moment. I thought our defensive intensity stayed really strong even though our offensive effort wasn't as good as we're capable of."
 
All-tournament player Jordan McPhee
(On looking ahead to this week's games)
"We can't let this make us lazy. "We have to keep working. They're really good teams, so we have to be ready, and we have to address each practice with the mindset of winning."
 
FALCON REPLAY
-- Erica Pagano scored a career-high 12 points – all during the first half – and Rachel Shim a career-high 10 as the Seattle Pacific women had five players in double figures last Friday night to roll past Fresno Pacific in the season-opening Sodexo Tip-Off Classic, 90-39.
-- Courtney Hollander scored 16 points on Saturday night, and the Falcons limited Humboldt State to just 29 percent shooting from the field in a 67-36 victory that polished off a sweep of the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic in Brougham Pavilion.
 
CONTROLLING THE CONTROLLABLES
It's coach Julie Heisey's favorite of emphasis: Control the things you can control. That means defense, rebounds, and turnovers.
 
-- The Falcons allowed just 75 points in the two games combined last weekend, and limited Fresno Pacific and Humboldt State to a combined 26.9 percent shooting (31 of 115).
-- All 14 players who suited up got to play, and in each game, 12 of them grabbed at least one rebound. SPU out-rebounded the Sunbirds and Lumberjacks, 86-52.
-- After committing 22 turnovers against Fresno – half of those in the fourth quarter when the game had long since been decided – SPU cut it down to 18 against Humboldt.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th rebound       Erica Pagano (has 89)
200th rebound       Stacey Lukasiewicz (has 194)
                                  Brianne Lasconia (has 191)
400th point             Jordan McPhee (has 378)
                                  Brianne Lasconia (has 369)
500th point             Hannah Rodrigues (has 467)
                                  Courtney Hollander (has 467)
 
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100th point             Rachel Shim (has 108)

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look a results, stats, news, and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
Following Tuesday's game against Evergreen State, the Falcons get eight days way from competition, including some time off for Thanksgiving, before opening their Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule on the road in Oregon. SPU visits Western Oregon in Monmouth on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday the 3rd, they're in Portland for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off at Concordia.