Box Score

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BURNABY, B.C. – Their chances of making the women's basketball postseason are still hanging in the balance.
 
But after a dramatic second-half comeback on Saturday night, the Seattle Pacific Falcons are still hanging in there.
 
Jordan McPhee scored seven of her team's 11 points in overtime, including two clinching free throws with five seconds left as SPU rallied from 19 down in the third quarter to beat Simon Fraser in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game, 61-56.

 

McPhee (Normandy Park, Wash. / Mount Rainier HS) finished with 16 points for Seattle Pacific (9-14, 6-10 GNAC), as did fellow sophomore Courtney Hollander (Lynden, Wash. / Lynden Christian HS). Hollander also pulled down 12 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season.
 
"We could have easily thrown in the towel," coach Julie Heisey said. "We fought, and we did a great job. Courtney came out in the middle of the second half and hit a 3, Jordan got going, and we just kept going with that group."
 
The victory in Simon Fraser's West Gym kept alive the Falcons' hopes of qualifying for the GNAC Tournament. With four regular-season games left, SPU is still one game behind Northwest Nazarene, which currently occupies sixth place in the standings for the final tournament berth. The Crusaders (7-9) staved off a furious comeback by Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday and took a 78-74 road win.
 
SPU closes out its home schedule next week, playing host to Fairbanks on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and current No. 1-ranked Alaska Anchorage next Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. NNU also is home, playing Concordia and Western Oregon.
 
McPhee gave the Falcons a 52-50 lead early in overtime, and redshirt freshman center Julia Haining followed with a pair of free throws for 54-50. McPhee then answered a Simon Fraser basket by Elisa Homer with 3-pointer from the left of the lane to make it 57-52.
 
"Jordan hit that first shot in overtime, and that's always nice," Heisey said. "The team that scores first in overtime usually wins – that's a very high percentage."
 
Seattle Pacific was up 59-56 after Hollander made the first two free throws with 7.3 seconds left. She missed the second, and the Clan rebounded, then called a timeout with the intent of advancing the ball to front court under this year's new stipulation allowing a team to do so.
 
But it was ruled that a dribble had been taken before the timeout was called, thus nullifying that option. The Clan disputed the call and the fact that two seconds had run off the clock, and a technical foul was whistled. McPhee sank the two free throws with five seconds left for a 61-56 lead, making it a two-possession game and effectively clinching it.
 
BIG DEFICIT – THEN A BIG SURGE
Playing against an SFU team that had routed them by 29 points (76-47) in Seattle on Jan. 14, and was riding a five-game winning streak, the Falcons were down 38-19 early in the third quarter. It was still 42-29 when they closed out the third with the first six points of what would become a 13-0 run, and eventually tied the game at 42-42 with 6:31 left in regulation.
                                                                                 
"We were able to force a lot of turnovers and got them back on their heels," Heisey said. "They made some subs, and we went to a full-court press. Being aggressive on defense always makes our offense more aggressive."

 

The Clan responded right away with a 3-pointer by Sophie Swant. They stayed ahead until Seattle Pacific sophomore guard Lindsay Lee (Spokane, Wash. / Lewis & Clark HS) buried a 3-pointer from the left corner to tie it at 50-50 with 52.3 second left. Neither team scored through the rest of regulation.
 
After allowing 34 first-half points, the Falcons yielded just 22 the rest of the night. They also forced the Simon Fraser into 6-of-30 shooting in the second half after the hosts hit 13 of 28 through the opening 20 minutes.
 
Led by Hollander's 12, SPU wound up with a 43-41 rebounding advantage. That included 29-20 in the second half and overtime.
 
"We really challenged them at halftime that we were being out-rebounded, 21-14," Heisey said. "We knew (Rachel) Fradgley was hurting us and we challenged them that we didn't want to let her have any more offensive rebounds.
 
"The most aggressive team gets the ball. We just had to make some adjustments."
 
Alisha Roberts poured in 20 points for Simon Fraser (12-9, 10-6 GNAC). She got 18 from 3-point range, with five of those makes coming during the second quarter to help the Clan take a 34-19 lead into intermission.
                                                  
 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, February 13, 2016
West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.
                                         
Seattle Pacific 61, Simon Fraser 56 (OT)
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (9-14, 6-10 GNAC)
Jordan McPhee 4-9 6-8 16, Courtney Hollander 3-16 8-10 16, Erica Pagano 3-6 1-3 7, Hannah Rodrigues 2-5 1-2 5, Julia Haining 1-4 2-2 4, Stacey Lukasiewicz 2-9 0-0 4, Jaylee Albert 1-4 0-0 3, Brianne Lasconia 1-2 0-0 3, Lindsay Lee 1-4 0-0 3, Molly Grager 0-0 0-0 0, Riley Evans 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-60 18-25 61.
 
SIMON FRASER (12-9, 10-6 GNAC)
Alisha Roberts 6-21 2-2 20, Elisa Homer 3-14 3-4 11, Rachel Fradgley 4-10 2-6 10, Ellen Kett 4-6 1-2 9, Sophie Swant 1-2 1-2 4, Samantha Beauchamp 1-3 0-0 2, Fiona Beales 0-1 0-0 0, Vanessa Gee 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-58 9-16 56.
 
Seattle Pacific                     10             9            16           15           11           -- 61
Simon Fraser                      13           21             8              8              6            -- 56
 
3-point goals – SPU 7-17 (McPhee 2-4, Hollander 2-3, Lee 1-4, Lasconia 1-1, Albert 1-12, Evans 0-1, Lukasiewicz 0-1, Pagano 0-1), SFU 9-29 (Roberts 6-16, Homer 2-8, Swant 1-2, Kett 0-2, Fradgley 0-1). Fouled out – SPU: Albert. SFU: Kett. Rebounds – SPU 43 (Hollander 12), SFU 41 (Fradgley 10, Beauchamp 10). Assists – SPU 10 (McPhee 3, Albert 3), SFU 13 (Kett 6). Turnovers – SPU 18, SFU 18. Total fouls – SPU 18, SFU 19. Technical fouls – SFU: Kett, Coach Langford. Attendance – 375.
 
 
Next game --        Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific
                                Thursday, Feb. 18     7:00 p.m.
                                Brougham Pavilion