THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, Dec. 9                  Saint Martin's at Seattle Pacific, 2:00 p.m.
                                              Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                              Live Webcast        Live stats
 

        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – It's still a few weeks until Christmas. But the Seattle Pacific Falcons get an early present in the form of a chance to catch their breath after a busy November start to the women's basketball season.
 
SPU has just four games remaining in the month of December – one per week. That begins this Saturday in Brougham Pavilion when Saint Martin's visits for a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest.
 
Tip-off is at 2:00 p.m.
 
Although the Falcons certainly will practice between now and then, they are putting most of their focus on fall quarter academic finals, which began on Tuesday.
 
Seattle Pacific (6-1, 1-1 GNAC) is coming off a split of its first two GNAC games on the road last week. A 59-57 loss at Concordia-Portland on Thursday was followed by a convincing 87-52 romp at Western Oregon on Saturday.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
This week's game, and all remaining games this season, home and away, will have live stats and a free live Webcast. Tom Gialanella will be on the Webcast play-by-play for home contests. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
TICKET TALK
The ticket window opens 60 minutes prior to tip-off. Prices are $10 for reserved seats, $7 for adult general admission, and $4 for students, youths, and senior citizens. Seattle Pacific faculty, staff, and students are admitted free with proper school ID.
 
 

WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE GYM?
Fans arriving for Saturday's game who accustomed to sitting in the seat-back chairs on the bench / scoretable side of the gym will find themselves being directed to the opposite side. That's because of the ongoing construction project to replace the northside stands.
 
Work begin last Monday, Nov. 27, and is expected to take between three and four weeks. All of the new seating is supposed to be in place by the time SPU returns from Christmas break to host Montana State Billings on Thursday, Dec. 28, at 5:15 p.m.
 
Those in attendance on Saturday will have an unobstructed view of the game, as the benches and scoretable will remain on the north side.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- SPU's 5-0 record before last Thursday's loss at Concordia-Portland tied for the seventh-best start in school history. Previously, two other teams had gone 5-0 before their first defeat.
-- Of their seven opponents, the Falcons have kept five of them below 60 points, including their last four in a row. That's nearly equal to last year's total of six opponents kept below 60.
-- That translates into a 58.6 points-allowed average, ranking Seattle Pacific in the national top 50 defensively among the 302 NCAA Division II programs.
--Although the Falcons have a decisive 52-16 advantage over the years against Saint Martin's, it has become a tough spot on the schedule. This year's seniors who have played the previous three years against the Saints are just 3-3 all-time against the visitors from Lacey.
-- In fact, it took a sweep of last year's games – 72-59 at home, 72-51 on the road – for that senior group to get to .500 against Saint Martin's.
-- For the first time in more than two decades, the Saints have a new head coach calling the shots. Christy Martin was hired last April after spending the past three seasons at Tacoma Community College. She took over for Tim Healy, who retired after 22 years at the helm.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS
All-time series: SPU leads, 52-16. Current series streak: SPU won 3. Last time: SPU 72, StM 51 (Jan. 31, 2017 at Lacey). Saints on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: Saint Martin's comes into the week off a 74-65 road win against the same Concordia-Portland team that edged SPU by two points just 48 hours earlier. Elin Johansson, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, has been the team's biggest threat on offense, averaging 18.6 points per game to rank No. 2 in the GNAC. She had a string of three straight games in the 20-point neighborhood in late November. Johansson shoots .542 from the floor, and pulls down a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game. Another threat is 5-10 freshman guard / forward Saniah Simpson-Patu at 14.2 points and 6.6 boards. Almost in double digits is 5-2 sophomore guard Makenna Schultz at 9.9 points per game.
 
HOLLANDER, McPHEE BOTH REACH 800
Twins, they're not. But Courtney Hollander and Jordan McPhee are now about as close as they can possibly get in terms of career points. Both seniors put their 800^th into the book last week.

Hollander got there on Thursday with seven points at Concordia-Portland, giving her exactly 800. McPhee followed her two days later at Western Oregon, with a 20-point performance.
 
Hollander comes into Saturday's game against Saint Martin's with 812 points. And McPhee?
 
She has 811.

 LET'S GO TO THE REPLAY
-- Julia Haining had a double-double with 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, but SPU was hampered by frosty marksmanship from everywhere on LCEF Court and dropped a 59-57 decision to Concordia-Portland in the GNAC opener last Thursday.
-- Jordan McPhee poured in 20 points, Lindsay Lee added a career-high 17, and Courtney Hollander logged her third double-double of the season as Seattle Pacific bolted to a 16-0 lead and never looked back in an 87-52 GNAC rout of previously undefeated Western Oregon.
.

COACH JULIE HEISEY SAYS …
(On bouncing back from first loss to win at WOU)
"I was really pleased with started off so aggressively. We really disrupted their offense, and we were able to keep the pedal to the metal and stay focused."
 
(On Saint Martin's)
"They're pretty athletic. They have a freshman (Saniah Simpson-Patu) who is really good. They have a lot of good returners, and no question that Elin Johansson is playing a lot better, too. They had some good talent last year, but I think with the new people they've brought in, they have a lot more talent, and just a whole different style of play. They're playing a lot faster."


DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Courtney Hollander logged her third double-double of the season last week, going for 12 points and 12 rebounds in Saturday's 87-52 victory at Western Oregon. SPU now has five for the year.
 
Courtney Hollander (3 season / 17 career)
11 pts-11 reb vs. Humboldt State, Nov. 10
10 pts-10 reb at Fresno Pacific, Nov. 11
12 pts-12 reb at Western Oregon, Dec. 2
 
Julia Haining (2 season / 2 career)
13 pts-16 reb vs. Humboldt State, Nov. 10
14 pts-17 reb at Concordia-Portland, Nov. 30
 
Jordan McPhee (0 season / 2 career)
 
DOUBLE-DIGIT DELIGHTS ON BOARDS
Not everything ends up as a double-double. In fact, the Falcons have two instances so far this season of players grabbing more than 10 rebounds on nights when they didn't hit the 10-point mark in the scorebook.
 
In a 65-59 victory against UC San Diego on Nov. 18, Courtney Hollander (left) snagged 10 rebounds to go along with five points.
 
Then on Nov. 22 at home against Biola, Julia Haining (right) had 10 boards and contributed six points in a 78-52 win.
 
Those seven double-digit performances through the first seven games put the Falcons almost even with the nine they had in all 30 games last year.
 
STEADY-HANDS SHIM AMONG D2'S BEST
SPU has gotten noticeably better at taking care of the basketball since the season started. Helping spearhead that improvement has been redshirt senior guard Rachel Shim.

The graduate of Skyline High School in Sammamish, just across Lake Washington from Seattle, is No. 3 in all of D2 with a 4.20 assist / turnover ratio. Shim has 21 assists and just five turnovers in seven games. What's more, Shim has been turnover-free in three of those seven games, in 25, 20, and 23 minutes of playing time, respectively.
 
In their first three games, the Falcons committed 67 turnovers – including 23 against both Humboldt State and Azusa Pacific.
 
But in the four games after that, they have just 46 turnovers, with no more than 15 in any of them, and a season-low of just four against highly regarded UC San Diego.
 
MARKING A MILESTONE
In reach
100th assist       Jaylee Albert (has 92)
100th rebound      Jaylee Albert (has 99)
300th field goal   Courtney Hollander (has 295)
400th point        Rachel Shim (has 358)
600th rebound      Cici West (has 589)
                   Courtney Hollander (has 561)
800th point        Courtney Hollander (has 812)
                   Jordan McPhee (has 811)
 
Made last week
100th assist       Lindsay Lee (has 100)
200th point        Julia Haining (has 220)
200th rebound      Julia Haining (has 206)
400th point        Erica Pagano (has 400)
800th point        Courtney Hollander (has 812)
                   Jordan McPhee (has 811)
 
POLLING PLACE
After splitting last week's two games in Oregon, the Falcons dropped eight spot to No. 21 in this week's WBCA national coaches poll. Seattle Pacific received 153 points in the voting
 
Ashland of Ohio remained a unanimous No. 1 with all 24 first-place votes. Alaska Anchorage stayed solidly in the No. 2 spot with 574 points. Azusa Pacific jumped four places to No. 13 and is the only other West Region team (along with SPU and Anchorage) in the top 25. For the first time this season, Montana State Billings (7-0) is receiving votes, getting 14 points this week to sit in the No. 32 overall spot.
 
In the D2SIDA West Region poll voted on by a select group of sports information directors, the Falcons dropped to No. 4 this week from their previous No. 2 position. Anchorage is a unanimous No. 1, followed by Azusa Pacific and UC San Diego.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Among the 302 programs in D2, SPU is …
– 20th in rebounding margin (+9.3)
– 27th in defensive rebounds (31.0)
– 32nd in rebounding (44.0)
– 39th in field goal defense (.341)
– 40th in scoring margin (+14.9)
– 48th in free throw shooting (.760)
– 50th in scoring defense (58.6)
 
Individually …
– Rachel Shim 3rd in assist / turnover ratio (4.20)
– Courtney Hollander tie 40th in double-doubles (3)

Click on this link to see how SPU stacks up nationally. Click on this link to see where other GNAC teams and player rank.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage and Montana State Billings are two of the last 20 unbeaten D2 teams – and the only two in the West Region. The GNAC co-leaders won their first two conference contests. Anchorage (8-0 overall), playing at home, downed Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. MSUB (7-0), also at home, beat Western Washington and Simon Fraser.
 
Cal State Dominguez Hills has the early lead in the California Collegiate Athletic Association at 4-0 (6-3 overall). UC San Diego remains unbeaten in conference play (2-0) and is 6-2 overall. But of the 13 teams, only four are above .500, two more are at .500, and everyone else is below it.
 
Azusa Pacific, Dominican, and Concordia Irvine are all 2-0 in the Pacific West Conference, with Dixie State, Cal Baptist, and Hawaii Hilo all 1-0. Azusa has by far the best overall record at 11-1, with Dominican at 6-2 and Concordia Irvine at 5-2.
 

UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific plays another single game next week, visiting Concordia-Irvine on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. The two teams played in last year's SPU Classic, with the Falcons prevailing, 76-64. That gave head coach Julie Heisey her 400^th career victory. Since that night, she has raised that total to 416.
 
  
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                   Conference      Overall
Alaska Anchorage           2-0          8-0
Montana State Billings     2-0          7-0
Seattle Pacific            1-1          6-1
Western Oregon             1-1          5-1
Northwest Nazarene         1-1          5-2
Concordia-Portland         1-1          5-3
Saint Martin's             1-1          5-4
Central Washington         1-1          4-4
Western Washington         1-1          4-4
Simon Fraser               0-2          4-4
Alaska Fairbanks           0-2          2-4