Box Score

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LACEY, Wash. – Lucky 13, indeed.
 
Jordan McPhee scored 15 points, one of four Seattle Pacific players in double figures, and the Falcons finished the game on a 13-0 scoring run to beat Northwest Nazarene in the first round of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament on Thursday afternoon at Saint Martin's University, 71-60.
 
"In the last few games, we've been on the other end of that," McPhee said of the timely offensive surge, "so being on this end is a lot more fun. People kept being aggressive, and the fact that we kept taking it at 'em the whole game … it was a fight. The fact we did it for the whole 40 minutes was huge. Those last four minutes were like the whole game."
 
SPU (19-10) will take on top seed and national No. 2-ranked Alaska Anchorage in a semifinal game on Friday at 2:15 p.m. in SMU's Marcus Pavilion. The Seawolves (27-1) just completed the first 20-0 season in GNAC history and beat SPU twice, 71-62 and 94-50.
 
Rachel Shim and Erica Pagano added 12 points apiece for Seattle Pacific, and Carly Rataushk came off the bench to add 10.
 




The Falcons were down 60-58 after NNU's Ellie Logan hit a five-footer from the left of the lane with 4:34 to play. But that was the last point they allowed the Crusaders (12-15), who came in averaging 77.9 per game, and were kept to their lowest output of the season.
 
"It's tournament, time, and we just want to survive and advance, and that's what we did," SPU head coach Julie Heisey said. "NNU is one of the hardest teams to guard. They can score a lot of points, and that's one of the things we've struggled with. So I feel really good knowing we held them to 60 points, especially knowing they had 18 offensive rebounds and 17 points from the free throw line."
 
Pagano, playing with four fouls, tied the game at 60-60 on a putback with 2:45 left. Then senior forward Hannah Rodrigues – who missed much of the game with foul trouble, and also was playing with four throughout the fourth quarter – put the Falcons ahead, 62-60, a three-footer through traffic to the right of the hoop at the 1:32 mark.
 
Shim drove the ball downcourt and took it all the way to the hoop, where she was fouled and drained both ensuing free throws -- putting her at exactly 300 career points -- to make it 64-60 at 1:15.
 
On NNU's next trip into its frontcourt, Maya Rodgers found herself pinned on the right sidelines under tight defense by Rodrigues. Rodgers tried to bounce the ball out of bounds off Rodrigues, but it stayed in play. Pagano dove to the floor and latched onto it, was fouled, and hit both of her free throws to make it 66-60 with exactly one minute left.
 
Lindsay Lee added two free throws, Shim drained another one, and Rodrigues closed it out with a pair, those last two coming with 23.8 seconds showing.
 




While the Falcons were racking up those 13 points, they forced NNU into six missed shots and five turnovers during that last 4:34.
 
"Especially in the fourth quarter, those defensive plays and those stops we made were huge," said Shim, who, in addition to scoring her 300th point, hit her 100th career field goal and grabbed her 100th career rebound on Thursday. "I think we did a really good job of knowing our personnel and knowing the habits of the people we were guarding. That's how we got so many stops late in the game."

Northwest Nazarene had seized the momentum with a 9-0 surge that bridged the third and fourth quarters, keeping SPU off the board for 5 minutes, 12 seconds, to go from 54-49 down to 58-54 up.

 

Thursday's game marked the return to action of junior forward Courtney Hollander and sophomore center Julia Haining. Hollander went down with an injury on Feb. 11 against Simon Fraser and missed the last four regular-season games. She played 20 minutes against NNU, scoring five points and grabbing six rebounds.
 
Haining missed the last eight games with an injury she sustained in a 68-63 win at Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 26. She played three minutes on Thursday.
 
Neither team shot well. SPU hit just 37.5 percent (21 of 56), but limited the Crusaders to just 29.7 percent (19 of 64). Rodgers hit 5 of 9, and finished with a game-high 18 points for NNU.
 
Coming off a season-low nine turnovers in last Saturday's regular-season finale against Western Oregon, Seattle Pacific had just 10 on Thursday.


NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
GNAC Tournament / First round
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 71, Northwest Nazarene 60
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (19-10)
Stacey Lukasiewicz 1-4 0-2 3, Rachel Shim 4-13 4-5 12, Jordan McPhee 5-10 4-6 15, Hannah Rodrigues 2-4 2-3 6, Erica Pagano 3-6 6-6 12, Jaylee Albert 1-4 3-4 6, Julia Haining 0-0 0-0 0, Brianne Lasconia 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney Hollander 2-7 0-0 5 Lindsay Lee 0-1 2-2 2, Carly Rataushk 3-7 4-4 10. Totals 21-56 25-32 71.
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (12-15)
Lexi Tubbs 0-9 1-2 1, Ellie Logan 3-11 1-2 7, Kaitlyn Merritt 1-2 0-0 2, Raquel Jardine 2-4 2-2 6, Kate Cryderman 0-5 1-2 1, Marina Valles 1-6 0-1 2, McKenna Walker 4-10 6-6 15, Avery Albrecht 0-0 0-0 0, Maya Rodgers 5-9 4-4 18, Danielle Jardine 2-5 2-4 6, Carly Parker 1-3 -0-0 2, Colette Gall 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-64 17-23 60.
 
Seattle Pacific                     19           11           24           17           -- 71
Northwest Nazarene         18           18           15             9           -- 60
 
3-point goals – SPU 4-16 (Lukasiewicz 1-2, Shim 0-5, McPHee 1-1, Albert 1-4, Hollander 1-3, Lee 0-1), NNU 5-17 (Tubbs 0-3, Logan 0-2, Cryderman 0-2, Valles 0-1, Walker 1-2, Rodger 4-6, Parker 0-1). Fouled out – NNU: Walker. Rebounds – SPU 37 (Pagano 6, Hollander 6), NNU 45 (D. Jardine 9). Assists – SPU 8 (Shim 4), NNU 11 (Logan 3, Valles 3). Turnovers – SPU 10, NNU 15. Total fouls – SPU 24, NNU 28. Technical fouls – None. Attendance – 510.
 
 
Next game
Seattle Pacific vs. Alaska Anchorage, GNAC semifinals
Friday, 2:15 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.