THE SCHEDULE
Monday, Dec. 17                  Seattle Pacific at Cal State Los Angeles, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Cal State L.A. Gymnasium / Los Angeles, Calif.
                                                Live Webcast (pay-per-view)        Live stats
 
Wednesday, Dec. 19           Seattle Pacific at Concordia Irvine, 1:00 p.m.
                                                CU Arena / Irvine, Calif.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – They got a little more time away from competitive action than they had planned. So now, the Seattle Pacific Falcons will be out to re-sharpen their game instincts – and try to extend their women's basketball winning streak.
 
For the first time in 16 days, SPU will take the court for an opening tip-off as it begins a two-game Southern California road trip to wind up the non-conference portion of its schedule
 
First up is Cal State Los Angeles on Monday at 7:00 p.m. That will be followed by a visit to Concordia Irvine on Wednesday, with an unusually early 1:00 p.m. start time.
 
Seattle Pacific heads to SoCal having won three in a row. The most recent of those was a 73-68 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory against Western Oregon on Dec. 1 in Brougham Pavilion.
 
The Falcons were supposed to have played host to Academy of Art on Dec. 12. However, the Urban Knights had a handful of players sidelined by injuries and illnesses, and so were forced to cancel the game.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both games will have live Webcasts and live stats. The Cal State L.A. game will be a pay-per-view Webcast. The Webcast from Concordia Irvine will be free. Appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
GOING UP AGAINST A HOOPS LEGEND
When the Falcons and Cal State L.A. square off on Monday, first-year head coach Mike Simonson will get to match wits against Eagles counterpart Cheryl Miller, one of the best ever to play the game.
 
 

Miller is in her third season at the CSULA helm. She starred for the University of Southern California in the early 1980s,and led the 1984 U.S. Olympic team to the gold medal. She is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, also is enshrined in the women's basketball Hall of Fame, and was the first high school player – male or female – to be named a Parade All-American for four straight years.
 
As a head coach, Miller has been in charge at USC, and also spent four years guiding the Phoenix Mercury as head coach and general manager, including a spot in the 1998 WNBA Finals. She spent 17 years in broadcasting as a sideline reporter for NBA games.
 
Miller returned to coaching in 2014 with Langston University in Oklahoma, twice leading that program to the NAIA national tournament. She took over at Cal State L.A. in 2016.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--These will be SPU's first true road games of the season. The only other time the team has played out of town was on opening weekend at the Western Washington West Region Crossover Classic in Bellingham.
-- The Falcons are 1-4 in non-conference play. The losses were to Fresno Pacific, Humboldt State, Azusa Pacific, and UC San Diego – teams that are now a combined 27-8.
-- Seattle Pacific's current three-game winning streak started with an 84-73 non-conference victory against Holy Names on Nov. 20 in Seattle.
-- This will be the second time the Falcons have gone against a Cheryl Miller-led CSULA team. The first one was in December 2016 when SPU scored a 54-48 victory in Seattle.
-- Just six days after that game, the Falcons faced Concordia Irvine in Brougham, recording a 76-64 victory that went in the books as the 400^th career win for former head coach Julie Heisey.
-- If the Falcons beat Cal State L.A., it will mark their 100^th victory against current members of the California Collegiate Athletic Association. They are 99-17 all-time versus those schools.
-- It should be noted, however, that 16 of those wins came against Humboldt State when the Falcons and Lumberjacks were both members of the same conference (Pacific West from 1998-2001, and GNAC from 2001-06).
-- Against current Pac West members, including Concordia Irvine, Seattle Pacific has an all-time record of 35-7.
-- The Falcons are still not quite out of the scoring hole, but are getting closer. They are now averaging 72.6 points per game and allowing 73.4 – a difference of just 0.8 per game with 508 points scored and 514 allowed.
-- Seattle Pacific continues to lead the GNAC in 3-point shooting at .408. That's 19 percentage points ahead of No. 2 Northwest Nazarene (.389).
-- Redshirt senior guard Cici West is draining 54 percent of her shots from the field (27 of 50). But in a GNAC full of early-season sharpshooters, that ranks No. 9. Leading the way is Central Washington's Alexis Pana at .636 (35 of 55), with Western Oregon's Alli Nelke at .610 (25 of 41).
-- West is much farther up the rebounding list, sitting third at 9.4 per game.
-- She has led the Falcons on the boards in six of the seven games so far.
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE L.A. GOLDEN EAGLES: 3-3, 1-2 CCAA (10^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 8-0. Current series streak: SPU won 8. Last time: SPU 54, CSULA 48 (Dec. 10, 2016 at Seattle). Golden Eagles on the Web.
Golden Eagles in a nutshell: It has been a streaky season so far for Cal State L.A. It started with three straight victories, the last of which was a 20-point rout of Stanislaus State in the CCAA opener on Nov. 24. But three straight losses have followed. The most recent of those was 86-72 at Northwest Nazarene on Dec. 8. (A conference game against Cal State Monterey Bay is on the docket for Sunday). The Eagles have a pair of double-digit scorers in 6-foot-2 junior center Rachael DiRegolo at 13.2 points per game and 5-9 junior guard Madison Adams at 12.7. Both are solid shooters at better than 50 percent (.525 for DeRegolo, .510 for Adams). Adams is dangerous from downtown, hitting at a 50 percent clip (19 of 38). DiRegolo is a all-around force for L.A., leading the team on the boards at 8.0 per game, and in blocked shots with 16. On the brink of getting into 10-point territory  is 5-4 junior guard Chiderah Uzowury at 9.7 per game. She pulls down an average of 6.3 rebounds per game. The Eagles average just 63 points per game, but yield only 64.
 
SCOUTING THE CONCORDIA IRVINE EAGLES: 1-7, 1-3 PAC WEST (tie 8^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 2-0. Current series streak: SPU won 2. Last time: SPU 74, CUI 67 (Dec. 13, 2017 at Irvine, Calif.). Eagles on the Web.
Eagles in a nutshell: After an 0-5 start, Concordia Irvine finally broke into the win column on Dec. 1 with an 83-59 victory against Academy of Art on the first weekend of conference play. It has lost two more since then, including a back-and-forth 68-67 overtime decision against Biola last Saturday. The Eagles have four players averaging in double figures, led by 6-foot-1 sophomore center Michaela VanderKlugt at 15.6 per game. She went off for 27 in a 65-62 non-conference loss to Cal State L.A. on Nov. 10. In the 11-point range are 6-2 sophomore forward Kennedy Fulcher (11.8), 6-1 sophomore forward Riley Friauf (11.6) and 5-7 freshman guard Jasmine Rachal (11.0). Fulcher is almost at a double-double, as she averages a team-high 9.8 rebounds per game, and she leads Concordia with 13 blocked shots. VanderKlugt also is strong on the boards at 8.3, and Friauf pulls down an average of 5.8. Katie Timmerman, a 5-9 freshman guard, has an eye from behind the 3-point arc, hitting 12 of 25 (.343).
 
SHE'S NO. 1
SPU senior guard Riley Evans, who heads into this week with four straight game of scoring in the 20s, has climbed to the top of the GNAC scoring list.
 
 

Evans is averaging 18.9 points per game through the first seven games of the season. That leaves her 1.4 points ahead of second-place Montana State Billings sophomore Hannah Colilns (17.5).
 
In those seven games, Evans has poured in 132 points, tying her with Saint Martin's junior Makenna Schultz for most in the conference. Schultz, who has played in eight games, averages 16.5 per game and is No. 4 on the scoring list.
 
A unanimous choice to the Preseason All-GNAC team, Evans has scored in double figures five times so far, including those last four of 20-plus: 27 on Nov. 17 against UC San Diego (then a career high), 29 on Nov. 20 against Holy Names (a new career high), 25 on Nov. 29 against Concordia-Portland, and 21 on Dec. against Western Oregon.
 
Evans already has surpassed the 126 points she scored all of last season. She needs just six more points to eclipse her entire SPU career total of 137.
 
RATAUSHK ROCKS IT WITH THE ROCK
From the opening minutes of SPU's game against Western Oregon on Dec. 1, it seemed clear Carly Rataushk was going to have a big night.
 
 

The 6-foot-2 senior center had two baskets in the first minute of the game, and hit three of her first five shots. She was up to eight points by halftime and 12 by the end of the third quarter, putting her well within reach of her career high of 15.
 
Rataushk beat that career high on a turnaround 2-footer straight in front of the hoop with 4:24 left in the game. She finished the night with 17 points, and all of them were crucial as SPU hung on to beat the Wolves, 73-68. Rataushk hit 7 of 10 from the floor, grabbed three rebounds, dished two assists, and even came up with a steal in her 26 minutes of action.
 

DEADLY FROM DOWNTOWN
Seattle Pacific is one of the best-shooting teams form 3-point range in the entirety of NCAA Division II.
 
The Falcons rank 11^th among the 301 programs in D2 at 40.8 percent (51 of 125). That percentage was boosted considerably by two straight games of .500 or better: 12 of 24 in an 84-73 win against Holy Names on Nov. 20, and 11 of 19 in a 75-64 triumph against Concordia-Portland on Nov. 29.
 
In fact, of their seven games, SPU has been at .400 or better from downtown in five of them.
 
 

Riley Evans has hit .477 from behind the arc (21 of 44); Jaylee Albert (10 of 25) and Hailee Bennett (6 of 15) are both at .400, and Madi Hingston is at .385 (5 of 13). Freshman Ashley Alter, while she hasn't taken many attempts in her 40 minutes of playing time so far, it at .571 (4 of 7).
 
The top team is Bentley of Massachusetts at .448 (90 of 201).
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
-- Riley Evans ranks No. 23 among D2 players in 3-point makes per game (3.0), No. 28 in 3-point percentage (.477), No. 41 in free throw percentage (.879), and No. 51 in scoring average (18.9).
-- Redshirt senior Cici West is No. 55 in rebounds per game (9.4).
-- The Falcons are No. 56 (among 301) in fewest turnovers with 110 total. That mark also ranks No. 3 in the GNAC.

Click on this link for a complete look at where the Falcons sit in the Division II statistical rankings.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100^th field goal    Jaylee Albert (has 95)
                    Riley Evans (has 89)
300^th assist        Jade Skidmore (has 293)
300^th point         Carly Rataushk (has 284)
                    Riley Evans (has 269)
600^th rebound       Jade Skidmore (has 587)
700^th rebound       Cici West (has 655)
1,000^th point       Jade Skidmore (has 914)
 
MADE LAST WEEK
100^th rebound       Carly Rataushk (has 105)
 
AROUND THE WEST
Northwest Nazarene, coached by former SPU lead assistant Steve Steele, is the lone remaining GNAC team with an overall undefeated record. The Nighthawks are 9-0, which includes an 84-68 victory against Alaska Anchorage on Dec. 1 in Nampa. The Seawolves are 7-1 overall. NNU, Western Washington (6-2 overall) and Seattle Pacific (3-4) are the three GNAC team with 2-0 conference records. Of the 11 GNAC schools, 10 will be in action between now and the start of the mandatory seven-day dead period on Dec. 20.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association also is down to just one undefeated team, as UC San Diego is 8-0 overall (4-0 conference). Cal Poly Pomona and Chico State are both 6-1 overall (3-0 CCAA for Pomona, 3-1 for Chico). On Saturday, Chico State clashes with Humboldt State (6-2, 4-1) in Arcata, Calif.
 
Dominican (6-1, 4-0) and Azusa Pacific (7-3, 4-0) remain the top two teams in the Pacific West Conference. Hawaii Pacific is 3-0 in conference play, but just 4-4 overall. In fact, the only other Pac West team with an overall winning record is Fresno Pacific (6-3, 2-1)
 
UP NEXT

With the NCAA Division II-mandated seven-day "dead period" from Dec. 20-26, Seattle Pacific will not return to action until New Year's night in Lacey when it visits Saint Martin's to resume GNAC play. The Falcons and Saints tip off at 7:00 p.m. From that moment on, it'll be all GNAC, all the time. That week concludes with a visit to Montana State Billings on Saturday, Jan. 5, at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                  Conference        Overall
Northwest Nazarene        2-0       9-0
Western Washington        2-0       6-2
Seattle Pacific           2-0       3-4
Alaska Anchorage          1-1       7-1
Central Washington        1-1       6-1
Simon Fraser              1-1       5-2
Saint Martin's            1-1       3-5
Western Oregon            1-1       3-4
Concordia-Portland        0-2       5-3
Montana State Billings    0-2       3-3
Alaska Fairbanks          0-2       3-5