Box score, play-by-play (HTML)
 
SEATTLE – For the second 20 minutes on Thursday night, the Seattle Pacific Falcons had the upper hand on Alaska Anchorage. They made defensive stops. They made baskets. They rebounded. They passed.
 
But the No. 9-ranked Seawolves had even more of an upper hand through the first 20 minutes.
 
UAA blew out to a 26-point lead and limited SPU to just 16 points in the first half on the way to a 68-53 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball victory in Brougham Pavilion.
 
Madi Hingston and Kaprice Boston tallied 10 points apiece for Seattle Pacific (7-17, 6-11 GNAC), which outscored the Seawolves by a 37-26 margin after halftime, had a 16-15 rebounding edge, and drained 11 field goals to UAA's 10. (That included 7 of 11 from 3-point range to 0 of 9 for the Seawolves.)
 
"What I'm really proud of is we held them to 26 points in the second half, and we scored 37 – that's a really good half of basketball," Falcons head coach Mike Simonson said. "I'm just very disappointed that it didn't come until the second half."
 
"That taste in our mouths is getting tiring of playing one good half of basketball," he added. "We need to put it together for 40 minutes and finish out the season every game like that."
 
That will be crucial, because Thursday's loss, coupled with Montana State Billings' 80-70 victory at Western Oregon, dropped SPU into eighth place in the standings. The Falcons are two games behind sixth-place Concordia-Portland (8-9) and one game behind MSUB (7-10) with three games left in the regular season. The top six teams in the final standings advance to the conference tournament.
 
SLOW START FOR BOTH
Last month in Anchorage, the Seawolves – now 24-1 overall, 16-1 in the GNAC – rolled to a 78-37 win, keeping SPU without a field goal for nearly 20 minutes.
 
On Thursday, neither team was able to find the basket in the early going. The Falcons missed their first five shots, but their defense forced UAA into missing its first seven.
 
The Seawolves eventually got going, ringing up 10 straight points to snap the game's only tie, at 2-2, and had a 15-4 lead after one.
 
Alaska Anchorage's pressing, tenacious defense took charge of the game in the second quarter. SPU turned it over nine times, leading to 11 Seawolf points. UAA had a 9-0 run early in the quarter, and a 10-0 run midway through in building a 23-point advantage at 34-11.
 
But the Falcons, down 42-16 at the break, went on a 16-4 run through the first 5 minutes, 25 seconds of the third quarter, getting within 46-32.
 
"We were thinking, 'We just need to get to halftime so we can tweak our press-breaker," Simonson said. "When we changed that, it helped open up the offensive end. But it really started with defensive stops."
 
Anchorage had an answer, though, finishing the third with a 14-4 surge and stretching the lead back to 24 at 60-36.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Seattle Pacific wound up with an edge on Anchorage in a handful of statistical categories: rebounds (34-31), blocked shot (5-0), assists (15-10) and 3-pointers (9-6).
-- But on the turnovers side, the Falcons wound up with 25, leading to 24 points for the Seawolves.
-- For the second straight game, SPU's defense slowed the opponent's leading scorer. This time, it was senior forward Hannah Wandersee, who had just four points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field. She came in averaging 14.7 per game, No. 5 in the GNAC. In last Saturday's 60-43 loss at Western Washington the Falcons kept Kelsey Rogers completely off the board after she came averaging 13.4.
-- Redshirt senior forward Cici West grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, giving her exactly 800 for her career. She has a chance to reach 800 points on Saturday, has her four on Thursday puts her at 795.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons conclude their home schedule on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. against Alaska Fairbanks. SPU beat the Nanooks in Alaska last month, 62-55. The Nanooks fell at Saint Martin's on Thursday, 66-56.
 
SENIOR DAY
Prior to Saturday's tip-off, the Falcons will conduct a ceremony honoring their five senior players: Jaylee Albert, Riley Evans, Jane Grisley, Carly Rataushk, and Cici West. It will begin when the pre-game scoreboard countdown clock reaches the 11-minute mark.

 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (24-1, 16-1 GNAC)
Wandersee 2-8 0-0 4, Voliva 3-5 1-2 7, Thompson 3-8 0-0 8, McNair 3-8 3-6 10, Stallworth 5-9 1-2 12, Goo 3-7 5-6 11, Yasin 3-6 1-2 7, Hajdukovich 2-5 0-0 6, Langi 1-4 1-1 3, Fernandez-Roy 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-61 12-19 68.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (7-17, 6-11 GNAC)
West 0-5 4-6 4, Albert 2-5 0-0 6, Hingston 4-10 0-0 10, Skidmore 3-4 0-0 8, Boston 3-4 4-4 10, Evans 3-7 0-0 9, Rataushk 3-4 0-0 6, Bennett 0-4 0-0 0, Berg 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 18-46 8-10 53.
 
Alaska Anchorage.........     15   27   18     8  -   68
Seattle Pacific..........           4   12   20   17  -   53
 
3-point goals--UAA 6-18 (Hajdukovich 2-5, Thompson 2-6, Stallworth 1-3, McNair 1-3, Wandersee 0-1), SPU 9-22 (Evans 3-4, Hingston 2-6, Skidmore 2-3, Albert 2-5, Bennett 0-3, Berg 0-1). Fouled out--UAA-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--UAA 31 (Wandersee 9), SPU 34 (West 7). Assists--UAA 10 (Wandersee, Goo 3), SPU 15 (Albert 4). Turnovers – UAA 13, SPU 25. Total fouls--UAA 12, SPU 15. Technical fouls--UAA-None, SPU-None. Attendance-185.
 
 
Next game
Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Feb. 23     4:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.