SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons got done in from downtown.
 
Hawaii Pacific outscored SPU by a 33-6 margin from behind the 3-point arc, with two big ones late in the fourth quarter, and the Sharks secured a 69-60 non-conference women's basketball victory on Monday afternoon in Brougham Pavilion.
 
HPU (2-1) buried 11 of 28 from long range, including 4 of 8 from Tavia Rowell and 3 of 3 from Makaela Zeldenryk. The Falcons (2-1) were just 2 of 16.
 
"They're a really good 3-point shooting team. What's hard about 3-point shooting teams is if you let them get going, they get hot, and it's hard to cool them off," head coach Mike Simonson said. "In the first half, we weren't very strong defensively. Second half, we improved, but it wasn't enough to limit them enough to overcome the hump."
 
 

Senior forward Natalie Hoff poured in 18 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds for Seattle Pacific, which completed a season-opening stretch of three games in four days. The Falcons won the first two of those, 63-38 against Corban University, and 54-52 against Humboldt State.
 
"(Today) was the most resistance we've felt, and with that, we had a chance to bounce back and showed our true character," Simonson said. "We just couldn't get over the hump. But hopefully, this will make us better when we have to go on a (scoring) run in future games."
 
Hawaii Pacific which has become a West Region powerhouse with a 29-1 record in 2019-20 and a 13-1 mark during last winter's abbreviated season, closed the first quarter on a 7-2 turn, turning a 12-10 deficit into a 17-14 lead.
 
The Sharks stayed ahead the rest of the day. Up 19-16 early in the second quarter, they put 11 of the next 13 points on the board to 30-18 lead, and expended it to a 13-point margin by halftime, 42-39.
 
Seattle Pacific was unable to gain any ground during the third, and driving lay-in by HPU's Amy Baum at the buzzer kept the margin at 13 heading into the fourth, 57-44.
 
SPU finally put a run together to get within striking range, racking up eight straight points. Down 59-47, Hoff drained a pair of free throws, Ashley Alter hit a lay-in on an assist from Abril Rexach Roure, Beth Pettingill stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a lay-in, then Alter dropped another lay-in, cutting the margin to 59-55 with 4:58 still to play.
 
Rowell ended that momentum with a 3-point dagger from the left of the lane, and Julia Razo scored on a lay-in to push it back to nine at 64-55 A Hoff lay-in brought Seattle Pacific within seven, then Rowell drilled another trey from almost the same spot on the left side for a 67-57 just inside the three-minute mark.
 
  "We were trying to hold on to momentum," Simonson said. "We had some big plays and big buckets – Ashley Alter and Kaprice Boston and Abril and Natalie. All four of those players made some huge shots. To have good runs, you have to string together scores coupled with stops. It seems like we did that a little bit, but never really got the snowball effect."
  
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Abril Rexach Roure finished with 11 points for the Falcons, and Ashley Alter tallied 10.
-- Tavia Rowell, with 12 of her points from downtown, led Hawaii Pacific with 19, and also collected eight rebounds. Amy Baum finished with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds.
-- The Falcons hit just 39.7 percent from the field (23 of 58). The Sharks finished at 42.1 percent (24 of 57, with 29 attempts inside the arc and 28 behind it.
-- Sophomore forward Beth Pettingill got her first start, finishing with eight points, two rebounds, two steals, and two blocked shots.
-- This was just the third meeting between the two schools. SPU won both previous contests. The last one was in the first round of the 2010 NCAA West Regional tournament in Brougham Pavilion.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons take their first road trip of the season this coming weekend, heading south for the Cal State San Marcos Hoops Classic. Seattle Pacific faces the host Cougars on Friday at 3:00 p.m., then takes on Azusa Pacific on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
 
 
RECORDS
Seattle Pacific 2-1.
Hawaii Pacific 2-1.
 
NEXT GAME
Seattle Pacific at Cal State San Marcos
Friday, Nov. 19     3:00 p.m.
The Sports Center / San Marcos, Calif.