THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Dec. 2                 Central Washington at Seattle Pacific, 7:30 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Dec. 4                  Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, 2:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – Now, it's really time to get down to business.
 
After seven preseason contests that included three at home, four on the road, and a chance to square off against teams from four different conferences, the Seattle Pacific Falcons will be back in Brougham Pavilion this week for a pair of games against teams from the league that matters more than any other:
 
Their own.
 
SPU begins the Great Northwest Athletic Conference portion of its women's basketball schedule by playing host to Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. The Wildcats will be in town on Thursday for the second half of a doubleheader that tips off at  7:30 p.m. The Seattle Pacific and Central men play at 5:15. Then on Saturday, it'll be Northwest Nazarene visiting for a 2:00 p.m. game, followed by the men's teams at 4:15.
 
The Falcons are coming off a split of last weekend's two games at the Central Washington Tournament in Ellensburg. They dropped a 60-55 decision to Metro State of Denver on Friday, but then led almost from start to finish in defeating Westminster College on Saturday, 70-60.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both of this week's games will have live Webcasts and live stats. Greg Sexton will be on the play-by-play for the Webcast. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
TICKET TALK
Fans are welcome to attend games in person at Brougham Pavilion.
 
In compliance with King County guidelines, spectators 12 years of age and older attending SPU athletic events will need to provide proof of full vaccination or present a negative COVID-19 test. Before purchasing or picking up tickets at venue Will Call windows, attendees will be required to show evidence of vaccination. Acceptable forms of proof include a CDC-issued Vaccination Record Card, a photo of the card, the Washington state myIRmobile.com app or a document from a health care provider.
 
Those who cannot provide proof of vaccination may instead present documentation of a negative FDA-approved COVID-19 test administered by a professional and dated within 72 hours of the event.
 
For additional details, please click on the SPU ATHLETICS ENTRY POLICY webpage. Mask wearing is mandatory at all times and spectators are encouraged to social distance when possible. Save the wait in line and obtain your SPU soccer tickets in advance by purchasing them online the SPU TICKETS webpage.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The Falcons are 16-3 all-time in GNAC openers. That includes 8-0 at home.
-- SPU last opened conference play at home in 2018, and won both games, defeating Concordia-Portland and Western Oregon.
-- In 19 years of GNAC play, the Falcons have the second-best overall conference record of 247-99 (a .714 winning percentage). The only better record belongs to Western Washington at 259-87 (.749). No conference games were played in 2020-21 because of the pandemic.
--The games against Central and Northwest Nazarene will mark the second season in a row that the Falcons have opened against those two opponents. The last time was in 2019 on the road, with CWU winning in Ellensburg, 65-46, and NNU prevailing in Nampa, 77-47.
-- With teams allowed to put together their own independent schedules, the Falcons and Nighthawks did play a back-to-back series in Brougham Pavilion last winter. Seattle Pacific won the first one, 66-61, behind 16 points apiece from Ashley Alter and Rachel Berg. That snapped a six-game Nighthawks series winning streak.
-- NNU bounced back the next day for a 61-47 victory. In that one, Natalie Hoff led Seattle Pacific with 15 points.
-- Northwest Nazarene's leading scorers in that series were Erin Jenkins with 17 in the first game and Nicole Gall with 17 in the second. Both are back this season.
-- The Falcons are coming off a solid weekend of 3-point shooting, as they drained 21 of 48 (43.8 percent) in the two games in Ellensburg (43.8 percent). In the first five games combined, they had just 19 makes and shot 20 percentage points lower (23.8 percent).
 

-- Senior guard / forward Ashley Alter and redshirt junior point guard Bayley Brennan certainly got into the downtown groove, especially on Saturday against Westminster when Alter nailed 5 of 6 and Brennan was 4 of 7. For the weekend, Alter went 7 of 11 and Brennan 5 of 13.
-- SPU continues to make it tough for opponents to find the target, as Metro State and Westminster both finished below 40 percent accuracy: 39.2 percent for the Roadrunners and 37.5 for the Griffins.
-- That makes it six games below 40 percent for seven opponents (with two of those below 30).
 
SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS: 4-2, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 49-35. Current series streak: CWU won 5. Last time: CWU 81, SPU 65 (Feb. 29, 2020). Last SPU series win: SPU 62, CWU 43 (Jan. 6, 2018 at Seattle). Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: Central split its games last weekend, defeating Westminster, but falling to Metro State – same as SPU. Kizzah Maltezo and Kassidy Malcolm have been the scoring spark plugs, and Samantha Bowman has been doing a lot of everything for the Wildcats through their first six games. Maltezo, a senior 5-foot-5 guard, had four consecutive games of 20-plus points, and her average of 18.5 per game currently ranks No. 2 in the GNAC. When she's not scoring, she's dishing, averaging 3.7 assists. Malcolm, a senior 5-11 forward, averages 15.0 per game, and had back-to-back 20-pointers last weekend (25 vs. Westminster, 21 vs. Metro). Then there's Bowman, a junior 6-3 center. She is averaging – averaging – a double-double of 16.8 points and 14.7 rebounds (the latter ranking No. 4 nationally). Bowman shoots 55.7 percent from the field, 38.1 from downtown, has five double-doubles in six games, and was one rebound away from going 6-for-6 in that department, as she had nine boards and 19 points against West Texas A&M on Nov. 20.
 
SCOUTING THE NORTHWEST NAZARENE NIGHTHAWKS: 4-2, 0-0 GNAC.
All-time series: SPU leads, 32-15. Current series streak: NNU won 1. Last time; NNU 61, SPU 47 (Feb. 20, 2021 at Seattle). Last SPU series win: SPU 66, NNU 61 (Feb. 19, 2021 at Seattle). Nighthawks on the Web.
Nighthawks in a nutshell: After dropping both games in a season-opening tournament to Cal State East Bay and Stanislaus State, NNU has won its last four, and on Monday was named the GNAC Team of the Week. In those six contests, the Nighthawks have had five players either lead or share the team lead in scoring. Junior 6-foot guard / forward Erin Jenkins is averaging 11.0 per game, followed closely by sophomore 6-3 forward Nyalam Thabach at 10.3 and freshman 6-1 forward Teagan Thurman at 10.2. Thabach gets hers on deadly accurate .560 shooting (28 of 50). No question who's leading the rebounding, though: That would be Thurman at 8.8 per game. She comes into this week with three straight double-digit efforts on the boards of 12, 10, and 13. The third of those, a career high coming last Saturday in a 75-62 victory against Concordia Irvine, was half of a double-double, as Thurman also had a career-high 20 points.
 
FALCONS PICKED FOR 8^TH
Seattle Pacific has been picked by GNAC coaches for an eighth-place finish in the upcoming season.
 
The Falcons, who went 7-7 during last winter's abbreviated schedule, received 43 points in voting by the 10 conference coaches.
 
Alaska Anchorage was picked as a slight favorite, receiving seven of the 10 first-place votes and 92 points. Right behind is Western Washington with two first-place votes and 89 points. Northwest Nazarene received the other first-place vote and 70 points for third.
 
In addition, senior guard / forward Ashley Alter was a unanimous selection for the Preseason All-GNAC team.
 
OLD HOME WEEK IN BROUGHAM
Not only will the sidelines be filled with current SPU players and coaches this week, it also will have a few former Falcons, as well.
 
 

On Thursday, Randi Richardson-Thornley will be calling the shots for Central Washington. She is starting her fifth year as head coach of the Wildcats. She was an assistant at SPU under former head coach Julie Heisey from 2013-15, then joined Central as the lead assistant for two seasons. She was elevated to head coach in April 2017.
 
 

Head coach Steve Steele will lead Northwest Nazarene into Brougham Pavilion on Saturday. He is in his sixth year at the helm, taking over in 2016. He spent three seasons (2013-16) as the lead assistant on Heisey's staff.
 
 

Steele's assistant coach is former Seattle Pacific player Stacey Lukasiewicz. She is in her first year with the Nighthawks after spending the past two seasons as the director of basketball operations at Cal Baptist. Lukasiewicz was with the Falcons from 2013-17 and during those four seasons, played in 82 of their 83 games.
 
DOUBLEHEADER DELIGHTS
Of the nine home dates on the GNAC schedule, eight will be doubleheaders for the Seattle Pacific women and men.
 
After the two this weekend, both teams will share the gym – albeit not necessarily against the same opponent – on Jan 6, 8, 27, 29, Feb. 12 and 19.
 
The late January twin bills will be against the same opponent. Alaska Fairbanks will be in town on Thursday the 27th, with the men playing at 5:15 p.m. and the women at 7:30. Alaska Anchorage comes to Brougham on Saturday the 29th, with the women going first at 2:00 p.m. and the men at 4:15.
 
For their nine GNAC road games, six will be part of doubleheaders. The games in Alaska – Dec. 30 at Anchorage, Jan 1 at Fairbanks – will have both SPU teams in the same building on the same day. Ditto on the final weekend of the regular season when both Falcon squads visit Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 24 and Central Washington on Feb. 26.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington both bring undefeated non-conference records into the start of GNAC play. The Seawolves and Vikings are both 5-0. Saint Martin's is 5-1, having won its first five before dropping a 91-82 decision at Texas A&M-International on Thanksgiving Day.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association began its conference schedule last weekend, and Cal State East Bay, which will play host to SPU next Saturday, Dec. 11, is off to a 2-0 start. The Pioneers are 6-1 overall and have won five straight. Stanislaus State, which the Falcons will visit next Thursday, Dec. 9, is 4-1 and won its only CCAA game of the week.
 
The Pacific West Conference begins its schedule this week. Azusa Pacific comes in with the best overall record at 4-1, with Biola and Point Loma Nazarene right behind at 4-2.

 
UP NEXT
The Falcons still have three non-conference games remaining, and two of those are next week on the road. SPU visits Stanislaus State in Turlock, California, on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, Dec.11, the team is in Hayward to face Cal State East Bay, tipping off at 1:00 p.m.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                      GNAC    Overall
Alaska Anchorage          0-0       5-0
Western Washington        0-0       5-0
Saint Martin's            0-0       5-1
Central Washington        0-0       4-2
Northwest Nazarene        0-0       4-2
Montana State Billings    0-0       5-4
Western Oregon            0-0       3-3
Seattle Pacific           0-0       3-4
Simon Fraser              0-0       3-5
Alaska Fairbanks          0-0       1-4