THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Dec. 9                 Seattle Pacific at Stanislaus State, 5:30 p.m.
                                                Ed & Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena / Turlock, Calif.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Dec. 11                Seattle Pacific at Cal State East Bay, 1:00 p.m.
                                                Pioneer Gymnasium / Hayward, Calif.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons will venture outside of their own conference for their next pair of women's basketball games.
 
And the competition will be just as tough as it is inside.
 
After splitting their first two Great Northwest Athletic Conference contests of the season in Brougham Pavilion, SPU packs up for a trip to Northern California this week. First stop will be Turlock on Thursday to take on Stanislaus State at 5:30 p.m. Then it's off to Hayward for Saturday's game against Cal State East Bay. Tip-off is at 1:00 p.m.
 
Stanislaus and East Bay are both off to outstanding starts, with identical records of 7-1 overall and 3-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
 
The Falcons (4-5, 1-1 GNAC) began their conference slate last Thursday, leading from start to finish and finally fending off Central Washington, 69-65. On Saturday, they were within two points of Northwest Nazarene midway through the fourth quarter before the Nighthawks pulled away to win, 63-54.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both of this week's games will have live Webcasts and live stats. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Seattle Pacific is 3-4 in non-conference games.
-- This will be the team's second trip to California. The first one was to the Cal State San Marcos Hoops Classic on Nov. 19-20. The Falcons fell to the host Cougars, 71-50, then took Azusa Pacific to overtime before coming up short, 67-61.
-- It's just the second game for SPU against both teams. The only previous one against Stanislaus was in 2003 (the Falcons won, 89-60 at a preseason tournament in Nampa, Idaho). The only game against East Bay was at the 2011 Sodexo Tip-Off Classic in Brougham Pavilion. SPU won, 70-59.
-- In that game against East Bay, current Falcons assistant coach Katie Benson went for a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
-- Seattle Pacific has a 101-23 all-time against CCAA opponents.
-- The Falcons continue to get the job done defensively, allowing just 60.6 points per game. That ranks No. 3 in the GNAC, is tied for the seventh-lowest total among the 33 West Region schools, and is 76^th nationally among 297 Division II programs.
-- Only one team has topped 70 points against SPU. That would be Cal State San Marcos, which won 71-50 at home on Nov. 19.
-- One of the primary reasons for that is that the Falcons make it tough for other teams to hit a shot. Of their nine opponents, eight have finished the game below 40 percent, and two of those didn't even make 30 percent.
-- Overall, opponents are hitting at just a .359 clip. That is No. 3 in the GNAC, No. 7 in the West and No. 63 nationally.
-- In last Thursday's 69-65 victory against Central Washington, 11 Falcons saw playing time. Of those, 10 scored, eight grabbed at least one rebound, and nine had at least one assist and / or one steal.
-- Abril Rexach Roure, the fifth-year point guard who stands just 5-foot-5, was busy on the boards Saturday against Northwest Nazarene, pulling down seven. That was her highest total in an SPU uniform since joining the program in 2019 after two years at Eastern Wyoming College. Her career high is nine, which came in a game against Miles Community College during her freshman year at EWC.
-- Maya Hoff, a 6-2 freshman who plays guard, recorded her first career blocked shot, that coming in the NNU game.
 
SCOUTING THE STANISLAUS STATE WARRIORS: 7-1, 3-0 CCAA (tie 1^st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 1-0. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 89, Stan 60 (Nov. 29, 2003 at Nampa, Idaho). Warriors on the Web.
Warriors in a nutshell: After falling 67-66 to Central Washington in the season opener on Nov. 12 at the CCAA-GNAC Crossover at home in Turlock, Stanislaus has run off seven straight victories. That includes a 76-67 decision against Northwest Nazarene, and three straight to begin the CCAA schedule. Leading a group of four double-digit scorers is 5-foot-9 fifth-year forward Kyanna Davis at 20.1 points per game, which is tied for No. 20 in NCAA Division II. She also averages a team-leading 8.8 rebounds. Da'Myiah Lewis, a 5-8 freshman guard, averages 12.0 points per game, and is deadly accurate from the field, hitting at a .569 clip. She collects an average of 6.5 rebounds per game and has come up with a team-high 24 steals. Kaleigh Taylor, a 6-1 senior center, averages 10.6 points, and 5-9 freshman guard Liliana Marques chips in 10.1 points.
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE EAST BAY PIONEERS: 7-1, 3-0 CCAA (tie 1s)
All-time series: SPU leads, 1-0. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 70, EB 59 (Nov. 18, 2011 at Seattle). Pioneers on the Web. Pioneers in a nutshell: East Bay beat Northwest Nazarene, 60-54, then lost to Central Washington, 68-55 in the CCAA-GNAC Crossover. They have won six straight since then, the latest of which was 64-56 at Cal State San Marcos last Saturday, a team that is receiving votes in the national poll. Senior 5-foot-9 guard Madison Schiller leads the way for East Bay, averaging 14.1 points per game. She is a solid shooter from anywhere on the court, hitting 45.2 percent overall, 43.5 percent from 3-point range, and 81.8 percent at the free throw line. Della Moore, a junior 5-8 guard, averages 12.0 points per game and leads the team in makes from down with 16 (on 48 attempts, a .333 mark). Mina Tameliau, a sophomore 5-8 guard, chips in 11.3 points per game. Sophomore 5-6 guard Zhane Duckett does some of everything, leading East Bay in rebounds (53, a 6.6 average), assists (21), and steals (26). She also averages 8.1 points. The Pioneers force their opponents into an average of 22.2 turnovers per game, but they average 22.1 themselves.
 
HOFF IS HAULING 'EM DOWN
Natalie Hoff is putting some extra shine on the glass lately.
 
 

The senior forward had back-to-back double-digit rebounding performances last week. On Thursday against Central Washington (a 69-65 Falcons victory), she collected 10 to go along with eight points, perfect free throw shooting (6 of 6), two assists, and one steal.
 
In Saturday's game against Northwest Nazarene, the results didn't go SPU's way (the Nighthawks prevailed, 63-54), but Hoff did everything she could to help. She tied her career high with 12 rebounds, half of a double-double that included 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field. Hoff also blocked two shots and had two steals.
 
That was her third game of 10 or more board this seasons, her second double-double of the year and fourth of her career. Hoff's average of 7.1 rebounds per game ranks No. 8 in the GNAC.
 
Hoff has 64 rebounds for the year. Her single-season high is 104 as a sophomore in 2019-20. With four games left in the calendar year, it is possible she could approach or perhaps exceed that number before the calendar turns.
 
MARLOW IS SHUTTING 'EM DOWN
Seattle Pacific has a handful of players to whom head coach Mike Simonson can hand a tough defensive assignment. Hailey Marlow has emerged as one of those players.
 
 

In the past two weeks, the 5-foot-6 sophomore point guard from Spokane has been given the task of keeping Westminster College's Ashley Greenwood, Central Washington's Kizzah Maltezo, and Northwest Nazarene's Jordan Pinson in check as much as possible during her time on the floor.
 
Greenwood shot just 5 of 18 from the field. Maltezo was 4 of 19, and Pinson was 6 of 16. That's a combined 15 of 53 (28.3 percent).
 
"Hailey was terrific defensively," Simonson said after the CWU contest. "Maltezo is one of the best players in the conference, in my opinion. Hailey is really pesky. What I like about here is it allows some of our other good defensive players to move off tougher assignments. That helps someone like Ashley (Alter) or Kaprice (Boston) to be better offensive players because they're not expending as much defensive energy."
 
AROUND THE WEST
The opening weekend of GNAC play was unusual to say the least. Of the nine scheduled games, three were postponed for health and safety reasons: Alaska Fairbanks at Western Oregon last Thursday, Fairbanks at Saint Martin's on Saturday, and Alaska Anchorage at Western Oregon on Saturday. No make-up dates have been set. Seattle Pacific, Montana State Billings, Central Washington, and Northwest Nazarene were the only teams to play both scheduled games – and all four teams split. Western Washington beat Simon Fraser in its only scheduled game, and Anchorage downed Saint Martin's, so those two sit atop the standings at 1-0.
 
Cal State East Bay and Stanislaus State lead the California Collegiate Athletic Association with 3-0 records. Humboldt State (2-0) swept its opening weekend. The Lumberjacks visit Stanislaus on Saturday.
 
Azusa Pacific, Biola, and Point Loma Nazarene all went 2-0 to start off Pacific West Conference action. Azusa has the best overall record of 6-1, but Biola and Point Loma are right behind at 6-2. One of those teams will fall from the ranks of the unbeaten on Saturday when APU plays host to Biola.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and statistics from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
SPU plays its final home game of the calendar year when it wraps up non-conference play by hosting Puget Sound on Saturday, Dec. 18. Tip-off in Brougham Pavilion is set for 2:00 p.m. That also will be the final game prior to Christmas and the NCAA seven-day dead period.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                         GNAC         Overall
Western Washington         1-0       7-0
Alaska Anchorage           1-0       6-0
Central Washington         1-1       5-3
Northwest Nazarene         1-1       5-3
Montana State Billings     1-1       6-5
Seattle Pacific            1-1       4-5
Western Oregon             0-0       3-3
Alaska Fairbanks           0-0       1-4
Saint Martin's             0-1       5-2
Simon Fraser               0-1       3-6