THE SCHEDULE
Tuesday, Feb. 15                 Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
                                                Brougham Pavilion / 4:00 p.m.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 19                Montana State Billings at Seattle Pacific
                                                Brougham Pavilion / 2:00 p.m.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Monday, Feb. 21                  Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon
                                                New P.E. Building / 5:15 p.m.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats

 
SEATTLE – Crunch time is here for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
Looking to get into as high of a position as possible for next montb's Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament, SPU wraps up its home schedule with two games this week before it embarks on a stretch of three straight road games to conclude the regular season.
 
Up first for the Falcons (10-13, 6-7 GNAC) is a make-up game on Tuesday against nationally ranked Western Washington in Brougham Pavilion. Tip-off is at 4:00 p.m. That will conclude a period of four games in eight days.
 
The home finale and Senior Day celebration is set for Saturday when Montana State Billings comes to town. That one starts at 2:00 p.m., and will be the first half of a Senior Day doubleheader. Seattle Pacific's men will salute their senior prior to their 4:15 p.m. game against Western Washington.
 
The season-ending road trip starts next Monday, Feb. 21, with a make-up game at Western Oregon. Tip-off is at 5:15 p.m.
 
SPU is coming off a three-game week, winning the first two (63-43 at Saint Martin's and 67-54 at home against Western Oregon) before dropping a 58-51 overtime decision to Saint Martin's last Saturday.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All regular-season games will have a free live Webcast on YouTube and will have free live stats. Calling the action for this week's two home contests will be Greg Sexton. 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.

 
SENIOR DAY IS COMING
With the regular season – make-up games and all – rapidly moving toward its conclusion, Senior Day is on the horizon.
 
Prior to Saturday's  2:00 p.m. tip-off against Montana State Billings, the Falcons will salute four players who are nearing the end of their careers. That pre-game spotlight will shine on guards Rachel Berg, Kaprice Boston along with point guards Bayley Brennan and Abril Rexach Roure,
 
Berg is a fifth-year player and her season got off to a late start while recovering from a knee injury. But since returning, she started seven of her first nine games and is averaging 5.7 points.
 
Boston also is a fifth-year player and is in her fourth year at Seattle Pacific after playing her freshman season at Northern Arizona. She is averaging 7.9 points and 4.7 rebounds, having started every game the past two seasons.
 
Brennan is one of SPU's most effective weapons from downtown, as she is shooting .321 from behind the and averaging 3.7 points per game.
 
Rexach Roure is finishing her third season with the team after playing her first two years at Eastern Wyoming College. The native of Spain has started every game this winter, is the team leader in assists with 79 and is having her best season on the boards in a Falcons uniform with 98 through the first 23 games.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--Tuesday's game against Western Washington was originally scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 8 in Seattle, but was postponed for Covid-protocol reasons. It is the third of SPU's four scheduled make-up games.
-- The fourth and final make-up is set for next Monday at Western Oregon. That one was originally scheduled for Jan. 15 in Monmouth.
-- If there are no more postponements, the Falcons will be able to complete their 18-game GNAC schedule. Others with a chance to complete all 18 are Alaska Fairbanks, Central Washington, Northwest Nazarene, and Western Oregon.
-- The Falcons and Western Washington played on Feb. 3 in Bellingham, with the Vikings winning, 59-40.
--SPU's point total was a season low, as was its total of 15 field goals (on 53 attempts, a 28.6 percentage).
-- The Falcons kept WWU 11 points below its then-season average of 70.6 points and limited the hosts to 35.6 percent shooting.
-- Seattle Pacific was just the fourth team this season to keep the Vikings below 60 points.
 

-- Senior forward Natalie Hoff double-doubled in that game with 13 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. It was her third double-double of the season and fifth of her career.
-- Emma Duff poured in 18 points on 9-of-18 shooting for Western.
--  Western and SPU remain the two toughest teams in the conference to shoot against. Opponents hit just 33.4 percent vs. the Vikings and 34.5 percent vs. the Falcons.
-- Seattle Pacific fell to Billings on Jan. 22 in Montana, 81-55, its largest margin of defeat this season.
-- That game was the first for the Falcons in 16 days. After a 66-64 home victory against Simon Fraser on Jan. 6, they had three consecutive games postponed for health and safety protocols.
-- Nobody hit for double figures in Billings, as Kaprice Boston and Rachel Berg tallied nine pointe each.
-- That was Berg's first game of the season after returning from a knee injury.
-- The Yellowjackets had three in double figures, led by the 15 each from Cariann Kunkel and Danielle Zahn.
-- MSUB was hot from downtown that day, draining 13 of 25. Kortney Nelson and Aspen Glese were both perfect at 3 for 3.
-- The Falcons and Western Oregon played on Feb. 10 in Seattle, with SPU pulling away to win, 67-54.
-- Of the 11 SPU players who saw action, 10 had both points and rebounds on their stat lines.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS: 15-2, 7-2 GNAC (1^st)
All-time series: WWU leads, 64-32. Current series streak: WWU won 6. Last time: WWU 59, SPU 40 (Feb. 3, 2022 at Bellingham). Last SPU series win: SPU 61, WWU 59 (Jan. 17, 2019 at Seattle). Vikings on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Western Washington split a pair on a tough road trip last week against two of the GNAC's top teams. The Vikings dropped a 77-70 overtime decision on Thursday at Northwest Nazarene, then pulling out a 74-72 victory at Central Washington on Saturday. Senior 6-foot guard Emma Duff erupted for a career-high 29 points, getting 11 of those during the decisive fourth quarter at CWU. Duff is averaging 16.1 for the season, No. 4 in the GNAC, on 48.3 percent shooting from the field, including 38.5 percent from 3-point range. WWU doesn't have any other double-digit scorer, but junior 5-10 guard Mollie Olson is close at 9.8 and is always dangerous. Duff leads the team on the boards at 7.4 per game.
 
SCOUTING THE MONTANA STATE BILLINGS YELLOWJACKETS: 15-9, 9-3 GNAC (tie 2^nd)
All-time series: SPU leads, 30-24. Current series streak: MSUB won 2. Last time: MSUB 81, SPU 55 (Jan. 22, 2022 at Billings). Last SPU series win: SPU 69 MSUB 63 (Jan. 23, 2020 at Billings). Yellowjackets on the Web.
Yellowjackets in a nutshell: Billings starts the week on a three-game winning streak and has taken nine of its past 11 games. The most impressive of those W's was a 72-48 rout of Alaska Anchorage in Alaska on Jan. 17. Taryn Shelley, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, has been on a scoring tear, with 21, 28, 20, and 16 points in the last four games, all part of her 14.3 average that ranks No. 8 in the GNAC. In those same four games, she double-doubled in three of them, and has seven double-doubles for the season. She averages 7.9 boards, the conference's No. 4 mark. Cariann Kunkel, a junior 5-10 forward, scores at a 12.4 clip per game on a .526 shooting percentage that is the fourth-highest in the GNAC.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES: 8-12, 4-9 GNAC (8^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 46-5. Current series streak: SPU won 3. Last time: SPU 67, WOU 54 (Feb. 10, 2022 at Seattle). Last WOU series win: WOU 60, SPU 53 (Feb. 28, 2019 at Monmouth). Wolves on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: Western Oregon came up short in all three games last week, including the 67-54 defeat at SPU. Meadow Aragon, a sophomore 5-foot-11 forward, averages a team-leading 10.9 points and shoots .518 from the field, ranks No. 5 in the GNAC. She also leads the Wolves on the boards at 7.2 per game. Junior 5-5 guard Tresai McCarver is close behind at 10.5, and also is one of the conference's leading playmakers, No. 3 on the assists lists with an average of 3.8 per game. But it was sophomore 5-3 guard Princy Paaluhi-Caulk who came up bog on the scoreboard in WOU's last two games, with 17 points against the Falcons and 18 at Montana State Billings on Feb. 12, well above her season average of 3.9 per game.
 
GNAC TOURNEY TIDBITS
The GNAC Tournament is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday, March 2-5. Seattle Pacific will host two games on March 2 (one women's play-in, one men's play-in) and four on March 3 (two women's quarterfinals, two men's quarterfinals). The other 12 games (two play-ins, four quarterfinals, all four semifinals, and both finals) will be at Saint Martin's. In a change from previous years, all 10 schools, rather than just the top six, will take part. Because it's likely that not every school will play the same number of games due to Covid-related postponements and cancelations, the GNAC has decided to use a "points rating system" to determine the order of seeding for the 10 schools. In a nutshell, teams earn points, whether they win or lose, based on the winning percentage of their opponent. The point total is then divided by number of conference games played.
 
The top six teams in those rankings automatically advance to the quarterfinals on March 3. The Nos. 7 through 10 teams will be in a play-in game (7 vs. 10, and 8 vs. 9).
 
Coming into this week, SPU ranks No. 7, and therefore would be involved in one of the March 2 play-in games. However if the Falcons can move up to No. 6 or higher in the remaining two weeks of the regular season, they could avoid a play-in and go straight into a quarterfinal bracket.
 
Final seedings, pairings, and which schools play at which site won't be determined until after the season concludes on Feb. 26.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Even with a road split last week at Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington, Western Washington remains in control of the GNAC at 7-2 in conference play and 15-2 overall. Alaska Anchorage (16-4 overall) and Montana State Billings (13-9 overall) are both 9-3 in GNAC games.
 
Cal State San Marcos is close to wrapping up the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season crown. The Cougars are 15-1 in conference play, 17-2 overall and on a 13-game winning streak with four games to go. Cal State East Bay (13-1 CCAA, 18-2 overall) is the closest team to them.
 
Azusa Pacific's winning streak came to an end at 15 with an 81-77 loss at home against Dominican. APU is still well in command of the Pacific West Conference at 14-1 (18-2 overall). That's a 2 ½-game lead on Concordia Irvine (12-4 Pac West, 15-7 overall). Dominican is third at 11-5, 14-9 overall.
 
UP NEXT
After next Monday's game at Western Oregon, the regular season will conclude with road contests at Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington. The Falcons and Nighthawks meet on Thursday, Feb. 24 in Nampa, Idaho, at 4:15 p.m. PST. Then it's Central in Ellensburg on Saturday the 26th at 4:00 p.m. These teams opened the season against each other way back in the first week of December. SPU beat Central, 69-65, but fell to NNU, 63-54.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                  Conference            Overall
Western Washington        7-2          15-2
Alaska Anchorage          9-3          16-4
Montana State Billings    9-3          15-9
Central Washington        9-4          16-6
Northwest Nazarene        7-5          13-7
Seattle Pacific           6-7          10-13
Simon Fraser              5-6           9-11
Western Oregon            4-9           8-12
Saint Martin's            3-9         -11-10
Alaska Fairbanks          1-12          2-16