SEATTLE – After trailing most of the afternoon, the Seattle Pacific Falcons were right back where they wanted to be: a one-possession game and still 1:38 left on the clock.
 
They just ran out of time…  and ran out of tries.
 
Ashley Alter came off the bench for 15 points, and Natalie Hoff added 13, but SPU came up short on its last two trips downcourt and fell to Montana State Billings in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest on Saturday afternoon, 56-53.
 
On Senior Day in Brougham Pavilion, The Falcons (10-15, 6-9 GNAC) were down by as many as 10 points midway through the third quarter at 36-26. By the end of that period, that had come all the way back within three, 46-43, scoring the final four points on back-to-back lay-ins by Alter and Kaprice Boston.
 
"Billings had a couple of big runs where they got out in front by eight or 10 points, and that could have been devastating to us," head coach Mike Simonson said. "But we showed a lot of resiliency. … We did a lot of things well. It's just too bad we didn't get the 'W'."

Three times during the fourth quarter, the Yellowjackets (16-9, 10-3 GNAC) pushed it back out to seven, the last time at 56-49 with 2:36 left on a lay-in by Taryn Shelley.
 
That turned out to be the final basket of the day for Billings, and SPU started climbing back in again. Natalie Hoff buried an 18-footer from the left of the foul line, and Alter then followed with a turnaround lay-in shot, cutting the margin to 56-53 at the 1:38 mark.
 
It stayed at that score after MSUB's Kortney Nelson missed a pair of free throws with 1:13 remaining. The Falcons got two more shot at it, the last of which was an open 3-pointer by Alter. But the ball hit the back of the rim, bounced off, and in the ensuing scramble, was tied up for a held ball. The possession arrow favored the Yellowjackets favored Billings with just 1.5 seconds left.
 
Advancing the ball into frontcourt after a timeout, Billings inbounded once, running the clock down to three-tenths of a second before an SPU foul. With neither team in the bonus, the Jackets inbounded once more to close out the game.
 
The Falcons dropped their third straight and remained seventh in the GNAC standings heading into the final week of the regular season.
 
MSUB jumped to an early 15-5 lead before Seattle Pacific got untracked. Once the Falcons did get going, they rang up seven straight points to get back within 15-12 late in the opening quarter.
 
A 6-0 scoring run early in the second period lifted SPU from a 20-14 deficit into a 20-20 tie. The Yellowjackets answered with four in a row, and ultimately took a 27-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Along with her 13 points, which she notched on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor, Natalie Hoff grabbed five rebounds.
-- Abril Rexach Roure, one of the senior honored during Saturday's pre-game ceremony, led the Falcons on the boards with six, to go along with five assists. The 5-foot-5 point guard also was credited with her second blocked shot of the season.
-- MSUB's Taryn Shelley finished with a game-high 21 points, hitting 9 of 13 from the field. That's the fourth time in the last five games she has hit for 20 or more.
-- Seattle Pacific shot 36.7 percent for the day (22 of 60). Montana State Billings hit 42 percent (21 of 50).
-- The Falcons came up with 12 steals, just one short of their season high. Malia Mastora tied her career high with three.
-- Rachel Berg, another of the seniors saluted on Saturday, hit a shot shot from the right of the hoop just before halftime. Those were her only two points of the day, but put her at exactly 300 for her career.
-- This game was far different than the first meeting in Billings four weeks ago. The Yellowjackets took a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter on the way to an 81-55 victory.
 
UP NEXT
SPU will play at Western Oregon on Monday at 5:15 p.m.. It will be the fourth and final make-up game from those that were postponed during January due to Covid protocols. That starts a three-game road stretch to conclude the regular season. The Falcons visit Northwest Nazarene next Thursday and Central Washington next Saturday.