THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 24               Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene, 4:15 p.m. PST
                                                Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 26                Seattle Pacific at Central Washington, 4:00 p.m.
                                                Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – And down the stretch they come.
 
The Seattle Pacific Falcons have arrived at the final week of the women's basketball regular season. Coming off Monday's 61-59 overtime victory at Western Oregon, SPU is right back on the road for the last two contests on the calendar.
 
Up first is a trip to Idaho on Thursday where Northwest Nazarene awaits in Nampa. It's the first game of a doubleheader and tips off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.
 
The finale is on Saturday in Ellensburg against Central Washington. That one also is the opener of a twin bill and begins at 4:00 p.m.
 
At 7-9 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play and 10-15 overall, the Falcons are sitting seventh in the standings. They still have a chance to move up a notch, but need to win both games this week and get some help from elsewhere to overtake Simon Fraser (11-13 overall, 7-8 GNAC).
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All regular-season games will have a free live Webcast on YouTube and will have free live stats. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
GNAC TOURNEY TALK
The GNAC Tournament is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday, March 2-5. As announced on Jan. 31, it will include all 10 schools this year instead of the customary top six in the final standings.
  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.

Using a "points rating system" to determine the order of the 10 seeds, the top six will automatically advance to the quarterfinals on March 3. The Nos. 7 thorugh 10 teams will be in a play-in game on March 2 (7 vs. 10, and 8 vs. 9).

Coming into this weekend, 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, 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.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Monday's victory at Western Oregon elevated SPU's road record to 4-8 (3-6 in true road games, 1-2 on neutral courts).
-- The Falcons have not gone against Northwest Nazarene or Central Washington since the opening weekend of the season in Seattle on Dec. 2 and 4. As is customary with the GNAC schedule, the teams that open the season against each other also close it against each other.
-- SPU got a split of those two home games, defeating Central, 69-65, but falling to NNU, 63-54.
-- This time, the Falcons will be taking on the top two scoring teams in the GNAC. Central Washington is No. 1 at 73.8 points per game, Northwest Nazarene is No. 2 at 73.1.
-- In the earlier game against CWU, the Falcons built a 21-point lead at 48-27 with 6:24 left in the third quarter. By the end of the third, the Wildcats had whittled it down to eight, and got as close as three at 66-63 with 20.1 seconds left before SPU eventually clinched at the free throw line.
-- On that night, the Falcons did not get to play against Wildcats star Samantha Bowman, who averages a double-double. She was not with the team.
-- In her absence, it was Kassidy Malcolm who supplied the double-double, with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, and 11 rebounds.
 

-- Against NNU, Ashley Alter and Natalie Hoff both double-doubled: 20 points and 10 rebounds for Alter; 17 and 12 for Hoff.
-- That was the second of Hoff's three double-doubles this season. She has five for her career. Alter's was her only one so far this year and the second of her career.
-- However, it was a different kind of double-double that made the ultimate difference in that game, as the Nighthawks forced SPU into 27 turnovers and converted them into 25 points.
-- NNU still forces the second-most turnovers in the conference at 22.2 per game.
-- Nyalam Thabach (16) and Jordan Pinson (15) combined for nearly half of NNU's 63 points.
-- Even playing an extra five minutes on Monday, the Falcons kept Western Oregon below 60 points. In 26 games, they've kept 12 opponents below 60 and two others right at 60.
-- If Seattle Pacific beats Central Washington, that would make it three series sweeps for the season. The other two were Alaska Fairbanks and Western Oregon.
-- The win against Central Washington in December was the first in five games against the Wildcats for SPU head coach Mike Simonson. He is 1-5 against NNU, having split a two-game home series during last winter's pandemic-abbreviated season.
 
SCOUTING THE NORTHWEST NAZARENE NIGHTHAWKS: 16-8, 10-6 GNAC (5th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 32-16. Current series streak: NNU won 2. Last time; NNU 63, SPU 54 (Dec. 4, 2021 at Seattle). Last SPU series win: SPU 66, NNU 61 (Feb. 19, 2021 at Seattle). Nighthawks on the Web.
Nighthawks in a nutshell: Northwest Nazarene is coming off a big victory at No. 9-ranked Western Washington on Monday night, ringing up 18 points in overtime to beat the Vikings, 87-76, giving them a season sweep. The Nighthawks have gotten back on track, winning three in a row after a stretch of four losses in six games. NNU has a trio of double-digit scorers. Freshman 6-foot-1 forward Teagan Thurman leads the way not only in scoring (12.2 points per game), but also in rebounding (7.4). Nyalam Thabach, a sophomore 6-3 forward, adds 11.8 points and 6.7 rebounds, along with a team-high 17 blocked shots. Junior 6-foot forward Erin Jenkins chips in 11.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Jordan Pinson, a junior 5-5 guard, has come up 43 steals, and her average of 1.8 per game is tied for No. 6 in the GNAC.
 
SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS: 18-7, 11-5 GNAC (4th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 50-35. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 69, CWU 65 (Dec. 2, 2021 at Seattle). Last CWU series win: CWU 81, SPU 65 (Feb. 29, 2020 at Seattle). Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: Central Washington went on a 10-game winning streak that began just before Christmas and stretched all the way into early February, then split their next six games heading into the final weekend. The Wildcats have three of the top five scorers in the GNAC. Kassidy Malcolm, a redshirt senior 5-foot-11 forward, and Kizzah Maltezo, a redshirt senior 5-5 guard are tied for No. 1 at 18.8 points per game. The come into the weekend separated by just two points: 471 for Malcolm, 469 for Maltezo. Then there's redshirt junior 6-3 center Samantha Bowman, who is tied for No. 4 in scoring at 16.5 points and is No. 1 in rebounding at 15.6. Her rebounding average not only leads Division II, it leads the entire NCAA across all three divisions. She has a whopping 19 double-doubles, with three of those being in the 20s for both stats. Malcolm is the top 3-point shooter in the GNAC at .408 and the top free throw shooters at .872. Bowman is the top shot blocker at 2.2 per game (50 total).
 
WORKING OVERTIME
Playing an extra five minutes has become somewhat routine for the Falcons.
 
On Monday at Western Oregon, SPU went into overtime for the fifth time this season. This one went the Falcons' way, as Natalie Hoff scored six of her 10 points to spark a 61-59 victory.
 
The first OT game came on Nov. 27 at the Cal State San Marcos Hoops Classic when Azusa Pacific came from behind late in the fourth quarter and went on to a 67-61 win.
 
On Jan. 6 in Brougham Pavilion, Ashley Alter's jump shot beat the overtime buzzer to give SPU a 66-64 win against Simon Fraser. Then on Jan. 29, the first game of a back-to-back weekend home set against Alaska Anchorage needed an extra five minutes, and the Seawolves prevailed 60-58.
 
Saint Martin's stormed from behind on Feb. 12 in Seattle and got a big jump in OT to beat the Falcons, 58-51.
 
CONNECTIONS, CONNECTIONS
For both games this weekend, there are a number of ties between SPU, Northwest Nazarene, and Central Washington.
 
-- NNU head coach Steve Steele was the lead assistant on Falcons coach Julie Heisey's staff from 2013-14 through 2015-16 before taking the head job with the Nighthawks.
-- During the 13-14 and 14-15 seasons, Central head coach Randi Richardson-Thornley was the second assistant on Heisey's staff before she left to become an assistant with the Wildcats.
-- First-year Nighthawks assistant coach Stacey Lukasiewicz played for the Falcons from 2013-14 through 16-17 while Steele and Richardson-Thornley were both here.
-- CWU guard Jenna McPhee, a junior, is the younger sister of former Falcons star Jordan McPhee (2014-15 through 17-18).
-- Current Falcons assistant coach Katie Benson was a senior during the first season (13-14) that Steele and Richardson-Thornley were on staff.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Western Washington (10-3) and Montana State Billings (10-3) head into the final weekend in a dead heat for first place in the GNAC. Alaska Anchorage (11-4) is close behind. Any of those three teams could wind up on top, depending on various outcomes. WWU has just one game remaining (at Simon Fraser). Billings has the Central Washington-Northwest Nazarene road trip, and Anchorage is home against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's.
 
Cal State San Marcos has the inside track toward the California Collegiate Athletic Association title, but Cal State East Bay is still mathematically in the hunt. Both teams are 19-2 overall. San Marcos is 17-1 in conference play with two games left; East Bay is 14-1 with one game left. If East Bay wins at Chico State on Saturday, then San Marcos must win at both Sonoma State and Humboldt to finish first. If East Bay loses, San Marcos can stay on top even with a split. However, both teams have first-round byes for the CCAA Tournament.
 
Azusa Pacific has clinched the regular-season Pacific West Conference championship. The Cougars are 16-2 in league play, 20-3 overall. The next four teams in line – Dominican, Biola, Concordia Irvine, and Academy of Art – all have five conference losses, but different numbers of wins. All four on the NCAA West Region tournament bubble.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will play in next week's GNAC Tournament. But when, where, and against whom won't be known until either late Saturday night, or more likely sometime on Sunday after the final Points Rating System standings are compiled. The tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2-5. Saint Martin's will host games all four days. SPU will host two play-in games on March 2 and four quarterfinals on March 3.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                  Conference           Overall
Western Washington        10-3        18-3
Montana State Billings    10-3        16-9
Alaska Anchorage          11-4        18-5
Central Washington        11-5        18-7
Northwest Nazarene        10-6        16-8
Simon Fraser               7-8        11-13
Seattle Pacific            7-9        11-15
Western Oregon             4-12        8-15
Saint Martin's             3-12       11-13
Alaska Fairbanks           2-13        3-17