GNAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Brougham Pavilion bracket
 
Wednesday, March 2       No. 10 Alaska Fairbanks at No. 7 Seattle Pacific, 2:15 p.m.
                                             First round
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Thursday, March 3            No. 6 Simon Fraser vs. No. 3 Central Washington, noon
                                             Quarterfinal
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
                                    SPU-UAF winner vs. No. 2 Alaska Anchorage, 2:15 p.m.
                                             Quarterfinal
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – Perhaps Mike Simonson put it the best possible way.
 
"I wrote on the board our record now: It's 0-amd-0, and we're fired up about that," the Seattle Pacific head coach said.
 
Indeed, it's a clean whiteboard for the Falcons and all nine other teams as the regular season is now in the past the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament is in the immediate future.
 
Immediate, as in Wednesday, when SPU will play on its own home court in Brougham Pavilion against Alaska Fairbanks to begin postseason play. Tip-off is at 2:15 p.m.
 
The Falcons come into the tournament as the No. 7 seed among the GNAC's 10 schools. The Nanooks are the No. 10 seed.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All tournament games, whether in Brougham Pavilion, or in Marcus Pavilion at Saint Martin's, will have free live Webcasts and live stats. Rob Lowery will call the action for the games at Seattle Pacific. Live stats also wiill be available. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.

GET YOUR TICKETS
Tickets for the GNAC Basketball Championships are on sale now and can be purchased online at the following link -- https://www.gnacsports.com/gnac/tickets/
 
County health and safety protocols will be in place for fans attending tournament contests at Seattle Pacific (King County) and Saint Martin's (Thurston County). At both venues, all fans attending the tournament are required to wear facemasks regardless of vaccination status. Proof of vaccination will not be required at SPU's Brougham Pavilion.
 
NEW FORMAT FOR THIS YEAR
The GNAC Tournament normally is for the top six finishers in the conference standings. However, with so many games postponed and some ultimately canceled this winter for Covid-related reasons, the decision was made to give all 10 schools a chance to play.
 
That made it necessary to have another venue in addition to primary host Saint Martin's, and that venue will be Brougham for the first two days of the four-day tournament.
 
After the SPU-UAF first-round women's game on Wednesday, Simon Fraser and Alaska Fairbanks will play a first round men's game, tipping off at 4:30 p.m.
 
Thursday's schedule will have women's quarterfinals at noon and 2:15 p.m., with the Falcons-Nanooks winner facing No. 2 seed Alaska Anchorage in the later of those two games. Men's quarterfinals will be at 5:15 and 7:30 p.m.
 
All semifinals (on Friday) and both championship games (on Saturday ) will be at Saint Martin's.
 
The champion receives the GNAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II West Regional tournament, joining the champions from the California Collegiate Athletic Association and the Pacific West Conference. The remaining schools from all three conferences will be considered for the five available at-large berths.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Seattle Pacific went 11-17 during the regular season, with a 7-11 record in GNAC play.
 
Alaska Fairbanks went 3-19 overall, 2-15 in conference action.
 
The Falcons swept the regular season series from the Nanooks, winning 67-45 in The Patty Center on New Year's Day, and 68-48 in Brougham Pavilion on Jan. 27.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY FOR THE FIRST ROUND?
-- The Falcons are out to snap a regular season-ending two-game losing streak.
-- Including this season's two games, SPU has defeated Fairbanks eight straight times.
--The last win by the Nanooks in the series was Feb. 16, 2017 on their home court, a 63-61 decision.
-- When the teams met in Seattle on Jan. 27, the Falcons had doubled up on Fairbanks by the end of the first quarter, 26-13, and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
-- SPU is 7-7 at home this season.
--The Falcons had considerable success getting to the free throw line in the two games against Alaska Fairbanks – 23 attempts at UAF, 21 attempts at SPU. Those were the two highest attempt totals this season for the Falcons, and their 15 makes in each game also represented their two highest totals of the year.
-- SPU senior forward Natalie Hoff tied her career high with 18 points in the game at Fairbanks, hitting 7 of 11 from the floor.
-- That was one of the 15 games (of the 27 she played) in which Hoff shot 50 percent or better.
-- The Falcons come into the tournament was one of just two GNAC teams allowing fewer than 60 points per game. Their 59.6 average trails only the 56.4 of Western Washington.
-- Their field goal defense also ranks No. 2 at .356. The only tougher team to shoot against is WWU at .343.
-- Seattle Pacific has kept 14 opponents below 60 points and three others right at 60. Its record in those games is 9-8.

  -- Redshirt freshman Anna Eddy ranks No. 5 in GNAC 3-point shooting at .364 (24 of 66).
-- Fifth-year senior point guard Abril Rexach Roure is tied for No. 6 in assists at 3.3 per game (92 total).
-- SPU has played five overtime games this winter, going 2-3.
-- Head coach Mike Simonson is 6-0 against Alaska Fairbanks.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 3-19, 2-15 GNAC (10^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 65-16.  Current series streak: SPU won 8.  Last time: SPU 68, UAF 48 (Jan. 27 at Seattle). Last UAF series win: UAF 63, SPU 61 (Feb. 16, 2017 at Fairbanks). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: In what has been a very tough season, Alaska Fairbanks picked up an impressive win at home last week. Down 78-72 at the two-minute mark, the Nanooks scored the final eight points to beat Simon Fraser, 80-78. That ended a six-game losing streak. Freshman 5-foot-7 guard Pearle Green has been a big bright spot, averaging 14.8 points per game to rank No. 8 in GNAC scoring. Of her 97 field goals, 58 are from 3-point range, an average of 3.2 per game that tops the conference charts. Destiny Reimers, a 5-9 freshman guard, adds 11.5 points and a team-leading 6.0 rebounds per game. Caitlin Pusich, a sophomore 6-foot forward, averages just 5.4 points, but is coming off a hot week during which she scored 20 against Simon Fraser last Tuesday and 20 against Saint Martin's on Thursday. Freshman 5-5 guard Paola Perez-Mendoza is one of the GNAC's leading playmakers, averaging 4.0 assists (89 total) to rank No. 3 in that statistical category.
 
TOURNAMENT TIDBITS
-- This is Seattle Pacific's eighth trip to the GNAC tournament, and the first since 2018.
-- That 2018 tourney in Anchorage was the most successful for the Falcons as they advanced all the way to the championship game before falling to Montana State Billings, 71-61.
-- SPU's all-time record in the tournament is 5-7.
--This will be just the second time the Falcons have played a GNAC Tournament game at home. The only other one was in the first round of the very first conference tournament, back in 2011. They rolled to an 81-45 victory against Western Oregon.
-- Wednesday will be Seattle Pacific's first-ever GNAC Tournament game against Alaska Fairbanks.
-- If the Falcons win and come up against Alaska Anchorage in the quarterfinals, it will mark the third time those teams have met in GNAC tourney play. UAA won in 2011 and 2017; the Falcons prevailed in 2018. All three of those were semifinal games.
 
 

YOU GET THE POINT
When someone scores a basket off a nifty or no-look or well-timed pass, it's not uncommon to see the scoring player quickly point to the passer as a way of saying, "Thanks."
 
Over the course of her career, a lot of players have had lot of reasons to point at Abril Rexach Roure.
 
Just a little more than two minutes into last Saturday's game at Central Washington, with the score tied at 2-2, dribbled down the lane on the left side. She stopped, turned, saw Natalie Hoff wide open at the foul line, whipped it back to her, and Hoff buried the jumper.
 
That was career assist No. 600 for the native of Lleida, Spain. She went on to add four more, and comes into Wednesday's game with 604.
 
Of those, 92 have come this season, giving her 205 during her three years in a Falcons uniform. She also racked up 399 assists during her freshman and sophomore seasons at Eastern Wyoming College before joining SPU.
 
SIMO SAYS ...
(On heading into the tournamennt)
"We know we've been in more close games than anyone in the conference and with pretty much every opponent in the conference. I feel pretty confident that no matter who we're playing, it's going to come down to one or two possessions, and I have a lot of confidence that our group has gained the experience to pull those out. So it's going to be a lot of fun in this tournament."

 

(On Alaska Fairbanks)
"Fairbanks plays everybody tough. They have a couple of very strong wins on their resume'. We know we have to play our best basketball against Fairbanks."
 
(On playing in the first round)
"I'm kind of glad we get to play in the play-in game. It gives you an opportunity to get some of the jitters out of tournament play. Obviously, we have a tough test in Fairbanks. But we get a chance to go out there and get used to playing in tournament play before anyone else, and that's a blessing."
 
OH SO CLOSE
Of Seattle Pacific's 28 games this year, 17 were decided by single-digit margins. Its record in those games was 4-13.
 
Breaking it down even further, eight of those 17 games had one-possession final margins, with three wins (a trio of two-pointers, with two of those in overtime) and five losses (three of them by two points, with one in OT; and two of them by three points).
 
AROUND THE WEST
While the GNAC conducts its tournament this week, the California Collegiate Athletic Association and Pacific West Conference will be doing likewise teams from those three circuits vie for the eight available berths in the NCAA West Regionals.
 
The CCAA tourney will be at Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State) and will include six teams. Cal State San Marcos (21-2 overall, 19-1 in conference play is the No. 1 seed and brings a 17-game winning streak into the tournament. Cal State East Bay (20-2, 15-1 CCAA) is No. 2 They have byes into the semifinals

The Pac West has an eight-team bracket, with all eight starting play in the quarterfinals. Azusa Pacific 21-3, 17-2 Pac West) is the No. 1 seed. Dominican (18-9, 15-5 Pac West), which finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak, is No. 2.

The three conference tournament winners get automatic berths. The remainder of the bracket will be filled with five at-large invitations.
 
UP NEXT
If the Falcons win on Wednesday, they will take on No. 2 seed Alaska Anchorage in a quarterfinal game on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. That will be preceded by a quarterfinal between No. 3 Central Washington and No. 6 Simon Fraser. If SPU loses, that will end the season.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                    Conference                 Overall
Western Washington         10-4            18-4
Alaska Anchorage           12-4            19-5
Central Washington         13-5            20-7
Northwest Nazarene         12-6            18-8
Montana State Billings     12-6            16-11
Simon Fraser                8-8            12-13
Seattle Pacific             7-11           11-17
Western Oregon              5-13            9-16
Saint Martin's              4-12           12-13
Alaska Fairbanks            2-15            3-19