THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Jan. 4                  Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene, 4:15 p.m. PST
                                       Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho
                                       Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Jan. 6                   Seattle Pacific at Central Washington, 4:00 p;m.
                                       Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                       Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – Two months … nine weeks … 16 games.
 
The part of the women's basketball calendar that matters the most is right in front of the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
With non-conference play now complete, SPU heads into the heart of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule with a road trip to Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington. The Falcons and Nighthawks will tangle on Thursday in Nampa, Idaho, tipping off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time. The Wildcats will be waiting for them in Ellensburg on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
 
Both games are doubleheader openers. The second half will feature the Seattle Pacific men, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at NNU and 6:15 on Saturday at Central.
 
The Falcons (5-7, 2-0 GNAC) concluded out-of-conference competition last Friday at home with a 57-43 victory against Westminster University of Salt Lake City.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All GNAC games will have free live Webcasts and live stats. The appropriate links for this week's contests can be found at the top of this story.
 
 

MAYER KEEPING SOME ELITE COMPANY
Junior forward Olivia Mayer is back among the GNAC's top 10 scorers. She's currently No. 10 at 12.8 points per game.
 
Mayer also is top-10 in rebounding, ranking No. 8 at 7.7 per game.
 
That makes her one of three players to be among the top 10 in both stat categories. The others are Central's Asher Cai (No. 1 scoring at 20.5 / No. 3 rebounding at 9.4) and Western Washington's Brooke Walling (No. 4 scoring at 17.4 / No. 1 rebounding at 10.5).
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The game at Central Washington on Saturday will be Seattle Pacific's 14th of the season, the exact midpoint of its 28-game schedule.
--The Falcons head into the week as one of three undefeated teams in GNAC play (2-0). Central Washington is one of the other two, along with Montana State Billings.
-- Seattle Pacific is still looking for its first true road victory, currently 0-5. Its one win away from Seattle was 58-53 against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Nov. 11 in Bellingham.
-- That challenge certainly won't get any easier this week. The Falcons have fallen five straight times at NNU and Central. Their last wins in both locales came during the 2016-17 season: 68-63 at Northwest Nazarene, 54-51 at Central Washington.: 
-- SPU has kept three opponents under 50 points this season and have won all three of those games. That's already one more sub-50 they had all of last season.
-- It also has limited two opponents to less than 60 points, and has won both of those games.
-- The Falcons had their best 3-point shooting day of the season in last week's victory against Westminster with a season-high nine makes and a season-high .409 percentage (9 of 22). The previous highs were eight makes and a .348 percentage (8 of 23), both against Alaska Fairbanks on Nov. 30.
-- SPU has three performances of 20-plus points so far, all by different players: 23 for Olivia Mayer against Alaska Anchorage, 22 for Schuyler Berry against Stanislaus State, and 20 for Hunter Beirne against Alaska Fairbanks.
-- Coach Mike Simonson is 2-6 against Central and 1-7 against Northwest Nazarene.
 
SCOUTING THE NORTHWEST NAZARENE NIGHTHAWKS: 4-5, 1-1 GNAC (tie 5th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 33-18.  Current series streak: NNU won 1.  Last time: NNU 63 SPU 49 (Jan. 28, 2023 at Nampa).  Last SPU series win: SPU 58, NNU 45 (Dec. 29, 2022 at Seattle).  Nighthawks on the Web.
Nighthawks in a nutshell: Northwest Nazarene has had an unexpectedly long break. Thursday's game against SPU will be the first in 33 days for the Nighthawks. Their last contest was a 78-74 loss at Western Oregon on Dec. 2. NNU is led by junior 6-foot guard / forward Madeline Gebers, who ranks No. 9 in GNAC scoring at 13.2 points per game. She has a solid overall shooting percentage of .471, and is deadly from downtown with an eye-popping mark of 50 percent (23 of 46), tied for No. 6 in NCAA Division II. In addition, Gebers has a team-leading 10 blocked shots. Also scoring at a double-digit clip is freshman 5-10 guard / forward Kendall Clark at 12.3 per game, and she shoots .544 from the floor. Junior 5-8 guard Shawnacee Davis also can find the hoop, averaging 9.6 points on .472 overall shooting and .462 (6 of 13) behind the arc. The Nighthawks are the best long-range shooting team in the GNAC, hitting .376.
 
SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS: 11-3, 2-0 GNAC (tie 1st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 51-37.  Current series streak: CWU won 1.  Last time: CWU 81, SPU 72 (Jan. 26, 2023 at Ellensburg).  Last SPU series win: SPU 70, CWU 63 (Dec. 31, 2022 at Seattle).  Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: Central Washington is the hottest team in the GNAC, coming into the week and the new year on an eight-game winning streak. All eight of them, including a 73-40 rout of Westminster last Saturday, have been by double-digit margins, the closest of which was a 10-pointer, 77-67 at Western Oregon on Dec. 2. While all-everything Sam Bowman has moved on to the professional ranks (she's averaging 20.1 points and 15.5 rebounds for the Rockhampton Cyclones in Australia), Central is still loaded with talent. Sophomore 5-foot-9 guard Asher Cai  and junior 5-4 guard Sunny Huerta rank 1-2 in GNAC scoring, with Cai at 20.5 points per game and Huetra right behind at 19.9. Together, they have accounted for 564 of the Wildcats' 1,025 points (55 percent). Cai also is No. 3 in conference rebounding at 9.4 per game, and freshman 6-foot forward Capri Sims is tied for No. 6 at 8.0, and also averages 8.6 points on .538 shooting from the field..

 

THE FUTURE IS NOW
At some point down the line, freshmen guards Layne Kearns and Haylie-Anne Ohta are going to get a chance to run things from the backcourt for Seattle Pacific.
 
Except … they're already getting that chance. And they're getting the job done.
 
With senior Hailey Marlow and redshirt junior Hunter Beirne dealing with injuries through much of December, Ohta has started the most recent four games (and six of the last seven), and was on the court for 139 of the 160 minutes, an average of 34 minute per game. Kearns has started the last three, seeing action for 97 of the 120 minutes (32-plus minutes).
 
While they're on the court, they're making contributions. Kearns has 22 points, 12 rebounds (including a career-high eight at Stanislaus State on Dec. 14), six assists, and four steals in those three starts. Ohta has chipped in 16 points, 18 rebounds (with a career-high seven at Fresno Pacific), and eight assists in her four consective starts.
 
"Layne and Haylie really stepped up," SPU coach Mike Simonson said after the Westminster game. "They both had three assists to just one turnover. This is the type of stuff that will set them up for success, not just this season, but for the rest of their careers."
 
 

SIMO SAYS …
(On resuming GNAC play)
"We're 2-and-0 in conference right now and tied for the top, but it's so early. We're excited to basically hit "refresh." When we play well, we're a really good team. Obviously, we're pretty good at home. But when we go on the road, we'll be tested by NNU and Central. We're very excited to play them. We've had some hard-fought games against them the last couple of years."

(On the defense vs. Westminster)
We showed that when we really buckle down on defense, we're a really good basketball team. We've just got to be able to do it for 40 minutes. That's something we preach about every day. That will come over time because we're young and still learning how to play a 40-minute game."
 
FALCONS REPLAY
Olivia Mayer pumped in 17 points, Grace Leasure added 14, and SPU came from 20-7 down at the end of the first quarter to beat Westminster University last Friday in their final non-conference game, 57-43. Through the final 30 minutes in Brougham Pavilion, the Falcons outscored the Griffins, 50-23. Westminster (2-8) had just nine points in the second half until finally getting into double-digits with 2:12 left.
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
In the making
100th assist             Hailey Marlow (has 83)
                              Olivia Mayer (Has 81)
100th point             Grace Leasure (has 89)
100th steal              Olivia Mayer (has 93)
200th point             Hailey Marlow (has 164)
200th rebound        Hunter Beirne (has 194)
700th  point           Olivia Mayer (has 681)
 
Made last week
None
 
AROUND THE WEST
What a way to start the new year. On Thursday, GNAC co-leaders Montana State Billings and Central Washington will clash in Ellensburg. Both are 2-0 in conference; both are 11-3 overall, with the Wildcats on an eight-game winning streak. Western Washington (9-2, 1-0) visits Alaska Anchorage (6-5, 0-2 GNAC) on Thursday, with the Seawolves having won four straight.
 
It's a somewhat similar scenario in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Stanislaus State (10-5, 5-0), the only team with a perfect conference record, is home against second-place Cal State San Marcos (7-3, 4-1) on Thursday, then plays host to Sonoma State (8-4, 3-2) on Saturday.
 
Azusa Pacific (10-3, 4-0) has a half-game lead on Fresno Pacific (10-2, 3-0) in the Pacific West Conference. Both of those teams have won six in a row. Point Loma Nazarene (7-5, 3-1) is right on their heels. Dominican (10-3, 3-2) joins Azusa and Fresno in double-digit wins.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons start a three-game homestand next week. Up first is Western Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 11 as the second half of a doubleheader at 7:30 p.m. The SPU men take on Simon Fraser in the 5:15 game. On Jan. 13, Saint Martin's comes to Brougham Pavilion at 2:00 p.m. in a doubleheader opener. The men host Western Washington at 4:15 p.m.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                    GNAC       Overall
Central Washington       2-0     11-3
Montana State Billings   2-0     11-3
Seattle Pacific          2-0      5-7
Western Washington       1-0      9-2
Western Oregon           1-1`     8-5
Northwest Nazarene       1-1      4-5
Simon Fraser             9-1      8-6
Alaska Anchorage         0-2      6-5
Saint Martin's           0-2      2-7
Alaska Fairbanks         0-2      2-10


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