THE SCHEDULE
Friday, Dec. 20                     Seattle Pacific at Westminster, Noon PST
                                                Behnken Field House / Salt Lake City, Utah
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Dec. 21                Seattle Pacific vs. Metro State, Noon PST
                                                Behnken Field House / Salt Lake City, Utah
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – Now that they have their first winning streak of the season going, the Seattle Pacific Falcons want to keep it going.
 
Coming off homecourt victories against Stanislaus State and Pacific Lutheran, SPU will close out the 2024 calendar year – and the non-conference schedule – on the road, visiting Salt Lake City this week for games against Westminster and Metro State.
 
The Falcons (4-9) will face the host Griffins on Friday inside Behnken Field House, then get a rematch against the Roadrunners from Denver on Saturday. Both games tip off at noon Pacific time.
 
Seattle Pacific will be packing some momentum for the journey to Utah. A big fourth quarter on Dec. 14 helped the Falcons pull away to beat Stanislaus, 81-65. Then this past Tuesday, a 15-0 third-quarter scoring run helped pave the way to a 73-45 rout of Pacific Lutheran.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both of the upcoming games will have free live Webcasts on YouTube and free live stats. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are still seeking their first road win of the year.
-- Both of this week's opponents have played other GNAC teams this season. On Thanksgiving weekend, Westminster lost to Central Washington, 54-36, and Western Washington, 63-50, both in Ellensburg. After Friday's SPU game, the Griffins will meet Northwest Nazarene on Saturday. Metro State lost to Saint Martin's in Seattle, 68-53, and will play NNU on Friday.
-- This is the second straight year SPU and Westminster have met. In last season's 57-43 Falcons victory in Seattle, Grace Leasure (photo right) came off the bench for 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting (3 of 4 behind the arc)
-- Fifth-year point guard Hunter Beirne will get her first look at the Griffins. She did not play in either the 2021 or 2023 games.
-- Playing the same non-conference opponent twice in the same season, as will be the case with Metro State, is a rarity. The last time that happened for SPU was in 2009 when it faced Grand Canyon in two tournaments. The Falcons lost to the Antelopes at the NNU Classic in Nampa, 69-55, but turned the tables at the Triton Classic in San Diego, 58-53.
-- By putting the defensive clamps on Pacific Lutheran in Tuesday's 73-45 victory, the Falcons kept an opponent below 50 points for the second time this season. The first was a  72-48 win against Cal State San Marcos on Nov. 15.
-- In the past two games, SPU has set a season scoring high (81 vs. Stanislaus State) and matched its second-highest total (73).
-- Thatt has helped push the Falcons' scoring average above 60 points for the first time this season. They're now at 61.9 per game.
-- Seattle Pacific's 58 blocked shots is second-most in the GNAC, trailing only the 59 of Montana State Billings. The average of 4.46 per game ranks No. 4 in the conference.
-- Not since the 2014-15 season (4.6) have the Falcons averaged more than four blocks per game.
-- Senior center Schuyler Berry has 13 of the team's 58 blocks, an average of 1.0 per game that is No. 6 on the GNAC list.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTMINSTER GRIFFINS: 2-8, 1-3 RMAC (tie 9th)
All-time series: SPU leads,2-0.  Current series streak: SPU won 2.   Last time: SPU 57, WU 43 (Dec. 29, 2023 at Seattle).  Last WU series win: None. Griffins on the Web.
Griffins in a nutshell: Westminster snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Metro State in Denver last Saturday, 54-51, but then dropped an 83-40 decision to Colorado Mines on Monday. Teuila Nawahine, a junior 5-foot-7 guard, is the only Griffins player in double digits, averaging 13.2 points per game. She has one game of 20 points and two of 17. Abby Conlee averages 9.2 points on .474 shooting from the floor, tops on the team. Senior 5-10 center Maunayia Harrigfeld yanks down an average of 9.6 rebounds per game to go along with 7.4 points. She also has 17 blocked shots, more than half of Westminster's total of 33.
 
SCOUTING THE METRO STATE ROADRUNNERS: 2-8, 1-3 RMAC (tie 9th)
All-time series: Metro leads, 3-1.  Current series streak: Metro won 3.  Last time: Metro 57, SPU 56 (Nov. 29 at Seattle).  Last SPU series win: SPU 77, Metro 74 (Dec. 13, 1986 at Denver).  Roadrunners on the Web.
Roadrunners in a nutshell: This will be the second meeting in three weeks between Metro and SPU. Ashlyn Yow's wide-open 3-pointer from the left corner swished through with 2.2 seconds left on Nov. 29, and the Roadrunners escaped with a 57-56 victory. Yow finished with 10 points that day, nearly twice her current average of 5.4. Junior 5-foot-8 guard Mikylah Espinosa averages 13.8 points – the only Metro State player in double figures – and led the Roadrunners with 12 against the Falcons in November. She also has a whopping 33 steals, not quite half of the team's total of 81. Neveah Millard, a freshman 5-8 guard, averages 8.0 points. Senior 6-foot forward / center Jackie Pippett, chips in 6.8 points on a team-high .514 shooting, and also is tops on the boards at 5.4 per game.
 
FRESHMEN FINDING THEIR GROOVE
The four freshmen on Seattle Pacific's roster – Grace Mertes and Phoenix Sharp, and redshirts Grace Turley and Julia Lavigne – are gradually showing more of what they're capable of contributing.
 

In Tuesday's 73-45 victory against Pacific Lutheran, Lavigne came up with a career scoring high of eight points, hitting 4 of 6 from the field. The 6-foot forward / guard doubled her previous high of four points. In her college debut on Nov. 1 against Tampa, she had seven rebounds, and since then has had five (vs. PLU) and two games of four.

Turley, a 5-9 guard, is sometimes the first sub off the bench and has played in all 13 games, logging double-digit minutes in 11 of those. She has scored in all 13, with a career high of nine at Western Washington on Dec. 7. She is the only Falcon who is still perfect at the free throw line, having gone 13 of 13.

Mertes has steadily increased her playing time in each of the last three games. A 5-11 wing, she had 11 minutes against at Western Washington, 12 against Stanislaus State and 16 against PLU. Mertes had double career highs of eight points (on 3-of-5 shooting) and three rebounds vs. Stanislaus.

Sharp, a 6-foot guard / forward, has had limited minutes in six games, but has made the most of them. Both of her field goals have come from downtown, and she grabbed her first two college rebounds in Tuesday's PLU contest.
 
HITTING THE EASY ONES
Through the first eight games of the season, SPU was struggling at the free throw line. Aside from a .741 performance (20 of 27) against Gannon on Nov. 2, the Falcons had four games below 60 percent and no game higher than 66.7 percent. The season mark through those eight games was .643 (65 of 101).
 
Then three weekends ago, things changed.
 
Beginning with an 87.5 percent performance (7 of 8) against Colorado Christian on Nov. 30, the Falcons have hit 63 of their last 77 (81.8 percent) at the line They had four straight games above 80 percent. After the .875 vs. CCU, they shot .846 (11 of 13) at Simon Fraser, .842 (16 of 19) at Western Washington, and .810 (17 of 21) vs. Stanislaus State. On Tuesday vs. Pacific Lutheran, Seattle Pacific hit .750 (12 of 16).
 
All of that has added up to a jump of 76 percentage points, from .643 to the current mark of .719.
 
During those five games, Layne Kearns (10 of 10) and Grace Turley (6 of 6) are both perfect. Schuyler Berry is 10 of 11, Grace Leasure is 9 of 10, and Hunter Beirne is 8 of 10
 
COACH KAREN BYERS SAYS …
(On this week's games)
"I'm excited to play Westminster again. They were a tough opponent last year. And I would love to get Metro State – I think we have some unfinished business out there."
 
(On finding their flow vs. PLU)
We talked about just getting into what we know, getting into our offense, having some off-ball movement. We were just really tense and tight. We were looking to get some stops, they took a deep breath and just responded well. … Especially today when we came out sluggish and didn't guard really well, it was an opportunity for us to show that we've been here before and can make a messy game turn into something that's going to go our way at the end."
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- Hunter Beirne poured in 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Lolo Weatherspoon added 13 points and four boards, and the Falcons came up big in the fourth quarter, pulling away to an 81-65 victory against Stanislaus State last Saturday.. 
-- Hunter Beirne scored 15 points and Schuyler Berry tallied all 12 of her points during a solid second half on Tuesday as SPU used a 15-0 third-quarter scoring run to take control on the way to beating Pacific Lutheran, 73-45.
 
AROUND THE WEST
It's a busy week in the GNAC as most every team is playing at least twice prior to next week's seven-day shutdown for Christmas. Montana State Billings (11-2, 2-0 GNAC) clashed with CCAA co-leader Cal Poly Pomona on Tuesday, and the Broncos escaped with a 72-69 victory at the Holiday Hoops Classic in Las Vegas. On Wednesday in a battle between the last two unbeaten teams in the West Region, Central Washington (7-1) fell to Cal State Dominguez Hills, (11-0), 85-73. Billings and Alaska Anchorage (10-1, 2-0 GNAC) are the two conference teams with double-digit wins heading into the holidays.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association has four teams that have risen to the top, far ahead of everyone else. Chico State is 4-1 in conference play, 8-1 overall. Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal Poly Pomona are both 3-0, with Dominguez (11-0) the only team in that circuit with double-digit wins overall.
 
Azusa Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene sit atop the Pacific West Conference with identical 4-0 records, and both have by far the best overall records, with Azusa at 9-1 and Point Loma at 9-3. Vanguard also is perfect in conference play at 3-0,and is 5-4 overall. Jessup, a first-year Division II program, is 7-3, 2-0 Pac West.
 
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 and the rest of NCAA Division II will take their mandatory seven-day break next week with no games, practices, weight training, or film sessions. Then, they'll get to ease into the remainder of the GNAC schedule as they have just one game upon returning from the break, visiting Montana State Billings on Saturday, Jan. 4. Tip-off is at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                      GNAC       Overall
Alaska Anchorage          2-0     10-1
Montana State Billings    2-0     11-2
Central Washington        1-0      7-1
Saint Martin's            1-1      8-2
Simon Fraser              1-1      8-3
Western Washington        1-1      5-4
Western Oregon            1-1      4-5
Northwest Nazarene        0-1      5-4
Alaska Fairbanks          0-2      5-5
Seattle Pacific           0-2      4-9
 

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