THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 22               Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                             Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 24                Western Washington at Seattle Pacific, 4:15 p.m.
                                             Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats

 
SEATTLE – Time to bring down the curtain on home games for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
But before they do, it should be quite a show in Brougham Pavilion.
 
Still battling for a postseason position with two weeks left, SPU (10-14, 7-7 GNAC) will welcome Simon Fraser and Western Washington to town this week. The Red Leafs visit on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., and the No. 13-ranked Vikings are here on Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
 
The Saturday game will be the second half of a Senior Day doubleheader. The SPU men will open the twin bill at 2:00 p.m. against Montana State Billings.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All GNAC games will have free live Webcasts and live stats. Greg Sexton will call the action for this week's games. The appropriate links for this week's games can be found at the top of this story.
 
SALUTING THE SENIORS
Seattle Pacific will honor senior guard Hailey Marlow and third-year managers Abbie and Vickie Morton on Saturday afternoon.
 
 

In addition to her leadership attributes, Marlow has been one of the best defensive players for the Falcons during her career. This season, she also is contributing 4.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. She has established new single-game highs of 11 points, nine boards, six assists and three steals.
 
Marlow is a three-time GNAC All-Academic selection as a business administration and is president of Seattle Pacific's chapter of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
 
 

The Moreton twins have become an integral part of the SPU program. As sophomores, they started out by getting the balls out and running the clock at practice.
 
In the years since they have gradually expanded their duties to various other aspects of team operations, including managing the social media accounts and occasionally even helping with stats. They also have a huge hand in SPU's intramural program, help out in the cage, and sometimes even work the concession stand.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are 7-2 at home.
-- They are looking for a split of both season series after falling 73-61 in Bellingham and 83-57 in Burnaby last month.
-- SPU already has season splits against Central Washington, Northwest Nazarene, and Saint Martin's.
-- The Falcons are coming off their third-best shooting day of the season last Saturday at Montana State Billings, as they hit 45.2 percent (19 of 42). Their only better marks are .453 (24 of 53) against Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 3 and .469 (23 of 49) against Alaska Anchorage on Dec. 2.
-- SPU now has been above 40 percent for five straight games, matching its longest such stretch of the season.
 

-- Junior forward Olivia Mayer is now just 98 points away from 1,000 for her career. She had 17 at Billings, giving her 374 this year and 902 total. She tallied 528 during her two years at Whitworth prior to joining the Falcons this season.
-- In her last five games, Mayer has hit 59.2 percent from the floor (42 of 71). That has boosted her season percentage to 47.7.
-- Mayer is No. 8 in GNAC scoring at 15.6, No. 6 in rebounding at  7.7, and No. 10 in field goal shooting at .477.
-- Saturday's game against Western Washington will SPU's eighth against a national top-25 opponent this season. While the Vikings are No. 13 this week, they were No. 17 then the Falcons face them in Carver Gymnasium on Jan. 25.
-- The lone win against a top-25er was 58-53 against then-No. 11 Cal State Dominguez Hills on Nov. 11.
-- SPU's defense is still ranked No. 4 in the GNAC, allowing 61.6 points per game. It will be tested this week by three of the conference's top 10 scorers: No. 3 Jessica Wisotzki (17.5) and No. 4 Sophia Wisotzki (17.3) of Simon Fraser, and No. 7 Brooke Walling (16.8) of Western Washington.
-- All three came up big on their home courts last month against Seattle Pacific. The Wisotzkis teamed up for 52 of Simon Fraser's 83 points (29 for Sophia, 23 for Jessica) on combined 18 of 29 shooting from the field (.621) with 8 of 10 from 3-point range. Walling poured in 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
-- In 27 games, one of the Wisotzkis had led the team in scoring for 22 of them: 11 times for Jessica, 11 times for Sophia. In fact, Sophia has been the top scorer for seven games in a row, with totals ranging from 18 to 31 points.
-- Gemma Cutler of the Red Leafs is the GNAC's top shot blocker, averaging 3.0 per game. She had two in 14 minutes off the bench against SPU in January.
-- Over the years, the Falcons rarely have had players among the top 10 in the conference for minutes played, but they now have two. Mayer is No. 7 at 30.8 per game, and point guard Hunter Beirne has climbed into a tie for No. 9 at 30.3.
-- Western Washington has the longest current winning streak against the Falcons, having taken 11 in a row. SPU's last win in the series was 61-59 in Seattle on Jan. 17, 2019.
-- Simon Fraser and Western Washington are led by two of the longest-tenured coaches in the GNAC. Bruce Langford is in his 23rd year with the Red Leafs, and Carmen Dolfo is in her 33rd with the Vikings.
-- Coach Mike Simonson's teams are 1-11 vs. Western Washington and 3-6 vs. Simon Fraser.
 
SCOUTING THE SIMON FRASER RED LEAFS: 15-12, 8-7 GNAC (tie 4th)
All-time series: Simon leads, 27-16.  Current series streak: Simon won 1.  Last time: Simon 83, SPU 57 (Jan. 27 at Burnaby).  Last SPU series win: SPU 59, Simon 48 (Feb. 16, 2023 at Burnaby).  Red Leafs on the Web.
Red Leafs in a nutshell: When the teams met in Burnaby last month, Simon Fraser had lost five of its previous six. Starting with that victory against SPU, the Red Leafs have won five of the last six. The Wisotzki sisters are still doing what the Wisotzki sisters do: score the ball. Senior 6-foot-2 guard / forward Jessica averages 17.5 per game; junior 5-10 guard Sophia chips in 17.3. A month ago, Sophia was at 14.4, but has averaged 25.7 points in seven games since then. She also averages a team-leading 2.9 assists per game. Junior 6-2 forward Gemma Cutler and senior 5-10 guard Grace Killins add 10.6 points each. After four games of coming off the bench, Cutler has been back in a starting role for the past two. She remains one of the GNAC's top shooters, hitting at a .557 clip to rank No. 4 in the conference.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS: 20-4, 13-2 GNAC (2nd)
All-time series: WWU leads, 69-32.  Current series streak: WWU won 11.  Last time: WWU 73, SPU 61 (Jan. 25, 2024 at Bellingham).  Last SPU series win: SPU 61, WWU 59 (Jan. 17, 2019 at Seattle).  Vikings on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Western Washington has won three in a row and 11 of its last 12, the only loss coming at home against Alaska Anchorage. The Vikings have plenty of options for points, starting with senior 6-foot-3 forward and GNAC Preseason Player of the Year Brooke Walling. She's averaging 16.8 points (No. 7 in the conference) on a GNAC-leading .610 shooting percentage. Her 9.2 rebounds per game also ranks No. 1. She has 10 double-doubles. Sophomore 5-5 guard Mason Oberg averages 11.4 points, junior 5-10 guard Riley Dykstra averages 11.0 and junior 6-3 forward Aspen Garrison chips in 10.8. And watch out for senior 5-10 guard Stephanie Peterson. Her averages are 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds, but she went for a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds vs. SPU last month.
 
POINTING TOWARD POSTSEASON
The Falcons begin the week in sole possession of sixth place in the GNAC standings with a 7 -7 record. That currently would give them the final qualifying berth for the conference tournament on March 7-9 in Ellensburg.
 
SPU is half a game behind Central Washington and Simon Fraser, both of whom are 8-7 and tied for fourth place, and is 1½ games ahead of Northwest Nazarene (6-9), with the Nighthawks being the first one out as of now.
 
NNU visits Central on Saturday in Ellensburg.
 
Montana State Billings, Western Washington, and Alaska Anchorage all have clinched tournament spots. Alaska Fairbanks is out of contention, and Western Oregon has canceled the remainder of its season. That leaves five teams still mathematically in contention for the final three spots: Seattle Pacific, Central, Simon Fraser, NNU, and Saint Martin's.
 

SIMO SAYS …
(On Simon Fraser)
"They're so good at shooting the basketball. There's not a shot that they don't like. We have to make sure we're the more efficient team against Simon Fraser. We need to be efficient on defense by making it tough for them to get quality shots. And we need to be efficient on offense where we're getting quality shots – and we need to make them and shoot a higher percentage."
 
(On Western Washington)
"They'll play inside, they'll stretch the floor and play outside. Every time we play Western, it's a close game, and it's going to be another one like that. It's a rivalry game, it's Senior Day for us, and it's fun having Senior Day against a team like that. We have to be ready for a tough, hard-fought game. You know it's going to be physical, you know they're going to attack you I the post, and they're going to try to hit open shots on you. You know what you're going to get. It's how we respond to those moments."
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
In the making
100th assist          Olivia Mayer (has 97)
                           Hailey Marlow (has 91)
100th point           Grace Leasure (has 98)
                           Haylie-Anne Ohta (has 81)
100th rebound      Lolo Weatherspoon (has 82)
1,000th point        Olivia Mayer (has 902)
 
Made last week
None

AROUND THE WEST
The big news out of the GNAC last week was Western Oregon shutting down the rest of its season because of undisclosed internal reasons. First, the school announced on Feb. 13 that it would not make the trip to Western Washington and Simon Fraser, and would forfeit those games. Then on Feb. 16, it announced that it was canceling the rest of its season. Teams still on the WOU schedule will pick up a forfeit victory that will count toward its GNAC record but not its overall record. Seattle Pacific already had finished its two-game season series against tthe Wolves. In fact, its 59-47 win in Monmouth on Feb. 10 turned out to be Western Oregon's final game.
 
The GNAC regular-season title is still up for grabs between Montana State Billings (22-4, 13-1 GNAC) and Western Washington (20-4, 13-2). Those teams clash on Thursday in Billings. Western won in Bellingham by a 76-68 count on Jan. 27. A Vikings victory would vault them into a half-game lead with two games left (visits to SPU and Simon Fraser) and give them a season series sweep. A Yellowjackets win would give them a 1½-game lead with three games to play (Simon at home and the Alaska trip next week). Both are in control of the top two seeds and corresponding first-round GNAC Tournament byes, and both also are very likely on their way to the NCAA West Regionals.
 
Cal State San Marcos is still atop the California Collegiate Athletic Association, but the Cougars (18-6, 15-4) have lost two in a row and have seen their lead shrink to just one game ahead of Chico State (18-7, 14-5). The losses were by a combined total of seven points at Cal State Los Angeles (79-75) and at Cal State Dominguez Hills (76-73). This week, it's Chico State's turn against those two teams, albeit it on the Wildcats' home court.
 
Azusa Pacific has clinched the Pacific West Conference regular-season title as its winning streak has reached 19. The Cougars 23-3, 17-0) had a close call at Biola last Saturday, escaping with a 50-47 win. Fresno Pacific (18-6, 12-4) has clinched a spot in the conference tournament and is close to wrapping up second place after a 65-61 win against third-place Dominican. The Penguins (18-7, 11-6) are now tied for third with Point Loma Nazarene (15-10, 11-6).
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons wind up the regular season next week in Alaska. They visit Anchorage on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. Pacific time, then are in Fairbanks on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. Pacific. They'll be joined on the trip by the SPU men, who tip off at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday in Anchorage and at 6:15 p.m. in Fairbanks.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                       GNAC          Overall
Montana State Billings    13-1      22-4
Western Washington        13-2      20-4
Alaska Anchorage           9-5      15-8
Central Washington         8-7      17-10
Simon Fraser               8-7      15-12
Seattle Pacific            7-7      10-14
Northwest Nazarene         6-9       9-13
Western Oregon             3-11     10-13
Saint Martin's             3-11      5-16
Alaska Fairbanks           2-12      4-20
 
 
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