SEATTLE – Nobody saw that coming.
 
Nobody, that is, except coach Mike Simonson, Hailey Marlow, Schuyler Berry …
 
… and Layne Kearns.
 
Freshman guard Kearns hit a dramatic reverse lay-up with 1.8 seconds left on Saturday afternoon, and the Seattle Pacific Falcons completed a fourth-quarter comeback to pull out a 73-71 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball victory against Northwest Nazarene in Brougham Pavilion.
 
SPU (8-13, 5-6 GNAC), coming off a 76-65 victory against Central Washington on Thursday night, never led in Saturday's game until Olivia Mayer hit a turnaround 12-footer with 51.9 seconds left for the last of her career-high 31 points and a 70-69 Falcons edge. Hailey Marlow hit one of two free throws at 27.8 seconds to make it 71-69, then NNU's Kate Clark tied it on a pair from the foul line at 17.1 seconds left.
 
Coming out of Seattle Pacific's final timeout, Kearns inbounded from the left side directly in front of the bench to Marlow. She dribbled the ball near the center circle as the seconds ticked away. Kearns, still near the bench, then broke across the top of the key, all the way to the far side, got a step on Nighthawks defender Cami Knishka, then cut under the hoop, wide open.
 
While she was doing that, Marlow sent the ball to Berry who was positioned at the foul line. Berry caught it and in the same move spun around and whipped a hard pass to Kearns, who pulled it in on the run and went up for the right-handed reverse.
 
 

"Originally, I think the play was supposed to be an iso to Olivia, and then at six seconds (left), pass the ball to Sky, and I'm supposed to cut and go to the basket," Kearns said. "That's not really the look (the reverse lay-up) that was drawn up, but it was luckily open, and we got the finish."
 
Kearns added that she knew the shot was going in, saying, "It definitely felt good."
 
The clock stopped at 1.8 seconds, and the officials came to the scoretable for a video review to see if any time needed to be added back. Northwest Nazarene was out of timeouts, so had to inbound from backcourt, and the only shot the Nighthawks could manage was a heave from just over the midcourt line on the right side that fell way short at the buzzer.
 
"That's a play we've been practicing for moments like this because we wanted to execute better down the stretch in close games," Simonson said. "We practiced that play today in shootaround in case we needed it. NNU did a good job of kind of blowing it up a little bit, but we got one of the shot we wanted. There are few options on that play and we got one of them."
 




RGHT IN THE THICK OF IT
With two wins this week, Seattle Pacific is now very much back in the picture for a spot in the GNAC Tournament. The top six teams at the end of the regular season qualify. The Falcons started the week as part of a three-way tie for sixth place in the conference standings with Simon Fraser and Western Oregon.
 
Now, it's SPU, Simon, Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene all tied for fourth place at 5-6.
 
 

"Protecting our homecourt in this conference is huge," Simonson said. "We want to make the conference tournament, which would be a huge success for this young team that we have. Playing our best basketball late in the season is what we want to be doing."
 
The Falcons started the fourth quarter down 60-49, and that deficit immediately grew to 14 points when Emma Clark buried a 3-pointer from the right side for a 63-49 lead.
 
It was still double-digits at 65-55 when Clark drove for a lay-in with 7:28 to play. That's when SPU started a 9-0 run. Mayer got it going with a 3-pointer, then moments later hit two free throws, narrowing the gap to 65-60. Marlow hit a free throw, Mayer had a wide-open lay-in on a nifty pass from Berry, then Marlow hit another free throw, making it 65-64 with 3:51 to go.
 
The Nighthawks twice stretched it back to three, the last time at 69-66 with 1:49 on the clock. Mayer drained another two free throws at 1:34, again bringing SPU within one at 69-68; Then came the sequence inside the final minute that Mayer started with that mid-range jumper for the first lead of the night.
 
 

That particular basket established Mayer's new career high. Her previous high was 29 while she was playing for Whitworth in a game at Pacific Lutheran on Dec. 3, 2022. For the game, Mayer hit 12 of 17, with 2 of 4 from behind the arc and 5 of 7 at the foul line.
 
"Olivia was incredible. She was just the hot hand we could keep going to," Simonson said. "There was a time when she just flipped a switch mentally and she just took her game to the next level. Scoring 31 against a team that is pretty good defensively like NNU shows what a quality player she is."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- SPU outscored Northwest Nazarene by a 24-11 margin during the fourth quarter, including 18-6 in the final 7½ minutes after being down 65-55.
-- Along with her 31 points, Olivia Mayer grabbed a team-high seven of Seattle Pacific's 34 rebounds.
-- The Falcons shot 45.3 percent for the game (24 of 53), its second-highest mark of the season, exceeded only by 46.9 percent against Alaska Anchorage on Dec. 2.
-- Schuyler Berry's five assists – the last of which came on the game-winning basket – topped her previous career high of three.
-- Free throws can win it or lose it, and that was a significant factor in SPU's favor, as it hit 20 of 27, with 8 of 12 during the fourth quarter. Northwest Nazarene, which had five more field goals, was just 9 of 19 at the line, 4 of 10 during the fourth.
-- Madeline Gebers led the Nighthawks with 14 points. She came into the game as the national Division II leader from 3-point range at 51.7 percent. But the Falcons limited her to just 2 of 10 downtown.
 
UP NEXT
SPU takes a crucial two-game road trip next week, visiting Saint Martin's on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Western Oregon next Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Both are 3-7, sitting 1½ games behind the current quad of fourth-place teams.


 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday Feb. 3, 2024
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 73, Northwest Nazarene 71
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (8-10, 5-6 GNAC)
Kendall Clark 5-7 0-0 10, Gebers 5-17 2-2 14, Bruegman 1-5 0-0 2, James 1-7 2-5 4, E. Clark 3-5 1-3 8, Kate Clark 2-3 2-3 6, Knishka 2-7 0-0 5, Davis 5-6 2-2 12, Waid 5-9 0-4 10.  Totals 29-65 9-19 71.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (8-13, 5-6 GNAC)
Weatherspoon 1-6 0-0 2, Mayer 12-17 5-7 31, Berry 1-9 4-5 6, Ohta 3-4 1-1 9 Beirne 4-7 3-4 11, Kearns 2-3 2-2 6, Marlow 1-4 3-6 6, Bishop 0-1 2-2 2, Carlisle 0-2 0-0 0, Leasure 0-0 0-0 0.  Totals 24-53 20-27 73.
 
Northwest Nazarene         21           17           22           11           -- 71
Seattle Pacific                    16           17           16           24           -- 73
 
3-point goals – NNU 4-20 (Gebers 2-10, James 0-3, E. Clark 1-2, Kate Clark 0-1, Knishka 1-3, Davis 0-1), SPU 5-14 (Weatherspoon 0-2, Mayer 2-4, POhta 2-3, Beirne 0-2, Marlow 1-3).  Fouled out – None.  Rebounds – NNU 36 (E. Clark 6), SU 34 (Mayer 7).  Assists – NNU 10 (Kendall Clark 3), SPU 13 (Berry 5).  Turnovers (points allowed) – NNU 13 (13), SPU 17 (19).  Total fouls – NNU 24, SPU 20.  Technical fouls – None.  Attendance – 193
 
 
Next game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Thursday, Feb. 8     7:00 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.


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