THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 8                 Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's, 7:00 p.m.
                                             Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 10                Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon, 2:00 p.m.
                                             New P.E. Building / Monmouth, Ore.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons have found plenty of success at home during the current women's basketball season.
 
Now, they need to do likewise on the road.
 
Coming off much-needed victories against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene last week in Brougham Pavilion, SPU goes searching for its first road win this week with visits to Saint Martin's on Thursday and Western Oregon on Saturday.
 
Tip-off in Lacey is at 7:00 p.m. Saturday's action in Monmouth starts at 2:00 p.m.
 
The only out-of-town victory for the Falcons this season was a neutral-court 58-53 decision against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Nov. 11 in Bellingham. They are 0-9 in true road games.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All GNAC games will have free live Webcasts and live stats. The appropriate links for this week's games can be found at the top of this story.
 
MAYER IS GNAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Falcons junior Olivia Mayer, who poured in a combined 52 points in the victories against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene, has been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's Player of the Week.
 
 

Mayer tallied 21 points to help beat Central Washington last Thursday, 76-65. She followed that with a career-high 31, the last two of which came with 51.9 seconds left to give the Falcons their first lead against Northwest Nazarene as they pulled out a 73-71 decision.
 
The 6-foot-1 forward, a junior who joined SPU this year after starring the past two seasons at Whitworth University in Spokane, logged her seventh double-double of the season in the Central game, grabbing 10 rebounds to go along with her 21 points. to help the Falcons down Central last Thursday, 76-65, grabbing 10 rebounds to go along with her 21 points.
 
Along with her 52 points for the week (an average of 26.0 per game), Mayer totaled 17 rebounds (8.5 per game). She shot .576 from the floor (19 of 33) and .846 at the free throw line (11 of 13).
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons will be going for a season series split against Saint Martin's The Saints won on Jan. 13 in Seattle, 55-52.
-- They already have secured splits against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene.
-- SPU will be seeking a season sweep at Western Oregon, having scored a 57-52 decision at home on Jan. 11. That would be the first sweep of the year
-- The last time the Falcons scored 70 points in consecutive games as they did last week (76 vs. Central Washington, 73 vs. Northwest Nazarene) was Dec. 31, 2022 when they beat Central in Seattle, 70-63, and Jan. 5, 2023 with a 70-61 win at Western Oregon.
-- SPU now has three games in the 70s this season and has won all of them.
-- It's not often that two players score 20 or more in the same game, but it happened last Thursday when Lolo Weatherspoon went for a career-high 26 and Olivia Mayer added 21  against CWU.
-- The last Falcon pair to pull that off was Ashlynn Burgess with 27 and Hailee Bennett with 23 in an 83-70 win at Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 4, 2020.
-- The 14-point deficit (63-49) that SPU overcame in the fourth quarter against Northwest Nazarene was its biggest comeback of the season. The Falcons rallied from 13 down to beat Westminster in a non-conference game, 57-43, on Dec. 29.
-- After five straight games of shooting below 40 percent from the field, Seattle Pacific was back above 40 in both games last week: 41.9 vs. Central Washington (26 of 62) and 45.3 vs. Northwest Nazarene (24 of 53). The percentage in the NNU game was its second-highest of the season, training only the .469 (23 of 49) vs. Alaska Anchorage in a 62-59 win on Dec. 2.
 

-- Although junior center Schuyler Berry scored just six points of her own against Northwest Nazarene, she had a hand in 11 other points with a career-high five assists. Her biggest one came on the pass to Layne Kearns breaking under the hoop for the game-winner with 1.8 seconds left. Berry's other four assists went to Mayer, which she converted into nine points.
--Speaking of assists, the Falcons had 13 in the NNU game, their highest total since racking up a season-high 16 at Stanislaus State on Dec. 14.
-- One of Olivia Mayer's seven double-doubles this winter was an 18-point, 10-rebound performance against Western Oregon in Seattle.
-- Prior to her career high of 31 last Saturday, Mayer's previous high in an SPU uniform was 25 in the Saint Martin's game on Jan. 13.
-- Of the career highs that she established in the different major statistical categories in two years at Whitworth, scoring is the first one that Mayer has broken in an SPU uniform. Others are 16 rebounds (13 for the Falcons), six assists (3), six blocked shots (4), and five steals (4).
-- Coach Mike Simonson's teams are 6-6 against Saint Martin's and 6-2 against Western Oregon.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS:  5-12, 3-7 GNAC (tie 8th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 59-23.  Current series streak: STM won 1.  Last time: STM 55, SPU 52 (Jan. 13, 2024 at Seattle).  Last SPU series win: SPU 71, STM 58 (Feb. 2, 2023 at Seattle).  Saints on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: Saint Martin's snapped a two-game losing streak by beating Western Oregon last Saturday, 73-58, leading for all but two minutes. Senior 5-foot-4 guard Anjel Galbreath is the only Saints player averaging in double figures at 11.9 points per game, but junior 6-1 forward Shalyse Smith is very close to that at 9.9 per game on a team-best .432 shooting from the field. She also pulls down 6.2 rebounds per game. Smith went off for 21 against SPU last month in Seattle, hitting 10 of 14 from the field, and was just one rebound away from a double-double. When Galbreath isn't scoring her own points, she's setting up others with a team-high 65 assists, an average of 3.8 per game that ranks No. 4 in the GNAC. She also comes up with 2.2 steals per game, the conference's fourth-highest average. Lauryn Morris, a redshirt junior 5-8 guard, leads Saint Martin's on the boards at 7.1 per game while also chipping in 8.5 points.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES:  10-11, 3-7 GNAC (tie 8th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 48-6.  Current series streak: SPU won 1.  Last time: SPU 57, WOU 52 (Jan. 11, 2024 at Seattle).  Last WOU series win: WOU 57, SPU 52 (Feb. 4, 2023 at Seattle).  Wolves on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: After a six-game winning streak that stretched from December into the new year, Western Oregon has lost six of its last seven. The one win during that stretch was an impressive one, 73-53 at Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 25. Senior 5-foot-9 guard Cali McClave continues to fill up the hoop for the Wolves, averaging 17 points per game to rank No. 5 in the GNAC. She went off for 23 of WOU's 52 points at Seattle Pacific last month. McClave also averages 4.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists (No. 7), and 2.4 steals (co-No. 2). Bella Pedrojetti, a junior 5-10 guard, averages 10.7 points per game. Sophomore 6-1 forward Kiylynn Dawkins tacks on 10.0 points, a team-high 6.7 rebounds, and has 15 blocked shots. A good chunk of the offense flows through junior 5-8 guard Trinity Youngblood with her average of 4.0 assists per game, No. 3 in the conference.
 
A MISHMASH IN THE MIDDLE
Heading into this week's schedule, Seattle Pacific is part of a four-way tie for fourth place in the GNAC standings. The Falcons, Central Washington, Northwest Nazarene, and Simon Fraser are all 5-6 in conference play. Since the top six finishers make the GNAC Tournament, one of those teams is likely to be the odd one out.
 
The first tiebreaker is always head-to-head competition. If it's more than two teams tied for a spot, then those teams' records against each other are compared.
 
At this point, not everyone has played the same number of games. But among the four currently tied teams, NNU is 3-1 (a split against SPU, wins against Central and Simon); Central is 2-2 (a split against SPU, a win against Simon, a loss to NNU), Seattle Pacific is 2-3 (splits against Central and NNU, a loss to Simon Fraser), and Simon is 1-2 (a win against SPU, losses to Central and NNU).
 
Simon Fraser visits Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene this week.
 
LOOK AT ALL THOSE POINTS
Just like that, the offense has started to click for the Falcons. After scoring 70 just once all season and in the 60s (61) just twice since the middle of December, SPU has 149 points in its past two games.
 
 

It started on Thursday when Lolo Weatherspoon cut loose with a career-high 26 to help beat Central Washington, 76-65. She got 15 of those 26 from behind the 3-point line, from where she drained a perfect 5 of 5. Her previous career high had been 14.
 
Olivia Mayer added 21 that night, then tallied even more with her career-high 31 on Saturday against Northwest Nazarene, a huge part of SPU's 73-71 win. Her previous career high was 29.
 
BUT WAIT … THERE'S MORE
-- With her 52 points for the week, Mayer bumped her season average up by more than a full point. She started the week at 13.9 per game and now is up to 15.1. Weatherspoon went up nearly a full point, from 6.0 to 6.9.
-- Weatherspoon's 26 was a single-game high for the Falcons this season until Mayer's 31.
-- The SPU player with 30-plus in a game was Ashley Alter with 31 against Central Washington on Dec. 31, 2022.
-- It'll take more than that to get onto the all-time single-game top 10. That benchmark is 34 by Shannon Holland (1981) and Cheryle Meppelink (1984).
-- The all-time high is 41 by Linnea Jarvits in 1995. That is the only 40-plus performance in program history.
 
 

SIMO SAYS …
(On Saint Martin's and Western Oregon)
"We have to be strong with the ball and take care of it, and we have to run good-quality offense because both teams are pretty good defensively. Going on the road, we have to be ready for physical battles, especially at Saint Martin's. They were physical here, so now, we know what the game is going to be like, and we have to prepare for that mentally. Western Oregon has a couple players who can really shoot the 3, so we have to be ready to guard those shooters and contest every shot."
 
(On the team's gradual progress)
"We're kind of growing up before our fans' eyes. When you're inexperienced, the first step is winning a game. It took us a little while to win and get some momentum, but you win a game. Then the next thing you know, it's a close game, and you win a close game. OK, so now, you have to get a come-from-behind win, and you do that. Then maybe you need a stop and a score to win a close game. Then you have to go win on the road, and hopefully, that can start happening this week and we get our first true road win. I think we're playing some of the best basketball we've played this year, so I'm excited to see what some of our best basketball looks like on the road."
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
100th assist          Olivia Mayer (93)
                           Hailey Marlow (has 88)
100th point           Grace Leasure (has 97)
                           Haylie Ohta (has 76)
100th rebound      Lolo Weatherspoon (has 79)
200th point          Hailey Marlow (has 196)
400th point          Hunter Beirne (has 382)
600th rebound     Olivia Mayer (has 598)
1,000th point       Olivia Mayer (has 845)
 
Made last week
100th point           Layne Kearns (has 104)
400th point           Schuyler Berry (has 404)
 
AROUND THE WEST
Western Washington and Montana State Billings started the second half of the GNAC schedule tied for first place after the Vikings beat the visiting Yellowjackets in Bellingham on Jan. 27. But now, Billings (19-4, 10-1) is back on top by itself after sweeping Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington at home last week while Western (17-4, 9-2) wound up with a split against the Alaska schools. The Vikings beat Fairbanks, 72-55, but dropped a 77-69 decision to Anchorage on Saturday. Western Washington visits NNU (8-10, 5-6) and Central this week (14-9, 5-6); Billings is at Western Oregon and Saint Martin's (both are 3-7 in conference play).
 
Cal State San Marcos still has a two-game lead on Chico State and is three up on Cal Poly Pomona in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. On Thursday, Chico (15-6, 11-4 CCAA) visits Pomona (14-6, 10-4). San Marcos (16-4, 13-2) and Pomona both have to tangle with the two teams tied for fourth place. The Cougars are home against Stanislaus State (13-12, 8-7), and Pomona hosts Humboldt (10-9, 8-7) on Saturday.
 
Azusa Pacific became the first West Region team to reach the 20-win mark as it maintained a comfortable margin atop the Pacific West Conference. The Cougars (20-3, 14-0) have won 16 in a row and are four games ahead of second-place Fresno Pacific (15-5, 9-3). Last Saturday at home, Azusa routed third-place Dominican, 82-53. However, it's still a battle for second place between the Penguins (16-5, 9-4) and Fresno heading into Saturday's contest between them on Dominican's home court.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons have a quieter week coming up with just one game, a visit to Montana State Billings next Saturday, Feb. 17. Tip-off is at 3:15 p.m. Pacific time. SPU will be looking to level that season series, as the Yellowjackets scored a 63-38 victory in Seattle on Jan. 20.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                         GNAC          Overall
Montana State Billings     10-1      19-4
Western Washington          9-2      17-4
Alaska Anchorage            7-4      13-7
Central Washington          5-6      14-9
Simon Fraser                5-6      13-11
Northwest Nazarene          5-6       8-10
Seattle Pacific             5-6       8-13
Western Oregon   `          3-7      10-11
Saint Martin's              3-7       5-12
Alaska Fairbanks            2-9       4-17
 
 
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