SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific University women's basketball team closed out the GNAC-CCAA Challenge against 17th-ranked Dominguez Hills on Saturday night, as the Falcons erased a 13-point halftime deficit to upset the Toros 64-61 inside Royal Brougham Pavilion.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Falcons went on a 12-5 run to close out the first quarter against the Toros.
  • Grace Mertes led the scoring during the run with three points.    
    • It was a balanced offensive attack, as four Falcons scored two points during that stretch.
    • The SPU defense suppressed the CSUDH offense to a 1-for-10 performance from the field during the final 5:31 of the first quarter.
• The second quarter belonged to the Toros, as they outscored the Falcons 19-6 over those 10 minutes.
• The SPU offense went cold in the second quarter, shooting 1-for-11.
  • Layne Kearns led the Falcons with four points, while Grace Turley sank a pair of free throws to make up the SPU scoring.
• The Toros held a 31-18 lead at halftime.
• The Falcons shrunk the Toros' lead to a 10-3 lead over the first four minutes of the third quarter.
  • Rubino sparked the run with back-to-back buckets.
  • SPU trailed by six at the end of the run.
• SPU closed out the final 2:33 of the third quarter with momentum on their side, outscoring the Toros 11-4 during that span.
  • The Falcons went 4-for-5 during that sport, with Grace Turley leading the way with five points.
• The Toros led 45-43 with 10 minutes left to play in the game.
• Kearns scored seven straight points for the Falcons to tie the game 50-50 with 5:26 left to play.
• Rubino scored four points in a row to give the Falcons the lead with 2:11 left in the game.
• In the final 1:50 of the game, the Falcons had a 9-4 run, led by four points from Turley, and two massive free throws from Kearns to seal the game and take it 64-61.

FROM THE BOX SCORE

• The Falcons shot 92.9 percent (13-for-14) from the free throw line against the Toros.
• Turley and Kearns tied for a game-high 17 points, and combined to go 10-for-10 from the free throw line.
• • Kearns added 11 rebounds to her 17-point performance for the Falcons for a double-double.
• Rubino went 8-for-13 from the field, scoring 16 points while grabbing nine rebounds in a stellar performance for the Falcons.
• Grace Leasure hauled in seven rebounds for the Falcons on

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Rubino set a new career-high with 16 points for the Falcons on Saturday night.
• Kearns came within a rebound of matching her career best of 12, set against Western Washington on Feb. 10, 2024.

UP NEXT
The Falcons play three games in three days, Nov. 20-22, in California. The weekend starts with a nonconference game against Occidental College on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 7:00 p.m. Then on Nov. 21-22, the Falcons play in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge at the CUI Arena in Irvine, CA.

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