SEATTLE – This time, the Seattle Pacific Falcons made sure the lead was big enough.
 
They made sure to stick to their game plan for all 40 minutes.
 
They made sure the final result …
 
… went into their win column.
 
Hunter Beirne poured in 26 points, Layne Kearns double-doubled with a career-high 20 points plus 11 rebounds, and SPU notched its first Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball victory of the season, rolling past Northwest Nazarene on Thursday night, 93-70.
 
"I'm just so proud of the girls – it's a relief," coach Karen Byers said. "We knew we had it in us; we knew we were working toward the right things
 
"It just all lined up, and it feels wonderful."

 

Lolo Weatherspoon and Madison Rubino added 14 points apiece for the Falcons (7-19, 1-12 GNAC), who snapped a 10-game losing streak. One of those 10 was an 88-84 loss at NNU on Jan. 18 in Nampa after Seattle Pacific had built a 17-point lead early in the second quarter.
 
On Thursday, the Falcons again were up 17 early in the second period, and by the exact same score – 38-21. But they kept piling up the points. By halftime, the difference was 27 at 59-32. The Nighthawks (14-9, 8-6 GNAC) tightened up defensively coming out of the break and put on full-court pressure, but still never cut the margin any lower than 16.
 
 

"That felt good. I thought we did a good job of clock management and knowing what our goals were, especially going into the fourth quarter," Beirne said. "We did a good job of executing that and being on the same page; We had our lead, we wanted to maintain our lead and didn't want to let them back in – use the whole shot clock and get a good look, not just an OK look, and continue to get stops on defense."
 
For SPU, this one was a long time coming. It has played stretches of good basketball in almost every game, including that one at Northwest Nazarene, or the following week at home against Alaska Fairbanks (the Nanooks won by six), or the week after that at home against nationally ranked Montana State Billings (the Yellowjackets had to come from behind in the fourth quarter to pull out a 77-67 win).
 
The results just hadn't gone the Falcons' way.
 
Until Thursday.
 
 

"Our team has shown so much growth each game just kind of putting it all together and knowing that defense is where need to home in on," Weatherspoon said. "I think we did a great job and played so fundamentally sound on both ends of the court."
  
SPU trailed just twice, both in the opening moments of the game. A 9-2 run turned a 4-2 deficit into an 11-6 lead.
 
It was tied just once after that at 19-19. The Falcons than ran off 11 straight on lay-ins by Rubino and Grace Leasure, a 3-pointer and a steal for a coast-to-coast lay-in by Beirne, and another lay-in by Rubino to make it 30-19.
 
Kearns drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, stretching the lead to 33-21 at the end of the quarter. That actually was the start of a 17-0 scoring burst that extended through almost the first four minutes of the second quarter as SPU more than doubled up on the Nighthawks 47-21.
 
Northwest Nazarene rang up 10 straight points early in the third quarter. By the end of that period, the Falcons had stretched it back out to 21 at  74-53, and they were never really in danger throughout the final 10 minutes.
 
 

"We started really well against them, but I never felt safe," Byers said. "Even when we were up by so much, we can't let up – they're such a good team and they can get back in it.
 
"We stuck to our plan, we played our basketball, and we didn't change how we wanted to play to fit them," she added. "We decided we were going to do us and going to run, and let's see what happens."


BY THE NUMBERS
-- The 33-point first quarter was just two short of the 35 the Falcons scored in the opening period at Nampa last month. That makes a pair of 30-point quarters in the past month – both against NNU – after having previously gone seven years (January 2018) without a 30-pointer.
-- The difference this time was the second quarter. In Nampa, the Falcons scored just six points as the Nighthawks started to climb back in from 17 down. On Thursday, the put up 26 in the second and limited the visitors to 11.
-- SPU hit a remarkable 29 of 32 (90.7 percent) at the free throw line. The attempts and makes were both season highs (22 of 28 against Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 25).
-- Grace Turley (7 of 7), Madison Rubino and Layne Kearns (both 4 of 4), Emilia Bishop and Haylie-Anne Ohta (both 2 of 2) were all perfect at the line.
-- The Falcons got five and-one opportunities and made good on all of them. In addition, Turley made all three attempts on a three-shot foul.
-- Northwest Nazarene got just nine free throws, hitting seven.
-- The 93 points was a season high, topping a 92-74 victory against Metro State on Dec. 21.
-- Seattle Pacific shot 46.2 percent from the field (30 of 65), and limited Northwest Nazarene to 39.4 percent (28 of 71).
-- Kearns' previous double-double was 16 points and a career-high 12 rebounds at Western Oregon last Feb. 10 in Monmouth. Her previous career scoring high was 18 this past Nov. 30 against Colorado Christian.
-- Hunter Beirne had three assists, giving her 97 for the season. That tops her previous single-season best of 95 from 2022-23.
-- She now has seven games of 20-plus points this season, including a career-high 30 on Jan. 16 at Central Washington.
-- Madeline Gebers led NNU with 17 points. The Falcons clamped down on Kendall Clark, limiting her to just six points. She averages 16.1.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons host Central Washington on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. in the second half of a doubleheader. The Wildcats lost at Montana State Billings on Thursday, 66-61.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 90, Northwest Nazarene 73
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (14-9, 8-6 GNAC))
Kendall Clark 3-7 0-2 6, Waid 4-54-4 12, Gebers 6-16 1-1 17, Deharo 4-10 2-2 11 Kate Clark 3-5 0-0 6, Davis 3-7 0-0 6, Starr 0-6 0-0 0, Clemons 0-0 0-0 0, Bruegman 3-5 0-0 8, Wells 1-5 0-0 2, Edlefson 1-5 0-0 2, Lee 0-0 0-0 0.  Totals 28-71 7-9 70.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (7-19, 1-12 GNAC)
Weatherspoon 6-10 2-3 14, Rubino 5-9 4-4 14, Turley 0-3 7-7 7, Beirne 8-18 8-10 26, Kearns 7-16 4-4 20, Bishop 2-5 2-2 6, Leasure 1-3 0-0 2, Ohta 1-1 2-2 4, Mertes 0-0 0-0 0.  Totals 30-65 29-32 93.
 
Northwest Nazarene           21           11            21           17           -- 70
Seattle Pacific                     33           26           15           19           -- 93
 
3-point goals – NNU 7-22 9Gebers 4-9, Deharo 1-2, Kate Clark 0-1, Starr 0-2, Bruegman 2-4, Edlefsen 0-3), SPU 4-12 (Weatherspoon 0-1, Turley 0-2, Beirne 2-5, Kearns 2-4)..  Fouled out – NNU: Waid.  Rebounds – NNU 34 (Starr 5), SPU 43 (Kearns 11).  Assists – NNU 9 (Deharo 2, Starr 2), SPU 13 (Beirne 3).  Turnovers (points allowed) – NNU 21 (18), SPU 21 (17).  Total fouls – NNU 25, SPU 13.  Technical fouls – None.  Attendance – 114.
 
 
Next game
Central Washington at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, 4:15 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.