THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Feb. 20                Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 6:15 p.m. PST
                                                The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Feb. 22                Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 6:15 p.m. PST
                                                Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – For the final time this season, the Seattle Pacific Falcons will take flight.
 
And, their last trip just happens to be the longest one.
 
The Falcons head north to The Final Frontier this week, visiting Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday and No. 20-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. Both games tip off at 6:15 p.m. Pacific time as part of doubleheader openers that also involve the SPU men. Those contests both start at 8:30 p.m. PST.
 
Seattle Pacific's women (7-20, 1-13 GNAC) are coming off a split at home last week. On Thursday, they got into the GNAC win column by blowing out Northwest Nazarene, 93-70. But on Saturday, the Falcons fell to Central Washington, 75-64.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
This week's games and all remaining GNAC contests will have free live Webcasts on YouTube and free live stats. The appropriate links are at the top of this page.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- SPU has two wins out of town: a 75-65 true road win at Westminster, and a neutral-court 92-74 rout of Metro State (also at Westminster).
-- The game at No. 20 Alaska Anchorage on Saturday will be SPU's sixth against a ranked opponent this season. The others were Tampa, Gannon, Azusa Pacific, and Montana State Billings (twice). Cal State Dominguez Hills is now ranked No. 3, but was not ranked when the teams met on Nov. 9 in Carlson, Calif.
-- Last Thursday's victory against Northwest Nazarene snapped a 10-game losing streak for the Falcons.
-- SPU will be seeking to even it up against both teams this week. Fairbanks escaped with an 88-82 victory on Jan. 25, and Anchorage rolled to a 90-54 win on Jan.23.
-- Prior to that, the Falcons had defeated Fairbanks 13 straight times. The last win for the Nanooks had been in Alaska on Feb. 16, 2017.
-- After not having a quarter of 30 or more points since 2017, SPU has had two of them in the past month. Both were against Northwest Nazarene, and both were first quarters: 35 points in Nampa on Jan.18 and 33 in Seattle last Thursday.
-- Huge free throw discrepancies went both ways for the Falcons last week. In the NNU game, SPU was 29 of 32 at the line (season highs in both makes and attempts); the Nighthawks were just 7 of 9. Then on Saturday against Central Washington, the Wildcats drained 26 of 33 (season highs for an opponent's makes and attempts), Seattle Pacific just 8 of 11.
--The Falcons have had two games this season with two players scoring 20-plus points, and one of those was the Jan. 25 home contest against UAF. In that one, junior center Emelia Bishop went for 27 and Hunter Beirne poured in 20.
 

-- In fact, that was the biggest game of Bishop's career with a double-career high double-double: 27 points and 15 rebounds. She hit 10 of 19 from the floor that day, and 11 of her 15 boards were at the offensive end.
-- Bishop led the way against Anchorage with 15 points and seven rebounds.
-- Speaking of 20-point performances, Destiny Reimers had one for the Nanooks with 28 on 13-of-28 shooting. She also had a double-double, pulling down 10 rebounds.
-- The Seawolves forced Seattle Pacific into 34 turnovers in January, of which 22 were steals.
-- They're still forcing an average of 26.6 turnovers per game, with 17.88 steals.
-- The Falcons are shooting a season-high .729 at the foul line. That's a jump of 86 percentage points from their low-water mark of .643 through games of Nov. 29.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 6-16, 1-13 GNAC (tie 9th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 70-17.  Current series streak: UAF won 1.  Last time: UAF 88, SPU 82 (Jan. 25 at Seattle).  Last SPU series win: SPU 72, UAF 64 (March 2, 2024 at Fairbanks). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Since winning at Seattle Pacific in January, UAF has dropped five straight, the last three of those on the road. Senior 5-foot-9 guard Destiny Reimers is the only Nanook averaging in double-digits, as she scores at a 14.1 clip. She also leads the way on the boards at 6.1 per game. Junior 5-5 guard Miranda Lomax averages 9.5 points per game and is a respectable shooter from 3-point range at .345 (38 of 110). Senior 5-5 guard Taylor Pilot chips in 8.5 points and is the leading playmaker for Fairbanks with 70 assists. Emily Freeman, a junior 5-6 guard, is a threat from downtown because that's where she takes nearly all of her shots. All 44 of her made field goals and 126 of her 132 shots have come from behind the arc.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 22-3, 13-1 GNAC (1st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 43-31.  Current series streak: UAA won 4.  Last time: UAA 90, SPU 54 (Jan. 23 at Seattle). Last SPU series win: SPU 62, UAA 59 (Dec. 2, 2023 at Seattle). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage is the epitome of a balanced team, with five players averaging in double figures. None of those five are among the GNAC's top 10 scorers, but all of them can fill up the hoop. Senior 6-foot-3 forward / center Tori Hollingshead leads the way at 13.2 points per game, ranking No. 13 in the conference. Junior 5-8 guard Elaina Mack and senior 5-9 guard Emilia Long are both at 12.5 points, senior 5-6 guard Jazzpher Evans chips in 10.5, and freshman 6-1 forward / center Ashlyn Rean averages 10.2. Hollingshead grabs a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game and Rean is right behind at 6.7. Long has an unusual kind of triple-triple: 312 points (tied with Mack for the team lead), 126 assists and 111 steals (leading the GNAC in the latter two categories).
 
PASSING HER WAY TO CENTURY MARK
A full decade after they had their last triple-digit playmaker, the Falcons have another one.
 
 

Fifth-year point guard Hunter Beirne reached 100 assists for the season last Saturday at home against Central Washington. She came into the game with 97 and picked up No.100 when she found Madison Rubino for a jumper on the right side of the foul line with 4:40 left in the second quarter.
 
Beirne finished the game with six assists, putting her at 103 with four games remaining. It was just one week earlier on Feb. 8 at Saint Martin's when she dished a career high 10 as part of her first college double-double (the other half of which was 11 points).
 
SPU's last player with 100-plus helpers in a season was Suzanna Ohlsen in 2014-15. She had 110 that year, her second straight year in triple digits. Ohlsen had 101 the previous season and finished her career with 338. Beirne has 273.
 
SENIOR DAY SET FOR MARCH 1
The season finale against Simon Fraser in Brougham Pavilion next Saturday at 2:00 p.m. will be Senior Day.
 
The Falcons will honor point guard Hunter Beirne, wing Peyton Bergevin, center Schuyler Berry and wing Lolo Weatherspoon.
 
Beirne is in her fifth year, having received an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic shutdown in 2020-21. She is leading the team in points and assists.
 
Bergevin is a grad student in her first year with the Falcons after playing four seasons at Linfield. She also received an extra year of pandemic-related eligibility, but has seen limited action this season because of an injury.
 
Berry made her mark in the middle for Seattle Pacific. She is a two-time member of the Preseason All-GNAC team. She played in every game as a sophomore and junior, and started 16 of her 17 games this winter before an injury shut down her season.
 
Weatherspoon became a regular starter last season and worked her way back into the starting five this season. Heading into this week, she is averaging career-bests of 8.9 points and 3.3 rebounds.
 
FALCONS REPLAY
--Hunter Beirne in 26 points, Layne Kearns double-doubled with a career-high 20 points plus 11 rebounds, and SPU notched its first GNAC victory of the season, rolling past Northwest Nazarene last Thursday night, 93-70.
 --The Falcons effectively slowed down the nation's top long-range shooting team, but couldn't keep them off the foul stripe and dropped a 75-64 decision to Central Washington last Saturday.
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
100th steal     Hunter Beirne has 89
200th point     Haylie-Anne Ohta has 176
200th rebound   Lolo Weatherspoon has 182
400th rebound   Hunter Beirne has 386
500th point     Lolo Weatherspoon has 492
 
Made last week
200th point     Grace Leasure has 200
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage (22-3, 13-1 GNAC) has a one-game lead on Montana State Billings (23-4, 12-2 GNAC) with four games left in GNAC play. Those two teams meet Thursday night at UAA. If the Seawolves win, that would put them two games up with three left. If the Yellowjackets win, the teams would be tied and MSUB would own the tiebreaker by virtue of having swept the season series. (Billing won at home, 70-55, on Jan. 25). Central Washington (18-6, 11-4 GNAC) and Western Washington (15-9, 10-5) have clinched GNAC Tournament berths.
 
Cal State Dominguez Hills (26-0, 18-0) has all but officially wrapped up the California Collegiate Athletic Association title with four games left. The Toros have a three-game lead on second-place Cal Poly Pomona (20-4, 15-3) and swept the two-game season series. Chico State (18-6, 13-5) is in third and is definitely in the conversation for an NCAA West Regional bid.
 
The Pacific West Conference title is still up for grabs. Point Loma Nazarene (19-5, 14-2) is half a game ahead of Azusa Pacific (20-4, 14-3) and is one game up on Vanguard (15-7, 13-3).  A huge shakeup is possible this week as the Sea Lions visit Azusa on Wednesday and host Vanguard on Saturday. Dominican (19-9, 13-4) is on the cusp.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons wrap up the season next week at home against Western Washington on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Simon Fraser on Senior Day Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                       GNAC      Overall
Alaska Anchorage          13-1    22-3
Montana State Billings    12-2    23-4
Central Washington        11-4    18-6
Western Washington        10-5    15-9
Northwest Nazarene         8-7    14-10
Saint Martin's             7-7    14-8
Simon Fraser               5-10   12-12
Western Oregon             4-10    8-14
Alaska Fairbanks           1-13    6-16
Seattle Pacific            1-13    7-20
 

SPU SOCIAL

• X - @SPUSports & @SPUWBB
• Instagram - @SPUSports & @SPUWBB
• Facebook - /SPUSports

Seattle's only NCAA Division II Scholarship Program | #GoFalcons