MONMOUTH, Ore. – The defense was stout. The comeback effort was there. Hunter Beirne hit a career milestone, and Madison Rubino did a little bit of everything.
 
At the end of the night, however, it didn't add up to enough points for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
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Beirne scored 17 points, including the 800th of her career, Rubino logged her first SPU double-double, and the Falcons limited Western Oregon to just 27.9 percent shooting, but still dropped a 58-53 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball decision to the Wolves on Thursday.
 
Junior center Rubino, in her first year with Seattle Pacific, had 12 points and tied her career high with 14 rebounds. She also had a career-high five blocked shots, and did it all in 31 minutes off the bench.
 
Senior wing Lolo Weatherspoon added 11 points for SPU (6-18, 0-11 GNAC).
 
Trailing by 17 at 44-27 late in the third quarter and still down 57-47 with 1:39 to go, the Falcons cut it all the way town to four at 57-53. But by then, just 15.1 seconds remained, and Western Oregon (8-12, 4-8 GNAC) effectively clinched it with one more free throw.
 
 

"We just decided there was nothing to lose, so we changed things up," coach Karen Byers said. "We put a zone on them for a little bit, we put a press on them for a little bit and just changed up the look of the game. That helped us with trying to come back."
 
The Falcons led just twice, both in the opening moments of the game. Western Oregon scored the last seven points of the first quarter to take an 18-8 advantage.
 
The Wolves expanded the lead to 29-13 late in the second quarter and were up 31-18 lead into the break by keeping SPU to its lowest-scoring half of the season.
 
The Falcons made their final comeback inside the final 90 seconds. Rubino started it with a free throw at the 1:08 mark. She then found a wide-open Grace Turley behind the arc at the left of the lane, and Turley delivered a 3-pointer to make it 57-51.
 
Enid Vaifanua missed a pair of free throws for the Wolves at 45.7 seconds. Weatherspoon's jumper was off the mark with 26 seconds left, but SPU immediately got the ball back on a turnover. Beirne tried to find an opening for a 3-pointer, it wasn't there, so she nailed a long two from the right of the lane for 57-53 with 15.1 seconds to go.
 
Forced to foul, the Falcons sent Salma Youngblood to the line at 11.8 seconds. Both of those shots missed, and Rubino rebounded. This time, Beirne did get a good look at a trey, but it did not fall.  Bella Pedrojetti hit one of her two free throws with 3.8 seconds showing to seal it.
 
Western Oregon's 27.9 shooting percentage (19 of 68) was the lowest by any Seattle Pacific opponent this season.
 
"We worked a lot on rebounding and defense, and it felt like our defense was good and was way more aggressive than we had been in the past," Byers said.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Madison Rubino's double-double was the fourth of her career. The other three game last year while she was with Cal Poly Humboldt. One of those was last Feb. 24 against Cal State Dominguez Hills and included her previous 14-rebound performance, which she matched on Thursday. "We needed her to rebound and she came out and rebounded, and put some points on the board, too," coach Karen Byers said. "You could tell she was our hardest worker tonight."
 

-- With her 17 points, Hunter Beirne now has 806 for her career, with 330 of those coming this season. She also picked up another four assists, giving her 84 for the year.
-- SPU's 44 rebounds tied for its second-highest total of the season. Along with Rubino's 14, Layne Kearns had nine, Beirne had eight, and Grace Turley pulled down a career-high five.
-- But Western Oregon grabbed 52 boards, with a 17-7 advantage at the offensive end. That led to a 16-7 margin in second-chance points.
-- Burying shots was a challenge for both teams. While the Wolves finished at 27.9 percent, Seattle Pacific wound up at 34.9 (22 of 63), and was at just 27.7 percent (13 of 47) through three quarters before hitting 9 of 16 (56.3 percent) in the fourth.
-- For the second straight meeting between these two teams, free throws made the difference. Western Oregon went to the line 27 times, hitting 15. SPU was 6 of 10. On Jan. 13 in Seattle when the Wolves won 78-67, they hit 21 of 34 foul shots; the Falcons were 8 of 9.
--Bella Pedrojetti led WOU with a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds. She was 10 of 11 at the line.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons visit Saint Martin's on Saturday in Lacey. Tip-off inside Marcus Pavilion is at 3:00 p.m. SPU is looking for a season split, as the Saints scored a 71-58 victory in Seattle on Jan. 9. Saint Martin's is coming off a 48-43 loss to No. 18 Montana State Billings on Thursday.

 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025
New P.E. Building / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Western Oregon 58, Seattle Pacific 53
 
SEATTLE PACFIC (6-18, 0-11 GNAC)
Weatherspoon 5-11 1-2 11, Biship 1-1 0-0 2, Turley 2-4 0-0 5, Beirne 8-18 0-0 17, Kearns 0-9 1-2 1, Rubino 5-12 2-4 12, Lavigne 0-1 0-0 0, Leasure 0-1 0-0 0, Ohta 1-5 0-0 3., Mertes 0-1 2-2 2.  Totals 22-53 6-10 53.
 
WESTERN OREGON (8-12, 4-8 GNAC)
Brown 3-11 0-4 6, Wells 1-9 1-2 4, Youngblood 2-13 3-6 8, Pedrojetti 5-16 10-11 22, Vaifanua 3-9 0-2 6, Thomas 5-8 0-0 11, Niu 0-0 0-0 0, Tau 0-0 1-2 1, Woods-Singleton 0-2 0-0 0, Badonie 0-0 0-0 0.  Totals 19-68 15-27 58.
 
Seattle Pacific                       8           10           14           21           -- 53
Western Oregon                   18           13           13           14           -- 58
 
3-point goals – SPU 3-21 (Weatherspoon 0-1, Turley 1-2, Beirne 1-7, Kearns 0-4, Rubino 0-1, Ohta 1-5, Mertes 0-1), WOU 5-19 (Wells 1-4, Youngblood 1-2, Pedrojetti 2-7, Vaifanua 0-3, Thomas 1-3.  Fouled out – SPU: Kearns.  Rebounds – SPU 44 (Rubibo 14), WOU 52 (Petrojetti 11, Vaifanua 10).  Assists – SPU 11 (Beirne 4, Kerans 4), WOU 7 (Vaifanua 4).   Turnovers (points allowed) – SPU 13 (11), WOU 9 (7).  Total fouls – SPU 21, WOU 12.  Technical fouls – None.  Attendance – 180.
 
 
Next game
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Saturday, 3:00 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.