SEATTLE – This week in Seattle Pacific University Athletics, the men's and women's basketball teams hit the road for more Great Northwest Athletic Conference games on Thursday and Saturday.

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Jan. 8 – 7:00 p.m.
at Western Washington – watch – live stats

Jan. 10 – 7:00 p.m.
at Simon Fraser – watch – live stats

FROM THE COACH
"Conference road games are always very challenging," head coach Keffrey Fazio said. "We will prepare to go give our best away from home. I was happy for our guys to find some success in our last game, and hopefully, we can build on it this week."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The Falcons return to GNAC play on New Year's Day, battling Saint Martin's before falling 73-67.
  • Brant Heppner led the Falcons in scoring with 15 points on five made 3-pointers.
    • Heppner shot 71.4 percent from 3-point range on Thursday evening.
  • Julian Mora scored 14 points, Trace Evans had 13, and Sandberg scored 12 points.
    • Evans added seven rebounds, two assists, and two blocks to his well-rounded performance.
  • Theo McMillan had a game-high nine assists for the Falcons against the Saints.
• The Falcons bounced back well last Saturday, beating Western Oregon 67-54.
  • The Falcons shot 54.9 percent (28-for-51) from the field on Saturday, with six made 3-pointers.
  • SPU out-rebounded WOU 33-25 in Saturday's game.
  • The Falcons dished out 14 assists to just six from the Wolves.
  • Evans was efficient for the Falcons, scoring a game-high 22 points on a 9-for-16 shooting performance.
    • He added a game-high eight rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal to his stat line.
  • Mora shot it well for SPU, scoring 13 points on a 5-for-8 shooting performance that featured two 3-pointers.
  • McMillan pulled down seven rebounds while making four field goals to finish with eight points and a team-high four assists.
• The SPU defense is holding opponents to 67.1 points per game, the third lowest in the GNAC.
• The Falcons lead the GNAC in team field goal percentage, hitting on 50.3 percent of their attempts.
  • They are the only team in the conference shooting 50 percent or better this season.
  • SPU is 10th in the country in team field goal percentage.
• The Falcons rank fifth in the country in effective field goal percentage, converting 59.8 percent of their total attempts.
• The Falcons are making 40.7 percent of their 3-point attempts and own the best 3-point field goal percentage in the conference.
• McMillan leads the Falcons and ranks ninth in the conference in rebounding with 6.2 rebounds per game.
  • He also ranks second in the league in assists with 5.3 per game.
• Henry Sandberg ranks fifth in the conference in field goal percentage, converting on 55.3 percent of his attempts.
  • Evans ranks sixth (54.2 percent) while McMillan is seventh (54.0 percent).

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Jan. 8 – 7:00 p.m.
at Saint Martin's – watch – live stats

Jan. 10 – 2:00 p.m.
at Western Oregon – watch – live stats

FROM THE COACH
"Looking ahead, this week we play two teams who are highly competitive and look to get the ball downhill," head coach Karen Byers said. "We will need our defense to travel with us and look to keep both teams from running up the score. We will continue to rely on our ball pressure and look for more opportunities in our offense."

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• The Falcons returned from the holiday break last Saturday, where they fell 58-45 to Montana State University Billings.
  • Cascadia Yates led the Falcons in scoring with 10 points, powered by a 6-for-6 performance from the free throw line.
    • Yates scored a career-high 10 points for the Falcons on Saturday, including her best free throw shooting performance for the Falcons with six attempts and six makes.
    • Yates also set a career high in rebounds with three on Saturday.
  • Grace Leasure scored eight points, while adding three rebounds, three assists, and six blocks to a solid all-around performance.
  • Grace Mertes and Haylie-Anne Ohta hit two 3-pointers each for the Falcons.
  • Layne Kearns and Madison Rubino tied for a team-high seven rebounds for the Falcons.
• The Falcons rank fourth in the GNAC in free throw percentage, hitting 71.7 percent of their attempts.
• Kearns ranks 15th in the GNAC in rebounding with 5.4 rebounds per game.
• Ohta ranks sixth in the GNAC in assists with 3.4 per game.
  • She also ranks third in the conference in steals with 2.4 per game.
• Leasure leads the league in blocks with 2.1 per game.
  • She's the only player in the GNAC averaging two or more blocks per game.

SPU SOCIAL

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