Saturday, February 25, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – The final three spots in the GNAC Women’s Basketball Championships were secured on the final day of the regular season with Northwest Nazarene, Central Washington and Seattle Pacific booking their spots in the six-team tournament to be played in Lacey, Wash., Mar. 2-4.

The GNAC regular season champion for a third consecutive season, Alaska Anchorage will be the tournament’s No. 1 seed after wrapping up the first 20-0 conference record in GNAC history. At 18-2, Western Washington will be the No. 2 seed. Both teams will receive a first-round bye.

Back in the tournament for a sixth consecutive year, Simon Fraser is the No. 3 seed with a 15-5 record. The Clan will play No. 6 seed Central Washington, which finished the regular season winning six of seven games. That run started with an overtime victory at Simon Fraser on Feb. 4. The Wildcats earned the No. 6 seed based on the GNAC tiebreaker rules thanks to that overtime win against the Clan just a few weeks ago. The first quarterfinal game will be played at noon (Pacific) on Thursday.

Northwest Nazarene earned the No. 4 seed with a win in the regular season finale against Montana State Billings based on the GNAC tiebreaker rules. It is the Crusaders' second consecutive year reaching the conference tournament and they will face No. 5 seed Seattle Pacific at 2:15 p.m. (Pacific) on Thursday. The Falcons return to the tournament for the fifth time in program history with their win against Western Oregon.

Northwest Nazarene was the first team to beat Seattle Pacific this year, ending the Falcons’ 11-game winning streak. The Falcons then defeated NNU in the second meeting with a 68-63 win in Nampa, Idaho.

The semifinals will be played on Friday with Western Washington playing the winner of Simon Fraser and Central Washington at noon. Alaska Anchorage will look to continue its program-record 23-game winning streak at 2:15 p.m. against the winner of Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene.

The championship game is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. on Saturday and the winner will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA West Regional tournament.

The tournament is being held in conjunction with the GNAC Men's Basketball Championships.

To order tickets online, click on this link.

GNAC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Marcus Pavilion, Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, Wash.

Thurs., Mar. 2
No. 3 Simon Fraser vs. No. 6 Central Washington, 12:00 p.m.
No. 4 Northwest Nazarene vs. No. 5 Seattle Pacific, 2:15 p.m.

Fri., Mar. 3
Winner of 3/6 Game vs. No. 2 Western Washington, 12:00 p.m.
Winner of 4/5 Game vs. No. 1 Alaska Anchorage, 2:15 p.m.

Sat., Mar. 4
Championship Game, 5:15 p.m.