Tuesday, January 21, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – In a wide-open Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball race, four teams are tied for the top spot in the standings and two more are within one game of the leaders as the conference schedule reaches its halfway point this weekend.

Action set for Thursday could yield significant movement among the top spots, as Saint Martin’s plays at Montana State Billings and Alaska Anchorage at Western Washington as all four boast GNAC-best 5-2 conference records.

Alaska Anchorage continues to set the pace in the GNAC in scoring, as the Seawolves rank third in the NCAA in points per game with 87.5. UAA also ranks No. 3 in steals per game with 15.8 and turnover margin at plus 9.2, and No. 10 in assists per game with 18.2. Saint Martin’s remained in the top-10 across Division II in field goal percentage defense, checking in at No. 10 with a mark of 34.3.

Northwest Nazarene maintained its lofty free-throw percentage, as the Crusaders currently rank No. 3 in the NCAA with a mark of 79.0. Alaska Fairbanks is the premier team in the GNAC in terms of 3-point field goal defense, as it's mark of 24.1 ranks No. 6 across Division II.

Individually, the Seawolves’ Kiki Robertson kept up her NCAA-leading pace of 4.47 steals per game, and she also ranks No. 12 in assists per game with 5.5.

Erin Chambers of SFU is the conference’s top scorer as her 21.9 points per contest rank No. 15 in the NCAA. MSU Billings’ Bobbi Knudsen ranks sixth in Division II in assists per game with 5.9, and eighth in free-throw percentage at 91.4. Central Washington’s Ally Schmitt is also in the top-10 in assists per game, as her average of 5.7 ranks ninth.

RECAP

A GNAC-high 30 rebounds from Red Lion Player of the Week Sarah Hill helped Western Washington (9-6, 5-2 GNAC) win both of its games last week and extend its winning streak to a conference-best four straight. The Vikings defeated Western Oregon (5-10, 2-5) 78-58 on Thursday before pulling out a gritty 79-73 win over Saint Martin’s on Saturday in Lacey.

The Saints (11-5, 5-2) maintained a share of first place by narrowly defeating Simon Fraser (10-5, 4-3) 73-71 on Thursday and nearly overcoming WWU two days later. Angela Gelhar led the way for SMU with 28 points, and Megan Wiedeman was a jack-of-all-trades with 15 points, 11 rebounds five blocks and four steals on the weekend.

Knudsen continued her fabulous senior campaign, totaling 42 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists as the Yellowjackets (12-5, 5-2) beat Central Washington (6-10, 1-7) 72-44 in Ellensburg on Thursday and Northwest Nazarene (10-6, 3-5) 66-61 on their way back to Billings on Saturday. Janiel Olson and Chelsea Banis also had big weekends for MSUB, as Olson hauled in 28 rebounds and scored 24 points, and Banis came up one rebound shy of a double-double against NNU on Saturday with 13 points and nine rebounds. NNU senior Megan Hingston turned in a brilliant 30-point performance on Thursday in an 82-77 loss to Seattle Pacific, but was held to just two points in Saturday’s loss to the Yellowjackets.

SPU (11-4, 4-3) used 21-point games from Suzanna Ohlsen and Betsy Kingma to stave off Hingston’s incredible effort on Thursday, and then let Katie Benson take over with 23 points in a 73-65 win over Central Washington on Saturday. 

Alaska Anchorage (12-3, 5-2) relied on its potent offense to win its only game of the week, defeating in-state rival Alaska Fairbanks (8-7, 2-5) 96-87 on Saturday evening. A balanced attack featuring four players with at least 15 points was led by Robertson’s 19, and was enough to hold off two Nanook 20-point scorers including freshman Jordan Wilson’s phenomenal 22-point 16-rebound double-double. Kelly Logue scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds for UAF in the loss.

After a tough loss to the Saints on Thursday, Simon Fraser recovered with a 56-47 road win over Western Oregon (5-10, 2-5) on Saturday. Chambers paced the Clan with 36 points, and Rebecca Langmead came up big with 17 rebounds and 10 blocks on the weekend. The Wolves’ Dana Goularte kept her place as the No. 3 scorer in the GNAC as she turned in 28 points and added a dozen rebounds last week.