GNAC Women's Basketball

Seattle Pacific Hands Northwest Nazarene One-Point Loss


Hoisington	Cabe

Megan Hoisington tied her career high with 17 points and also grabbed 15 rebounds and Maddie Maloney pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds as Seattle Pacific overcame an early 11-point deficit and hung on for a 63-62 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory against Northwest Nazarene Saturday afternoon at Brougham Pavilion.

The Falcons (17-3, 8-1), however, remained 1 1/2 games back of GNAC-leader Western Washington (19-2, 10-0) which got 26 points from Willow Cabe in remaining unbeaten in the conference in a 77-64 home win against Saint Martin's.

In other games, Western Oregon completed a season series sweep of Central Washington beating the Wildcats 69-58 at the New PE Building in Monmouth and Montana State Billings overcame a six-point deficit in the final minute to edge Alaska Fairbanks 61-60 on a rebound basket by Kayla Ryan at the buzzer.

Western Washington 77, Saint Martin's 64

Cabe's 26 points came on 10 of 16 shooting as the Vikings, who began the weekend tied with Seattle Pacific for 19th place in the WBCA national poll, extended their win streak to 10 with a 13-point victory. WWU is now 11-0 at home this season.

Forward Dara Zack had 19 points for Saint Martin's (8-12, 2-7) which has lost nine of its last 11 games.

Western took the lead for good less than eight minutes into the contest, but was ahead by just seven (60-53) with seven minutes remaining before breaking the contest open.

The Vikings scored seven points in 51 seconds to start a 13-3 run that gave them a 73-56 advantage with 3:40 to play. The margin was never less than 11 points after that.

Forward Jessica Summers had 15 points for the Vikings, who shot 51.6 percent (32-61) from the field, including 57.7 percent (15-26) in the second half. Western entered the game ranked No.6 nationally in NCAA II in field goal percentage at 48.1 percent.

Krissy Bassett had 11 points for Saint Martin's, which was six of 10 (60.0 percent) on three-pointers and 20 of 23 (87.0 percent) on free throws.

The 10 consecutive Western victories are the 20th double-figure winning streak in school history, and all 10 of the triumphs have been by double digits. Both of the Viking losses have been to nationally ranked teams.

Seattle Pacific 63, Northwest Nazarene 62

Seattle Pacific (17-3, 8-1) yielded the first 11 points of the game in its win, then turned that all the way around to lead Northwest Nazarene by 11 at 57-46 in the second half.

It was the second time this year SPU and NNU (14-6, 4-5) went down to the wire. The Falcons won 63-61 on a buzzer-beater by Daesha Henderson on Jan. 16 in Nampa, Idaho.

Five of NNU's defeats this season have been by six or fewer points and four have been by margins of three or less.

Its only double-digit defeat came Thursday at Bellingham to Western Washington (76-63) and the Crusaders had a 13-point first-half lead in that contest.

Hoisington came within one rebound of her career high of 16, while Maloney easily eclipsed her previous career high of six rebounds, which she set twice. Guard Nyesha Sims joined the two in double figures scoring 11 points.

The Crusaders were led by the 22 points of Brittney Roggenkamp. Roggenkamp made nine of 16 shots, including two of three treys.

Kristin Hein produced a double-double scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She also had two steals and two blocks.

NNU, which led 36-29 at halftime, held Seattle Pacific to just 18 field goals in 59 attempts (30.5 percent), but was outrebounded 50-40.

The Crusaders shot 35.8 percent (24-67) but had 15 fewer points from the foul line where they made only seven of 13. NNU began the week ranked third nationally shooting at a 79 percent clip.

Western Oregon 69, Central Washington 58

Katie Torland scored 16 of her game-high 29 points in the second half leading Western Oregon to a 69-58 home victory over Central Washington.

Torland made eight of 13 shots, including four of seven three-pointers as the Wolves (9-14) improved to 4-5 in the GNAC.

WOU, which led by a 45-38 count before Torland hit two three-pointers and one of two foul shots to stretch its seven-point margin to 12 at 52-40 with 7:14 remaining, led by a double-digit margin the rest of the way except for a few seconds.

In addition to Torland, Sara Zahler was also in double figures contributing 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds, four at the offensive end. Lorrie Clifford chipped in with seven points.

Sophie Russell led Central Washington (6-13, 3-6) with 17 points, 11 in the opening 20 minutes. The Wildcats also got 16 points on seven of 10 shooting from Shaina Afoa. Afoa was held scoreless Thursday by Seattle Pacific.

Central finished the game with a narrow 36.8 (21-57) to 36.4 (20-55) shooting advantage over Western Oregon, but the Wolves made seven of 24 three-pointers, while CWU was just one of eight.

The series sweep for the Wolves is their second over the Wildcats in the past three seasons.

Montana State Billings 61, Alaska Fairbanks 60

Only a 8-0 run in the final 44 seconds by the Yellowjackets kept Alaska Fairbanks from winning its first conference game since Mar. 8, 2008.

Trailing 59-53 after Jessica Harrison made two foul shots with 52 seconds left, MSUB cut that deficit in half with 44 seconds remaining on a three-point shot by Kalli Stanhope.

Alexandra Melonson then made one of two free throws, however Mandy Jacobs nailed a three with 35 seconds on the clock to cut the Nanook lead to one.

MSUB got the ball back with 13 seconds left after a miss by Ronisha Edwards. The 'Jackets missed two short shots before Ryan got the final offensive rebound and put the ball in the hoop for the game-winner.

Alaska Fairbanks (1-19, 0-9) has now lost 19 consecutive games this season and has a 25-game conference losing streak.

Ryan was one of two MSUB players to have double-doubles, finishing with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Callie Kautzmann led the 'Jackets with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Also in double figures were Stanhope with 13 points and Sarah McNamee with 10. Edwards paced UAF with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Lakeshia Levi had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double and Melonson had 13 points.

Alaska Fairbanks (1-19, 0-9) bounced back from a 28-17 first-half deficit putting itself in position to win its first conference game since defeating Seattle University nearly two years ago.

The Nanooks scored the last seven points of the first half to climb within 32-29 at the break and then outscored MSUB 15-3 to start the second half in opening up their biggest lead at 44-35.

Four Selected To Academic All-Region Team

Seattle Pacific's Daesha Henderson and Caitlyn Rohrbach have been named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic Women's Basketball All-District VIII team.

Henderson was a first team selection, while Rohrbach, who was a third team pick a year ago, and Grace Milliken of Alaska Fairbanks earned second team District VIII honors. Milliken has a perfect 4.00 GPA.

Kayla Ryan of Montana State Billings was a District VII first team pick and will join Henderson on the national ballot for All-America honors.

First Team - Kayla Ryan, MSUB (Education, Jr., 3.93, Big Timber, MT); Daesha Henderson, SPU (Biology, Sr., 3.49, Snohomish, WA). Second Team - Grace Milliken, UAF (Biological Sciences, Jr., 4.00, Healy, AK); Caitlyn Rohrbach, SPU (Psychology, Jr., 3.94, Edmonds, WA).

2009-10 GNAC Game Stories / GNAC Season Preview