Friday, November 30, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore. - Western Washington, Simon Fraser, Seattle Pacific and Montana State Billings will all be looking to complete conference opening weekend home sweeps Saturday.

The Vikings (5-0), who are ranked eighth nationally in the latest WBCA poll, host Saint Martin's (3-3) after defeating Western Oregon 77-54 Thursday, while Simon Fraser (7-1), which is ranked 16th nationally, entertains WOU (4-3) after disposing of the Saints 82-45.

Seattle Pacific (4-1) and Montana State Billings (5-2) entertain Central Washington (3-3) and Northwest Nazarene (5-1), respectively, after debuting with victories Thursday in their league openers.

The Falcons defeated Northwest Nazarene 76-69, handing the Crusaders their first loss in six games.  The Yellowjackets beat Central Washington 66-59 in their conference opener.

Making their conference debuts Saturday are Alaska Fairbanks (0-6) and Alaska Anchorage (3-2).  They play at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex in Anchorage.

Forward Sydney Donaldson keyed Western Washington's win Thursday scoring 16 points, grabbing five rebounds and also blocking three shots. Three players - Britt Harris, Corinn Waltrip and Trishi Williams - all had 12 points.

Erin Chambers led the Clan to their league-leading seventh win in eight starts scoring 24 points.  Chambers made four of eight three-pointers in the victory. 

SFU's Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe had her 46th career double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds).  That is two shy of the GNAC record of 48 set by Rebecca Kielpinski of Alaska Anchorage between 2005 and 2009.  Raincock-Ekunwe also added five steals as SFU swiped the ball 19 times.

Seattle Pacific got team highs of 18 points and seven rebounds from Katie Benson in its win.  Betsy Kingsma came off the bench to score 15 points, making three of four treys.  Rachel Murray had 12 points.  Megan Hingston led NNU with 19 points.

Bobbi Knudsen had 24 points and Janiel Olson had a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) in MSUB's win.  CWU was led by Jessica VanDyke, who made six of 11 three-pointers, with 26 points.