Wednesday, December 31, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – GNAC conference play resumes this week as seven teams with winning records do battle on the hardwood.

Six of the nine conference matches will feature teams with .500 or better records.

On New Year’s Day, Central Washington will travel to Alaska and Montana State Billings will play Simon Fraser. Western Washington will try to avenge its home loss last year to Seattle Pacific on Jan. 1 as well.

The No. 3 team in the nation, Alaska Anchorage, will host Northwest Nazarene on Thursday before playing the countries 15th best defense in CWU Saturday.

Last year’s regular season champion and GNAC tournament champion will face each other Saturday as Western Washington hosts MSUB.

Nineteenth-ranked Seattle Pacific plays a tough road game against Simon Fraser to finish out the second week of the conference season.

Looking back at non-conference games in 2014, GNAC teams won 65 percent of them with a record of 57-31.

The GNAC finished strong winning two-thirds of its non-conference games in December including going 12-4 in the four tournaments played before Christmas.

Alaska, Alaska Anchorage, Montana State Billings, Saint Martin’s, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon and Western Washington all won or shared at least one tournament title.

Five players won MVP honors in these tournaments and Seattle Pacific’s Suzanna Ohlsen was the MVP at both the Sodexo Tip-off Classic and West Region Crossover Classic.

Two GNAC teams knocked off Division I opponents. Western Washington beat Portland State 75-64 the second week of December while Alaska Anchorage had two DI victories over Utah and Yale.

Five different conference teams were ranked in the top 10 in the West Region according to the D2SIDA poll at some point in 2014. Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific are currently 1-2 on the ballot.

Notes:

• Western Washington head coach Carmen Dolfo earned her 500th victory at WWU on Dec. 19 in a 71-50 win over Southern Indiana. Dolfo becomes the first women's coach in the Pacific Northwest to record 500 wins at a four-year institution.

• Reigning GNAC Player of the Week Dana Goularte became one of a seemingly ever growing list of players to reach 1,000 career points in 2014. She scored a career-high 27 points in the Wolves victory over Dixie State to become the third player this year to reach this landmark. Western Washington’s Katie Colard should become the next player to accomplish this as she is currently stands with 998 career points.

• Five GNAC teams currently have at least a two-game win streak. UAA’s 12 straight wins not only leads the GNAC, but the nation as well.
   
• MSUB's Alisha Breen was named to her second all-tournament team of the season, taking home MVP honors at the Yellowjacket Classic where MSUB went 2-0. The Yellowjackets are 5-1 in tournaments this season.