Tuesday, December 20, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. – Seattle Pacific women’s basketball won both of its games in the SPU Classic over the weekend, beating Concordia-Irvine and Nova Southeastern to earn the Red Lion/GNAC Team of the Week honor.

The Falcons opened the tournament with a 76-64 win over Concordia-Irvine on Friday. The win was the 400th in the 21-year career of SPU head coach Julie Heisey.

“I’ve been around a lot of great people,” Heisey said, reflecting on the 400 wins. “I’ve had great players and great coaches to help and people to believe in us. In my first year at Trevecca Nazarene, we went 4-24 and then the next year we were 15-14. When I got to SPU, there was already a winning tradition set. It was a privilege to come in and work with kids that loved to play and compete.”

Jordan McPhee led all scorers in the victory with 18 points, making both 3-pointers she attempted. There were 11 different players that recorded points for the Falcons, which improved to 3-0 against PacWest teams this season.

“I think our kids did a really good job and I’m proud of them,” Heisey said. “It was a hard game in some ways because we didn’t always match up well, but I liked the way we played.”

The following night, SPU took on Nova Southeastern, which entered the week ranked No. 1 in the South Region. Seattle Pacific defeated NSU 75-50 for its 10th consecutive win this season. It is the team’s best start to a season since 2007.

McPhee was again the team-leader in scoring for the Falcons with 13 points. She was named tournament MVP. Rachel Shim had three steals, leading the nation’s No. 1 defense. The Falcons have allowed only 48.8 points per game in their 10 wins, which leads NCAA Division II.

The Sharks only made 16 of 52 field goals against the Falcon defense, which ranks third in the nation in field-goal defense at 31.3 percent.

"Our defense was very good,” Heisey said. “I have to give credit to (assistant) coach (Mike) Simonson – he did a really good job of talking to people and finding out what the best way was to guard them, and our kids bought in.”

Seattle Pacific will return to action when GNAC play resumes on Dec. 29, hosting Central Washington. The Falcons are looking to remain one of three undefeated teams in conference play this year. They are also attempting to remain one of the 12 undefeated teams in NCAA Division II so far this season.