Wednesday, December 10, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Three GNAC teams came out unscathed in the first week of the conference season.

Alaska Anchorage, which is ranked ninth in the USA TODAY Coaches Top 25 this week, improved to 7-0 overall after two road victories. The Seawolves took down the defending GNAC champions Montana State Billings 76-60 on Thursday then gave No. 21 Seattle Pacific its first loss of the season Saturday in route to its largest defeat of SPU ever, 85-58.

Central Washington is 2-0 in the conference for the first time since the 2005-06 season after wins against Saint Martin’s and Western Oregon. Coach Jeff Harada has the Wildcats streaking, winning five of their last six games while only losing to Division I Eastern Washington in that span.

Simon Fraser has only played one conference game so far, but it beat the defending GNAC tournament champions Western Washington 74-71. Forward Erin Chambers had a game high 23 points in the win. Chambers leads the nation in scoring at 25.6 points each game.

These three teams will hold the top spots in the GNAC rankings for the remainder of December as conference play doesn’t begin again until the New Year.

Even though the Falcons lost to ninth ranked Alaska Anchorage, SPU still moved up two spots in the top 25 poll to No. 21. The Falcons hosted Alaska on ROOT SPORTS opening night and handled the Nanooks 75-47.

Montana State Billings bounced back from an opening night conference loss to Alaska Anchorage with a 10-point win over Alaska. Kayleen Goggins and Alisha Breen combined for 25 of the teams 71 points.

Northwest Nazarene and Western Oregon each recorded their first conference wins of the year last week. Western Oregon beat NNU 70-68 while the Crusaders outscored Saint Martin’s 73-67.

Even though Western Washington and Alaska remain winless in conference, each team is above .500 overall.

The last month of non-conference games is upon us this holiday season as eight of the ten teams will be playing in tournaments next week.

Notes:

• Alaska Anchorage has won 10 straight home games dating back to last season.

• With Saturday's win against SPU, the Seawolves extended their streak to five straight games with wins over the Falcons.

• Seven of the 10 GNAC teams started conference play with .500 or better records 
   
• Alli Madison was awarded the GNAC Player of the Week after scoring 14 points in each win for the Seawolves.