Box score, play-by-play
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Humboldt State cruises past C. Washington in Sodexo
SEATTLE -- While Daesha Henderson has been lighting up the board, Melissa Reich has been crashing the boards for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
Henderson rang up 25 points on Friday night, and Reich pulled down nine rebounds as SPU rolled past Colorado Christian in its opening game of the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic in Brougham Pavilion, 90-53.
Junior center Reich (Bothell, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) added 13 points. Senior guard Henderson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) hit 9 of 13 from the floor, including 6 of 8 from 3-point range. She also tallied seven assists, three rebounds and two steals as the Falcons (1-0) won their official season opener.
“(Rebounding) definitely has been a focus of mine,” the 6-foot-2 said Reich, who collected a combined 18 boards in SPU’s two exhibitions earlier this month. “I’ve been working real hard on reading the ball better and looking for my shot and following the ball. The coaches have been emphasizing crashing the boards on every shot.”
Added Falcons coach Julie van Beek, “Melissa has been super consistent on rebounding. She has done a good job defensively, and she has been playing a real well-rounded game.”
Seattle Pacific concludes Sodexo play on Saturday when it takes on West Region rival Humboldt State at 5 p.m. The Lumberjacks rolled past Central Washington in Friday’s opening game, 88-72, getting five players into double-figure scoring.
Falcons senior forward Sydney Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) had 12 points and seven rebounds on Friday, and senior forward Megan Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS) chipped in 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals.
SPU scored the first four points of the game and never trailed. Colorado Christian (0-3) didn’t get into double digits until 8:23 remained in the opening half when Bre McBeth drained a 3-pointer to make bring the Cougars within 27-11.
The Falcons had a commanding 41-24 lead at halftime and never let the Cougars get closer than 15 points during the second half.
“I loved the fact that we played great defense and that our intensity was there for 40 minutes,” van Beek said. “We didn’t always execute well, but even in the last five minutes, we were still playing hard.
“The other thing I really liked was our rebounding,” she added. “We were only up by one rebound at halftime (18-17), and in the second half, we were able to out-rebound them by about 20.” (SPU had a 51-28 advantage at game’s end.)
The Falcons came into their official season opener after splitting a pair of exhibition games. They took down defending NCAA Division III champion George Fox last Friday in Brougham, 62-55, bouncing back from their earlier 68-61 loss at Washington.
Seattle Pacific shot 46.1 percent (35 of 76), and was 50 percent from behind the 3-point arc on Friday (12 of 24). Colorado Christian shot 37.7 percent (20 of 53), and was just 7 of 24 (29.2 percent) from long range.
“I’m really pleased with our 3-point shooting. I hope we can keep that up,” van Beek said. “Daesha has really improved that area of her game, and that’s a big deal.”
Added Reich, “We definitely utilized the in-and-out game a lot better. We’ve been working a lot in practice on getting the ball into our posts. We were able to utilize our posts and guards a lot more. And everyone brought a lot of intensity on and off the bench.”
Jodie Krall led Colorado Christian with 12 points, and Juanise Cornell added 10.
Van Beek is looking forward to the early-season match-up against Humboldt State. The teams met in last year’s NCAA West Regional semifinals in Brougham, with the Falcons prevailing, 74-56.
“It’s exciting. Humboldt is a very good team,” van Beek said. “They have four returning starters. When we played them last time, we played a very clean game. On Saturday, we have to out-rebound them and stop their transition game.”
Colorado Christian faces Central Washington at 1 p.m. on Saturday in its final tournament game.
NCAA Women's Basketball
Sodexo Tip-Off Classic
Friday, November 20, 2009
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
SEATTLE PACIFIC 90, COLORADO CHRISTIAN 53
COLORADO CHRISTIAN (0-3, 0-0)
Jodie Krall 5-7 0-0 12; Juanise Cornell 4-11 2-3 10; Bre McBeth 4-11 0-0 9;
Brittany Long 2-6 2-2 7; Talmai Aguirre 2-10 0-0 6; Abby Rosenthal 1-2 2-2
4; Holly Valdez 1-4 0-0 3; Kelsie Hert 1-2 0-2 2; Raven Darnell 0-0 0-0 0;
Marissa Newton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-53 6-9 53.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (1-0, 0-0)
Henderson,Daesha 9-13 1-2 25; Reich,Melissa 4-6 5-10 13; Benson,Sydney 6-16
0-0 12; Hoisington,Megan 5-10 0-0 11; Maloney,Maddie 3-6 0-0 6;
Gorman,McKayla 2-5 0-1 6; Harazin,Jordan 1-3 1-2 4; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 2-7 0-0
4; Sims,Nyesha 1-4 1-2 3; Murray,Rachel 1-2 0-0 3; Teng,Michelle 1-2 0-0 3;
Reimer, Joani 0-1 0-0 0; Thralls,Katie 0-1 0-0 0; Smith,Chanel 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 35-76 8-17 90.
Colorado Christian............. 24 29 - 53
Seattle Pacific..................... 41 49 - 90
3-point goals--Colorado Christian 7-24 (Jodie Krall 2-4; Talmai Aguirre 2-8;
Brittany Long 1-4; Bre McBeth 1-5; Holly Valdez 1-3), Seattle Pacific 12-24
(Henderson,Daesha 6-8; Gorman,McKayla 2-4; Murray,Rachel 1-1;
Hoisington,Megan 1-2; Teng,Michelle 1-1; Harazin,Jordan 1-2; Sims,Nyesha
0-2; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 0-1; Maloney,Maddie 0-3). Fouled out--Colorado
Christian-None, Seattle Pacific-None. Rebounds--Colorado Christian 28 (Jodie Krall 6), Seattle Pacific 51 (Reich,Melissa 9). Assists--Colorado Christian13 (Abby Rosenthal 5), Seattle Pacific 27 (Henderson,Daesha 7). Total
fouls--Colorado Christian 14, Seattle Pacific 14. Technical fouls--Colorado
Christian-None, Seattle Pacific-None. A--245.