SEATTLE -- Even if they'd wanted to look ahead to their women's basketball showdown on Saturday night at Western Washington, the Seattle Pacific Falcons couldn't do it.
Montana State Billings wouldn't let them.
Megan Hoisington scored 16 points on Thursday, Caitlyn Rohrbach added 10 points off the bench, and Seattle Pacific used an 18-4 first-half scoring surge to pull ahead for good on the way to a 68-52 victory against the Yellowjackets in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest at Brougham Pavilion.
The 18th-ranked Falcons (13-2, 4-0 GNAC) won their sixth straight game, setting up a tilt against the Vikings (14-2, 5-0 GNAC) at Sam Carver Gym in Bellingham on Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner of that one will emerge as the last unbeaten team in conference play.
“We're a very good defensive team, and they're a very good offensive team. We just have to play our best defense,” said senior forward Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS), who also pulled down four rebounds, had three steals and blocked one shot. “We have to go out with confidence and energy, and we have to take care of the little things: rebounding, turnovers, and little shots. And I have complete confidence that we will.”
Senior forward Sydney Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) added nine points and three rebounds for the Falcons on Thursday, when the shots definitely weren't falling: At one juncture early in the game, Seattle Pacific had missed 10 in a row and was up just 11-9 after scoring the first seven points of the game.
“We didn't come out with the same energy that we always have,” Hoisington said. “When you're missing inside shots, that's our biggest downfall.”
But the Falcons then scored 18 of the next 22 points, capped by an 11-0 run that made it 29-13 with 1:32 left before halftime.
“You work really hard, but you don't always get the reward,” coach Julie van Beek said of SPU's early shooting struggles.
SPU was ahead 29-17 at the intermission. The lead eventually grew to 18 at 47-29 before the Yellowjackets (9-6, 2-2 GNAC) went on a 10-2 run, closing to 49-39 with 6:34 still on the clock.
“I thought we established a flow at the end of the first half, but we weren't able to keep it up,” van Beek said. “Montana State Billings has a really, really good offensive team. Every year we've played them, we've had great games the first time around. They can all shoot.”
But the lead never shrunk below double digits as Seattle Pacific beat the Yellowjackets for the ninth straight time.
Kalli Stanhope led Montana State Billings with 11 points, and Mandy Jacobs added 10. And while the Falcons eventually warmed up to 41.9 percent shooting for the game -- including 53.8 percent (14 of 26) during the second half -- their defense limited Billings to 37.8 percent (17 of 45). SPU also forced the Yellowjackets, who came in averaging a conference-low 17.9 turnovers per game, into 30 of them.
“We have great defense,” Hoisington said. “We need to get into the flow of the game on offense. You can't go 12 or 14 possessions without scoring, so that's what we're going to focus on.”
VIKINGS CAN FILL FILL THE HOOP
That'll be especially important against Western Washington, which rolled to an 80-46 victory at Central Washington on Thursday night even without leading scorer and rebounded Jessica Summers. The 6-foot-1 senior forward, who averages 17.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, is out indefinitely with a foot injury, according to information released by Western Washington.
But the Vikings still have plenty of weapons, including sharp-shooting junior guard Amanda Dunbar, who averages 17.3 points to rank No. 2 in GNAC scoring (behind Summers) and shoots 49.5 percent from 3-point range, among the top 10 in all of NCAA Division II.
Overall, Western is the GNAC's top-scoring team at nearly 77.9 points per game. SPU allows the third-fewest points in the conference (57.1).
“We have to go out and do the little things right and rebound and try to make sure that we make every possession count,” van Bee said. “They're a fast-paced team, and it would be really easy to run, run, run. But we have to make sure we're getting the shot we want and not just taking the first shot.”
Said Hoisington, “They have great, great players. It's going to be fun game.”
The Falcons certainly are anticipating to a better showing than last year's 84-44 loss at WWU.
"We look at that as a learning experience," Hoisington said. "Saturday is a new day."
A team of SPU alumni will square off against their alumni counterparts from Western Washington at 5 p.m. prior to the Falcons-Vikings tipoff. Among those tentatively scheduled to play for Seattle Pacific are Michelle Beaumont, Beth Christensen, Carli Grant, Kelsey Hill, Libby Magnuson, Kristin Poe, Rachel Strand, Amy Taylor and Mandy Wood.
NCAA Women's Basketball
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
(No. 18) Seattle Pacific 68, Montana State Billings 52
MONTANA ST. BILLINGS (9-6, 2-2 GNAC)
Stanhope,Kalli 4-7 1-1 11; Jacobs,Mandy 2-5 5-6 10; Reed,Ashley 3-3 3-6 9;
Ryan,Kayla 2-9 4-4 8; McNamee,Sarah 3-10 0-0 7; Kautzmann,Callie 2-5 0-0 4;
Lott,Kelcy 1-3 0-0 3; Porter,Melissa 0-2 0-0 0; Hansen,Rachel 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 17-45 13-17 52.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (13-2, 4-0 GNAC)
Hoisington,Megan 6-13 4-4 16; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 5-7 0-0 10; Benson,Sydney 4-7
1-2 9; Murray,Rachel 2-3 2-2 6; Gorman,McKayla 1-4 2-2 5; Henderson,Daesha
2-9 0-0 5; Maloney,Maddie 2-4 0-0 5; Harazin,Jordan 2-6 0-0 5; Sims,Nyesha
1-4 2-2 4; Thralls,Katie 1-1 0-0 3; Reich,Melissa 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 26-62
11-12 68.
Montana St. Billings.......... 17 35 - 52
Seattle Pacific.................... 29 39 - 68
3-point goals--Montana St. Billings 5-16 (Stanhope,Kalli 2-4; Lott,Kelcy
1-2; Jacobs,Mandy 1-3; McNamee,Sarah 1-6; Kautzmann,Callie 0-1), Seattle
Pacific 5-13 (Thralls,Katie 1-1; Gorman,McKayla 1-2; Harazin,Jordan 1-3;
Maloney,Maddie 1-1; Henderson,Daesha 1-4; Hoisington,Megan 0-2). Fouled
out--Montana St. Billings-None, Seattle Pacific-None. Rebounds--Montana St.
Billings 33 (Jacobs,Mandy 8), Seattle Pacific 32 (Reich,Melissa 4;
Henderson,Daesha 4; Hoisington,Megan 4; Maloney,Maddie 4). Assists--Montana
St. Billings 10 (Reed,Ashley 2; Kautzmann,Callie 2), Seattle Pacific 18
(Harazin,Jordan 5). Total fouls--Montana St. Billings 15, Seattle Pacific
19. Technical fouls--Montana St. Billings-None, Seattle Pacific-None. A-221.
