Box score, play-by-play
ST. GEORGE, Utah – Nyesha Sims scored 16 points and pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds on Friday, and freshman Katie Benson added a career-high 13 points, but Grand Canyon rallied past Seattle Pacific on Friday, 74-69, in the Pacific West-GNAC Challenge women's basketball tournament.
The fifth-ranked Falcons (2-1) had a 65-56 lead with 5:56 to play in Burns Arena at Dixie State University before the Antelopes (7-1) got hot, finishing the game on an 18-4 scorig run and keeping SPU off the scoreboard for the final 2 minutes, 42 seconds.
Samantha Murphy scored nine of her 27 points during that stretch to bring Grand Canyon back into it. Murphy scored 19 during the second half on 8-of-11 shooting after hitting just 3 of 9 first-half shots.
Freshman forward Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) beat her previous scoring high of 11 points from SPU's 75-66 victory against UC San Diego on Nov. 20.
Senior guard Maddie Maloney (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline HS) for the Falcons, grabbed four rebounds and came up with four steals.
After a cold-shooting first half during which it hit just 28 percent from the floor (11 of 40, including 1 of 16 from 3-point range), Seattle Pacific quickly erased its 30-26 halftime deficit. The Falcons hit five of their first six shots to start the second half and finally forged back in front, 37-36, on a pair of Maloney free throws with 16:40 remaining.
From there, the lead changed hands nine more times and the game was tied three times. Grand Canyon went ahead for good, 70-69, when Katie Johnson put back her own miss with 2:13 to play.
SPU went scoreless for the final 2:42 of the game.
Grand Canyon, which won its sixth straight game, led for most of the first half after spotting Seattle Pacific the first for points of the game.
The Falcons face host Dixie State on Saturday at 2 p.m. PST. The Red Storm stayed undefeated on Friday, improving to 6-0 with a 76-50 rout of Northwest Nazarene. Dixie now has three victories against Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents, having also beaten Western Oregon, 97-85, and Saint Martin's, 70-56, and also has knocked off Division I Utah State, 71-67.
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Pacific West-GNAC Challenge
Friday, Dec. 3, 2010
Burns Arena/St. George, Utah
Grand Canyon 74, (No. 5) Seattle Pacific 69
SEATTLE PACIFIC (2-1, 0-0 GNAC)
Sims,Nyesha 7-13 2-3 16; Benson,Katie 5-10 1-4 13; Maloney,Maddie 5-11 2-2
13; Reich,Melissa 4-13 1-4 9; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 4-8 0-0 8; Harazin,Jordan 1-4
2-2 4; Callen,Aubree 0-2 4-4 4; Thralls,Katie 1-2 0-0 2; Reimer,Joani 0-0
0-0 0; Murray,Rachel 0-3 0-0 0; Gorman, McKayla 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 27-71
12-19 69.
GRAND CANYON (7-1, 0-0 PWC)
Murphy, Samantha 11-20 1-1 27; Smith, Maylinn 5-12 5-6 16; Nelson, Rosalyn
6-10 0-1 12; Johnson, Katie 1-2 4-4 6; Butler, Jallisa 2-3 2-6 6; Kamp,
Stevie 1-2 2-4 4; Fisher, Kayla 1-3 0-0 2; Frazier, Joslynn 0-2 1-2 1;
Pearson, Jenna 0-0 0-0 0; Girdley, Kristi 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 27-59 15-24 74.
Seattle Pacific................... 26 43 - 69
Grand Canyon.................... 30 44 - 74
3-point goals--Seattle Pacific 3-24 (Benson,Katie 2-4; Maloney,Maddie 1-5;
Rohrbach,Caitlyn 0-2; Harazin,Jordan 0-2; Callen,Aubree 0-1; Murray,Rachel
0-2; Gorman, McKayla 0-5; Sims,Nyesha 0-3), Grand Canyon 5-10 (Murphy,
Samantha 4-6; Smith, Maylinn 1-3; Girdley, Kristi 0-1). Fouled out--Seattle
Pacific-None, Grand Canyon-None. Rebounds--Seattle Pacific 46 (Sims,Nyesha
12), Grand Canyon 39 (Smith, Maylinn 8). Assists--Seattle Pacific 16
(Reich,Melissa 6), Grand Canyon 10 (Nelson, Rosalyn 4). Total fouls--Seattle
Pacific 20, Grand Canyon 15. Technical fouls--Seattle Pacific-None, Grand
Canyon-None. A-101.
