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SEATTLE – The MVP award had her name on it – again. But Seattle Pacific junior guard Nyesha Sims was eager to share it.

Again.

Sims had a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds, and redshirt freshman forward Katie Benson scored a career-high 17 points on Thursday night, leading 23rd-ranked Seattle Pacific to an 81-41 rout of St. Edward's in the final game of the Falcons Invitational women's basketball tournament in Brougham Pavilion.





Sims (Portland, Ore.), whose double-double was her third of the season, earned her second tournament Most Valuable Player honor of the year. She also got the nod in the season-opening Sodexo Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 19 and 20 in Seattle.

“It's great to have the award of course. But it's actually a team award – working hard together and coming out with the victory,” said Sims, who notched 16 points and a career-high five assists in Wednesday's 70-51 tournament victory against Notre Dame de Namur. “We started our warm-ups and changed our warm-ups a little bit, and came out with a lot of intensity and a lot of enthusiasm, which really helped.

“Then we got out here, got our starters on the floor, and we were talking more and being more vocal out there.”

Senior forward Caitlyn Rohrbach (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale HS) scored 15 points to tie her career high and joined Sims on the all-tournament team. Rohrbach set her career high of 15 in a 57-56 win against Chico State on Dec. 11.

The 6-foot-1 Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) also pulled down a career-high nine rebounds on Thursday. Her previous bests were 14 points in a 64-49 victory at Sonoma State on Dec. 10, and eight boards in a 76-66 loss at Dixie State on Dec. 4.

The Falcons (7-2, 1-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) won their fifth straight and finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 6-2 record. They were the only one of the four teams to win both tournament games.





Now halfway through a grueling stretch of four games in six days, they get fully into GNAC play on Saturday with a New Year's afternoon game against Alaska Fairbanks at 2 in Brougham Pavilion.

That game will be the first half of a doubleheader. The SPU men take on Saint Martin's at 4:15 p.m. Then on Monday, the Falcon women play host to rival Alaska Anchorage at 7 p.m.

“We would love to have a day off, but we're going to keep persevering,” Seattle Pacific coach Julie Heisey said. “We're looking forward to having a day of practice (on Friday), and then getting ready for our next two games.”

Just as they did on Wednesday against Notre Dame de Namur, Seattle Pacific used a big scoring run to take control. This time, it was 15 straight points early in the first half to expand a 14-9 lead to 29-9. (The Falcons had a 19-0 scoring spree in Wednesday's win.)

SPU went into halftime with a 46-22 advantage and never led by less than 20 during the second half.

“Today was definitely a feel-good win,” Heisey said. “Everyone had a lot of satisfaction that we met our goals. We met our rebounding goals, we only had 13 turnovers, everybody contributed, and we played as a team.”

Heisey was particularly pleased with the performances of Sims and Benson. In addition to her points and rebounds, Sims had four assists and four steals. Benson shot 5 of 8 from the floor and hit all six of her free throws.

“Nyesha just had a fabulous tournament,” Heisey said. “She started off with defensive intensity, but tonight, she had 11 rebounds and had some beautiful passes. I really was just excited to see Katie Benson come out and get nine rebounds. I had no idea she had 17 points – that was really smooth.”

The Falcons finished with a season-high 61 rebounds. All 14 SPU players got in on the action with at least one board.



NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Falcons Invitational
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

(No. 23) Seattle Pacific 81, St. Edward's 41

ST. EDWARD'S (7-6, 0-0 Heartland)

Haley Tidwell 3-10 2-4 10; Shanae Lowrance 5-10 0-2 10; Tiss Rocquemore 1-4

4-4 6; Monica James 2-5 0-0 4; Kendra Field 1-2 1-2 3; Brittany Ward 1-3 0-0

2; Katie DeLeon 0-2 2-2 2; Sarah Milewski 1-5 0-0 2; Kasey Harlos 0-2 1-2 1;

Stephanie Dekkers 0-14 1-2 1; Kelsee Barr 0-1 0-0 0; Shaniqua Adams 0-4 0-3

0; Shan Ghanem 0-3 0-0 0; Mykel Bradshaw 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-65 11-21 41.

 

SEATTLE PACIFIC (7-2, 1-0 GNAC)

Benson,Katie 5-8 6-6 17; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 6-10 2-2 15; Sims,Nyesha 4-13 1-1

10; Reich,Melissa 3-8 3-4 9; Maloney,Maddie 3-7 1-2 8; Callen,Aubree 3-8 0-0

7; Harazin,Jordan 1-4 3-3 5; Teng,Michelle 2-3 0-0 4; Gorman, McKayla 1-3

1-3 3; Thralls,Katie 0-2 2-2 2; Murray,Rachel 0-2 1-3 1; Butler,Riley 0-0

0-0 0; Reimer,Joani 0-0 0-0 0; Kingma,Betsy 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 28-69 20-27

81.

St. Edward's...................   22   19  -   41

Seattle Pacific...............   46   35  -   81

3-point goals--St. Edward's 2-27 (Haley Tidwell 2-7; Kendra Field 0-1; Katie

DeLeon 0-1; Kasey Harlos 0-1; Stephanie Dekkers 0-13; Kelsee Barr 0-1;

Shaniqua Adams 0-1; Shan Ghanem 0-2), Seattle Pacific 5-18 (Sims,Nyesha 1-4;

Callen,Aubree 1-3; Maloney,Maddie 1-3; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 1-2; Benson,Katie

1-2; Gorman, McKayla 0-2; Teng,Michelle 0-1; Harazin,Jordan 0-1). Fouled

out--St. Edward's-Brittany Ward, Seattle Pacific-None. Rebounds--St.

Edward's 40 (Shanae Lowrance 6), Seattle Pacific 61 (Sims,Nyesha 11).

Assists--St. Edward's 10 (Stephanie Dekkers 2; Sarah Milewski 2; Brittany

Ward 2; Kasey Harlos 2), Seattle Pacific 22 (Harazin,Jordan 5). Total

fouls--St. Edward's 20, Seattle Pacific 19. Technical fouls--St.

Edward's-None, Seattle Pacific-None. A-250.

Next game – Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific, Saturday, Brougham Pavilion, 2 p.m.


ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
MVP – Nyesha Sims, Seattle Pacific
Caitlyn Rohrbach, Seattle Pacific
Luv Rattler, Central Washington
Sophie Russell, Central Washington
Laura Zasly, Notre Dame de Namur