Box score, play-by-play
SEATTLE -- Maddie Maloney doesn't always put the biggest numbers on the stat sheet. But she always puts forth one of the biggest end-to-end efforts on the basketball court for Seattle Pacific.
Maloney did have a big stat on Saturday afternoon -- a career-high 10 rebounds -- and teammate Megan Hoisington tied her career high with 17 points, had a career-best six bloocks, and pulled down 15 boards as the 19th-ranked Falcon women overcame an early 11-point deficit and hung on for a 63-62 victory against Northwest Nazarene in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game.
“I just work hard the whole time and try to be in the right spot,'' said Maloney (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline HS), a 5-foot-10 junior guard who easily eclipsed her previous high of six rebounds that she had set twice, most recently on Jan. 2, 2009, against Merrimack. “Our team really took it from there.”
The 19th-ranked Falcons (17-3, 8-1 overall) yielded the first 11 points of the game to Northwest Nazarene (14-6, 4-5 GNAC), then turned that all the way around to lead by 11 at one juncture of the second half in Brougham Pavilion.
It was the second time this year Seattle Pacific and NNU went down to the wire. The Falcons won 63-61 on a buzzer-beater by Daesha Henderson on Jan. 16 in Nampa, Idaho.
“They kind of came out stronger than us. They wanted all of the aggressive play,” Maloney said of Northwest Nazarene's fast start. “The second half, we stepped up and played our game.”
Senior forward Hoisington (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap HS) came within one rebound of her career high. She grabbed 16 on Dec. 29 in a 58-53 victory against Grand Canyon in San Diego. Her previous career high for blocked shots was five, set just three weeks ago on Jan. 14 against Saint Martin's. Sophomore guard Nyesha Sims (Portland, Ore.) added 11 points off the bench for the Falcons, who don't return to competition until next Saturday at 2 p.m. when they play host to Western Oregon.
SPU went the first 4½ minutes of the game without a point, not getting onto the board until Hoisington found senior guard Henderson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS) for 10-footer in the lane with 15:26 left in the first half. From there, the Falcons got within two points on three occasions, the last time at 31-29, before NNU took a 36-29 lead into halftime.
“The worst thing is to start getting stressed out about it,” Hoisington said of Seattle Pacific's early double-digit deficit. “We have to take care of every opportunity and take care of things we can control. When we take care of our defense, our offense falls into place.”
That's what happened in the second half. After Northwest Nazarene shot 43.8 percent through the first 20 minutes (14 of 32), with several wide-open shots underneath the hoop, SPU limited the Crusaders to just 28.6 percent after the intermission (10 of 35).
“We realized at halftime that we had to stop penetration because they're a driving team,” Hoisington said.
Added coach Julie van Beek, “The first half we shot it 28 times, 14 of those were 3's and we hit just three of those. That was a big point of emphasis at halftime -- points in the paint. They were getting them and we weren't.”
BIG SCORING SURGE
Down 36-29 at the intermission, Seattle Pacific took its first lead at 41-39 on a fast-break lay-in by junior forward Caitlyn Rohrbach (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale HS). Northwest Nazarene got into one more tie at 41-41, then the Falcons went in front for good on a three-point play by Sims with 13:02 remaining.
From that 41-41 deadlock, the Falcons went on a 16-5 run to go up by 11 at 57-46 with 8:39 left. Northwest Nazarene rallied, closing to 59-55 at the 3:40 mark. But SPU then kept the Crusaders off the board until the clock showed 1:28 left, building the lead back to eight at 63-55.
It was 63-59 with 7.7 seconds left when NNU regained possession, and a 3-pointer by NNU's Heather Adams at the buzzer accounted for the final one-point margin.
“The second half, we stepped up and played our game,” Maloney said. “For us, it was just that we had to play the way we practice.
Added Hoisington, “This was a team win. We can't come out against a good team and start like that. But we came back as a team.”
The Crusaders were led by the 22 points of Brittney Roggenkamp. Kristin Hein added 11.
SPU committed a season-low 13 turnovers, just four of those during the second half. It was the fourth straight game with fewer than 20 turnovers for the Falcons.
With Hoisington and Maloney leading the way, the Falcons collected 50 rebounds. They also had 50 against Chico State in December, and opened the season with 51 against Colorado Christian.
FALCONS LOSE BENSON FOR SEASON
Reserve senior forward Sydney Benson had her season come to an early end when she suffered a major knee injury during practice on Friday. The 6-foot-2 Benson (Snohomish, Wash./Snohomish HS), who had developed into an impact player off the bench for the Falcons, tore both her MCL and ACL, according to coach Julie van Beek.
The injury happened during a rebounding drill.
Benson had played in all 19 games for the Falcons. She was averaging 8.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Benson was just coming off a career-high 22 points against Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 30, just two days after she hit a career-high three shots from 3-point range against Alaska Anchorage, helping SPU win both games. Those performances earned Benson a share of the GNAC Player of the Week honor.
NCAA Women's Basketball
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
(No. 19) Seattle Pacific 63, Northwest Nazarene 62
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (14-6, 4-5 GNAC)
Roggenkamp 9-16 2-3 22; Hein 5-10 0-0 11; Adams 3-6
0-0 9; Olds 3-9 1-2 8; Brady 2-11 0-0 4; Williams 1-5
1-2 3; Johnson 0-1 2-4 2; Bazzi 1-4 0-0 2; Schulte to
Buhne 0-4 1-2 1; Oliver 0-1 0-0 0; Smith 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 24-67 7-13 62.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (17-3, 8-1 GNAC)
Hoisington 5-16 6-6 17; Sims 4-7 1-1 11; Henderson 1-8
6-8 8; Reich 1-5 6-8 8; Harazin 2-11 0-0 5; Gorman
2-3 0-0 5; Rohrbach 2-6 1-1 5; Maloney 1-3 2-4 4;
Murray 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-59 22-28 63.
Northwest Nazarene............ 36 26 - 62
Seattle Pacific....................... 29 34 - 63
3-point goals--Northwest Nazarene 7-16 (Adams,Heather 3-3;
Roggenkamp,Brittney 2-3; Olds,Janee 1-4; Hein,Kristin 1-2; Bazzi,Julianne
0-2; Oliver,Krista 0-1; Brady,Lindsay 0-1), Seattle Pacific 5-23
(Sims,Nyesha 2-3; Hoisington,Megan 1-5; Gorman,McKayla 1-2; Harazin,Jordan
1-6; Maloney,Maddie 0-1; Rohrbach,Caitlyn 0-1; Reich,Melissa 0-1;
Henderson,Daesha 0-4). Fouled out--Northwest Nazarene-Johnson,Beth, Seattle
Pacific-None. Rebounds--Northwest Nazarene 40 (Hein,Kristin 10), Seattle
Pacific 50 (Hoisington,Megan 15). Assists--Northwest Nazarene 10
(Adams,Heather 3), Seattle Pacific 11 (Maloney,Maddie 2; Henderson,Daesha 2;
Gorman,McKayla 2; Reich,Melissa 2; Harazin,Jordan 2). Total fouls--Northwest
Nazarene 23, Seattle Pacific 13. Technical fouls--Northwest Nazarene-None,
Seattle Pacific-None. A-511.
