Box Score
        Box score, play-by-play
 
SEATTLE – The short shots that fell short for Seattle Pacific – and went in for West Texas A&M – left the Falcons on the short end of Saturday's national top-10 women's basketball showdown.
 
Katie Benson scored 24 points, and Suzanna Ohlsen added 16, but No. 10-ranked West Texas stormed back from a 14-point first-half deficit and pulled away late in the game to beat No. 9 SPU in Brougham Pavilion, 74-65.
 
Casey Land led the Lady Buffs (9-1) with 19 points, including the last 14 for her team in the first half that cut a 28-14 Seattle Pacific lead to 33-25 by the intermission. Devin Griffin chipped in 18 points as West Texas has four players hit for double figures.
 




The Falcons shot just 32.9 percent for the game (23 of 70). The misses include five lay-ups, and several short-range jumpers. West Texas A&M hit 47.4 percent (27 of 57), including a scalding 67.9 percent (19 of 28) during the second half after hitting just 27.6 percent (8 of 29) through the first 20 minutes.
 
"The first half, we had great ball pressure and we were aggressive," SPU head coach Julie Heisey said. "Our goal was to win the points in the paint, and we held them to four points in the paint. We did a super job on their post (Chontiquah White). I thought we had a really good first half, and I was hoping to build on it.
 
"But we just came out really flat (after halftime)," Heisey said. "We have to find a way to keep intensity. The things we do well, we have to keep doing. We went away from playing great defense. It was our ball pressure – they were able to press more, and they just took us out of our rhythm. They can't press if we don't let them score."
 
The Lay Buffs got 24 of their 49 second-half points in the paint, including six lay-ups.
 
The Falcons (8-2) kept the lead until 16 minutes remained in the game when Griffin drained a 22-footer from behind the 3-point arc to put the Lady Buffs on top, 36-35. From there, the lead changed hands six more times before West Texas hit four shots in a row to go up 57-50.
 
The closest SPU came after that was 61-56 on pair of free throws by sophomore center Maddey Pflaumer with 3:15 left. The Buffs answered with an 8-2 burst, including a pair of 3-point daggers  to forge their first double-digit advantage at 69-58 with 1:24 to go.
 
Down by two early in the game after missing their first seven shots, the Falcons put together a 15-0 run while keeping West Texas A&M off the board for 6 minutes, 43 seconds. That turned a 4-2 deficit into a 17-4 lead as the Lady Buffs missed eight straight shots. At one point, SPU possessed the ball for 79 seconds, thanks to five offensive rebounds.
 
The Falcons shot just 32.9 percent for the game (23 of 70). West Texas A&M hit 47.4 percent (27 of 57), including a scalding 67.9 percent (19 of 28) during the second half after hitting just 27.6 percent (8 of 29) through the first 20 minutes.
 
Seattle Pacific will not return to action until after the holidays when arch-rival Western Washington visits Brougham Pavilion on Thursday, Jan. 2, at 7:00 p.m. That will be the first of three straight home games against three of the top teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Simon Fraser will come to town on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7, and preseason favorite Montana State Billings is in on Saturday, Jan. 11, with a 3 p.m. tip-off.
 
"We have a week off to think about everything and get better, then we come back and then we come back and have practice for three days and take on two conference opponents," Heisey said. "We weren't able to put a full 40 minutes together (today). That's what we have to do, especially against a great team."
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
(No. 10) West Texas A&M 74, (No. 9) Seattle Pacific 65
 
WEST TEXAS A&M (9-1)
Devin Griffin 6-11 5-6 18, Lacee Logan 5-10 0-1 11, Chontiquah White 6-10 3-3 15, Casey Land 6-9 2-2 19, Raven Gerald 0-1 0-0 0, Madison McLain 0-3 0-0 0, Sally Higgins 0-1 0-1 0, Taryn Borchardt 1-3 0-0 2, Jordan Vessels 3-6 3-4 9, Maddison Wild 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 13-17 74.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (8-2)
Hannah Rodrigues 0-0 0-0 0, Katie Benson 8-23 8-9 24, Molly Grager 0-2 0-0 0, Suzanna Ohlsen 6-16 0-0 16, Betsy Kingma 4-13 0-0 9, Stacey Lukasiewicz 1-1 2-2 4, Brianne Lasconia 1-8 2-2 4, Maddey Pflaumer 2-6 2-2 6, Riley Butler 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-70 14-15 65.
 
West Texas A&M                 25           49           -- 74
Seattle Pacific                      33           32           -- 65
 
3-point goals – WTAM 7-16 (Griffin 1-1, Logan 1-4, Land 5-6, Gerald 0-1, Higgins 0-1, Borchardt 0-1, Vessels 0-2), SPU 5-22 (Benson 0-2, Ohlsen 4-7, Kingma 1-8, Lasconia 0-4, Pflaumer 0-1). Fouled out – None. Rebounds – WTAM 39 (Griffin 8), SPU 42 (Benson 8). Assists – WTAM 20 (White 5), SPU 15 (Rodrigues 4). Turnovers – WTAM 11, SPU 6. Total fouls – WTAM 14, SPU 17. Technical fouls – None. A – 284.
 
Team records – Seattle Pacific 8-2, 1-1 GNAC. West Texas A&M 9-1, 0-0 Lone Star.
 
Next game – Western Washington at Seattle Pacific, Thursday, Jan. 2, Brougham Pavilion, 7:00 p.m.