This week, the Falcons women’s basketball winning streak was broken, losing both of their games against Central Washington (13-8, 9-4) and Northwest Nazarene (16-3, 12-2) respectively.
On Thursday, Feb. 1, the women’s team played the Central Washington Wildcats at Nicholas Pavilion in Ellensburg.

During the first quarter, the teams were neck and neck, scoring 15 points each. At the half, the Wildcats were up by only one point.

In the third quarter, the Falcons came back scoring 25 points. In the fourth quarter, however, the team was only able to score 12 points.

Even after senior Jordan McPhee’s two free throw shots to tie the game at 68-68, the Wildcats were able to clutch the win with a lay in during the last few seconds of the game, ending at 70-68.

“We had a tough stretch on the road,” said head coach Julie Heisey. “We beat Central last time we played them, but I knew that they had really improved.” In total, the Falcons hit 25 of their 57 shots (43%).

“We got ahead by 13 points, but in the fourth quarter one of Central’s players hit two three pointers, and then shot one from the free throw line,” Heisey explained. “We faltered a bit after that.”

Senior Courtney Hollander was the lead scorer with 17 points, and Jordan McPhee came in a close second with 15.

McPhee has scored a total of 986 for her career, and Hollander has 977.
On Saturday night, the team played the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks at Johnson Sports Center in Nampa, Idaho. SPU led in the first quarter, but the Nighthawks caught up in the second quarter, finishing off the half tied 39-39.

“We scored more from the field, but they hit a lot of threes,” Heisey said. “So, I got to give them credit for that.”

SPU was able to cut down a 12-point deficit to only four points in the fourth quarter, but the Nighthawks ultimately took home the victory, finishing 77-70. Falcons senior Lindsey Lee scored 13 points, and guard McPhee racked up 12, upping her overall career points to 998.

Hollander also scored 12 points and added to her total of now 989 points for her career.
Erika Pagano, the lead scorer for the game, snagged 15 points, hitting seven of 10 from the floor.

“Erika was amazing,” Heisey said. “She came off the bench and fought so hard. All of our seniors played very well.”

Despite a disappointing week, the team is ready to get back on the court and fight for the win.“It’s never fun to lose,” junior guard Riley Evans said. “But we still have six games left, so we need to regroup and focus on finishing out the season strongly.”

Coach Heisey also took an optimistic approach to the back-to-back losses.

“We like playing good teams because it shows us where our deficits are and where we need to improve,” she said.

This week, the Falcons are back at home, playing Simon Fraser at Royal Brougham Pavilion on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m., and Western Washington at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10.