50-44 loss comes after undefeated regular season
The Seattle Pacific University women's basketball team, ranked No. 2 in the nation and undefeated at 29-0 finally hit a wall Monday night when the final buzzer sounded at the NCAA West regional final.
The Lady Falcons couldn't find their accustomed second-half mojo which carried them all season and lost in the final minute to archrival Alaska Anchorage, 50-44.
Only seconds before, the low-scoring defensive struggle had been tied for the fourth time and it looked as if the host team would pull off another miracle win.
But Sweden's Maria Nilsson hit her only three-pointer of the game for the Seawolves with less than a minute remaining to give the visitors a four-point advantage. An SPU turnover gave the ball back to the Wolves, who converted two foul shots to cement the win.
SPU had narrowly defeated the Seawolves twice earlier in the year in both home and road games and seemed poised to win the West and move on to Elite Eight.
But the Falcons' leading scorers were held in check by the Alaskans, and shot uncharacteristically poorly from the charity stripe.
In the eight-team West tournament, contested before appreciative crowds at SPU's Brougham Pavilion on lower Queen Anne, the SPU women blew past St. Martin's in Friday's nightcap, 92-49, behind stifling defense and 12-of-24 shooting from behind the three-point line.
Senior Jackie Hollands showed the way with 22 points behind 5-of-8 shooting from behind the arc. Juniors Kelsey Hill and Kelsey Burns added 17 and 14 points respectively, as each of the Falcons' 11 players scored.
It seemed as if the Falcons might easily move into the regional finals, as their Saturday opponent in the semifinals was University of California at San Diego Tritons, a team SPU had beaten by 10 points on UCSD's court in December.
But the Tritons did not go gently, leading for most of the game until SPU forged ahead 55-54 with just over six minutes to go in the game.
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