Box Score

BELLINGHAM, Wash- Junior Oly Larkin led all scorers with 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds but Seattle Pacific came out on fire in the second half and held off a fiesty Sonoma State team in the final minutes to defeat the Seawolves 59-51 in the first game of the GNAC/CCAA Crossover Classic, hosted by Western Washington University on Sunday afternoon at Bellingham, Wash.

Sonoma State evened its record at 4-4 with the loss and Seattle Pacific, ranked 20th in last week's USA Today/ESPN Division II Women's Basketball Coaches poll, won its sixth game of the season to improve to 6-1.

The Falcons struggled offensively from the floor in the opening half, giving the Seawolves ample opportunity to take several leads over the nationally-ranked team from Seattle. A three-pointer by senior Jennifer Russo gave Sonoma State a five-point lead at 17-12 with seven minutes remaining in the half. Neither team would score during the next three minutes but two free throws by Seattle Pacific's Jordan Harazin kick started a 10-2 run during the last 3:52 of the half to take the 22-19 lead at the intermission.

SPU shot just 7-of-29 in the first half (24.1 percent) as the Seawolves shot just a few percentage points higher at 30.8 percent on 8-of-26 shooting. However, it was the uncharacteristically high number of turnovers (17) by the Seawolves in the first 20 minutes of play that allowed the Falcons back into the driver's seat.

That's when Seattle Pacific took over. They came out on fire in the final half, shooting 57.9 percent from the floor in just 11-of-19 shooting. Sydney Benson came off the bench to score nine of her team-high 11 points in the second period -- the only Falcon in double-digits. Although, another three pointer by Russo with 28 seconds left in regulation put the Seawolves down by five points. It would be as close as they would get as three free-throws from the charity stripe gave Seattle Pacific the eight point victory.

Sonoma State had three players score in double figures -- Larkin (14), senior Stephanie Barnes (13) and Russo's 11. The Seawolves shot 33.3 percent from the floor in the game (19-of-57) to Seattle Pacific's 37.5 percent (18-of-48). The Seawolves outrebounded the Falcons 40-32 and forced 21 turnovers, including 12 steals. SPU forced 25 Seawolf turnovers with just nine steals.

The Seawolves will return to the floor on Monday afternoon to close out the GNAC/CCAA Crossover Classic in a tilt with host Western Washington, beginning at 3 p.m. on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium. Sonoma State will then take its holiday break before returning to conference play on Jan. 2 at San Francisco State.

Box Score: #20 Seattle Pacific 59, Sonoma State 51