Complee Box Score

SEATTLE (Feb. 3) -- Stephanie Urrutia scored six of her career-high 21 points in the final 67 seconds and Gus Balogh had 22 points as 20th-ranked Seattle Pacific University moved into first place in the Pacific West Conference with an 82-76 win over Northwest Nazarene Saturday afternoon at Brougham Pavilion.

Urrutia (So., 5-9, Sunnyside, Wa.), who had played a key role in a 10-0 run earlier which gave the Falcons the lead for good, helped hold off the Crusaders in the ifnal minutes. Her pull-up, 15 footer gave SPU a 75-70 cushion. She added two free throws with 45 seconds left and a driving layup for a 79-74 advantage with 20 seconds remaining.

By virtue of its season sweep of Northwest Nazarene, Seattle Pacific (11-3, 16-3) holds the tiebreaker over the Crusaders (11-3, 13-5) in the PacWest standings. The Falcons, who had held a 12-point lead with under 4 minutes left, have won six in a row and snapped a five-game NNU win streak.

Liz Guppy (Sr., 6-3, Beaverton, Or. Westview) added 15 points and six blocked shots while Jana Holme (Sr., 6-1, Tacoma, Wa./Wilson) hauled down 14 rebounds for SPU.

Northwest Nazarene's Amber Hellberg topped all scorers with 24 points, 16 coming in the second half. Alysson Kollmann contributed 18.

Urrutia, who played 23 of her 38 minutes at point guard due to the absence of Kerie Hughes (So., 5-6, Mount Vernon, Wa.), was 11 of 14 from the line and also had eight assists. She and Guppy each had four points during a burst of 10 unanswered points in the second half, when Seattle Pacific responded to NNU taking its only second-half lead. Guppy also had two blocks defensively during the run, which restored the lead to 64-55.

Balogh (Sr., 5-11, Szombathely, Hungary) scored 14 of her points in the first half. She supplied seven of the points in a 15-5 run. Balogh connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing and followed with a reverse layup for a 30-23 advantage which grew to 10 points at intermission.

Seattle Pacific shot 46 percent from the field (28-61) and finished with a 45-40 edge in rebounds. NNU was 29-70 from the floor (41 percent), and made just 37 percent in the second period. SPU is back at home Thursday to Host Western New Mexico.

NORTHWEST NAZARENE --
Kollman 18, Smith-Paulson 7, Lawrence 8, Imhoff 11, Hall 2, Allen-McGarrah 2, Vail 0, Hellberg 24, Downie 2, Graham 2.

SEATTLE PACIFIC --
Holme 4, Balogh 22, Guppy 15, Beard 8, Urrutia 21, Daniel 2, Prescot 5, Lukkes 2, Gustafson 3.

Halftime--SPU 45, NNU 35.