FAIRBANKS, Ak.-Gus Balogh scored eight of her 18 points in the final eight minutes as Seattle Pacific University (14-3, 19-3) won its eighth game in a row, nipping Alaska Fairbanks 53-51, in a PacWest women's basketball game Thursday night at Patty Center.

With the victory, the Falcons (14-3, 19-3) handed Alaska Fairbanks (11-6, 15-7) its first loss at home in 2001 and remained one game ahead of Western Washington for sole position of first place in the Pacific West Conference.

Although the Falcons went into the locker room down 26-31 at half, Balogh (Sr., Szombatheley, Hungary) ignited Seattle Pacific's second half attack, connecting on four straight buckets with eight minutes to play. The Falcons outscored Fairbanks 27-20 to close out the game.

The two teams clashed in Seattle a month ago and Falcons came away with a 75-73 victory off a Kerie Hughes (So., Mount Vernon, Wa.) bucket with 14.7 seconds to play.

SPU out rebounded the Nanooks 41-37 and shot 42 percent (23-55) from the floor to Fairbanks' 32 percent (19-59).

Liz Guppy (Sr., Beaverton, Or./Westview) connected on four of six shots to score 10 points for SPU. Teammate Stephanie Urrutia (Sunnyside, Wa.) tallied seven points, seven rebounds and five assists. Seattle Pacific heads to Anchorage for a 7:00 contest Saturday night. The Falcons next home game is March 1.

GAME RESULTS: SPU 53, AFU 51.

SPU:
Beard 5, Dankel, Prescott 5, Urrutia 7, Lukkes 2, Holme 2, Balogh 18, Guppy 10, Gustafson 4.

AFU:
Perez 15, Wolf 8, Chihuly, Kupczyk 5, Wagoner, Age, McIlhenny 2, Arts 13, Webb, Woodruff 8.