Hughes' 23 Points Leads No. 2 Falcons Past Northwest Nazarene
February 8, 2003

NAMPA, ID. (Feb. 8) -- Kerie Hughes (Sr., 5-6, Mount Vernon, Wa./Mount Vernon) and Stephanie Urrutia (Sr., 5-9, Sunnyside, Wa./Sunnyside) combined for 45 points to lead the Seattle Pacific University women's basketball team past Northwest Nazarene 81-74 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest Saturday night.

The Falcons (20-0, 11-0), currently ranked No. 2 in the WBCA/USA Today national poll and first in the West Region, extended their program-record unbeaten streak to 20 games.

Seattle Pacific finished the first half on a 19-4 run to erase a seven-point Crusader (12-7, 6-3) lead and to go on top in the game for good. The Falcons led by as much as 15 points in the second half before Nazarene cut the edge to single-digits in the waning minutes, but was unable to narrow the gap to closer than six points.

Hughes came within one made free-throw of breaking the school's all-time record. She finished the game 13-for-16 from the line and 4-of-13 from the floor. The two teams combined for 64 free-throw attempts on 49 personal fouls.

NNU made the most of their trips to the line, sinking 25-of-28, led by Alysson Kollmann who was a perfect 14-for-14.

Hughes and Urrutia finished with season-highs of 23 and 22 points, respectively. Hughes played all but two minutes in the game as backup point guard Trisha Hermanson (So., 5-6, Buckley, Wa./White River) was sidelined with an injured knee. Carli Smith (Fr., 5-11, Spokane, Wa./Valley Christian) grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds off the bench for the Falcons. NNU grabbed 23 offensive rebounds in the game and out-rebounded the Falcons 46-to-40.

Seattle Pacific returns to Brougham Pavilion for the next three contests, beginning this Saturday in a game against Central Washington. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

SEATTLE PACIFIC -- Smith 4, Wood 4, Hughes 23, Beaumont 11, Urrutia 22, Lukkes 0, Berglund 10, Kroon 0, Gustafson 7, Lukkes 0.

NORTHWEST NAZARENE -- Buehler 12, Binford 15, Kollmann 19, Lund 2, VanBrocklin 10, Barker 10, Gonzalez 0, Barnett 2, Sacht 0, Codiga 4

Halftime -- SPU 41, NNU 33