By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Upon the arrival of the second half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball schedule, key positional matchups in the standings lie ahead on this week’s schedule.
 
First-place Alaska Anchorage (17-3, 8-1 GNAC) hosts second-place Central Washington (14-4, 7-2) to kick off the week on Thursday evening in Anchorage. The Seawolves will then host a Northwest Nazarene team that sits in a tie for fourth place at 12-6 overall and 6-3 in conference play. UAA won both games the first time the teams met, besting NNU 72-59 on Jan. 2 and topping CWU 68-61 on Jan. 4.
 

This Week's GNAC Women's Basketball Schedule
Home Team	Thursday, Jan. 30	Saturday, Feb. 1
RV Alaska Anchorage	Central Washington (5:15 p.m. AK)	Northwest Nazarene (7:30 p.m. AK)
Alaska Fairbanks	Northwest Nazarene (5:15 p.m. AK)	Central Washington (12 p.m. AK)
Seattle Pacific	BYE	No. 20 Montana State Billings (2 p.m. PT)
Simon Fraser	Western Oregon (7 p.m. PT)	Saint Martin's (1 p.m. PT)
Western Washington	Saint Martin's (7 p.m. PT)	Western Oregon (7 p.m. PT)

The Wildcats are the hottest team in the conference, having won four consecutive games to elbow their way into a tie with No. 20 Montana State Billings for second in the standings. The Wildcats handed Saint Martin’s a 77-72 loss and smothered Western Oregon 66-35 in a pair of road victories last week. The Nighthawks have developed similar momentum, winning six of their last seven games since Jan. 4 to move one game back of the Wildcats and Yellowjackets.
 
This week figures to be a pivotal one for four teams who are locked up in the middle of the standings and who are set to square off head-to-head. Western Washington (11-7, 6-3) enters the week tied for fourth and will host Saint Martin’s (11-6, 4-5) on Thursday and Western Oregon (7-10, 3-6) on Saturday. The Saints occupy the sixth and final playoff spot at the midway point of the conference schedule, as they look for their first conference tournament finish since the 2015 season (excluding 2022 when all 10 teams were awarded berths). Western Oregon finds itself in a similar position, just one game behind the Saints as the Wolves are chasing their first top-six GNAC finish since the 2010-11 campaign.
 
Hosting both SMU and WOU this weekend is a Simon Fraser team also jockeying for positioning in the middle of the pack. The Red Leafs (10-8, 3-6) enter the week tied with the Wolves for seventh place as they trail the Saints by just one game. The four games combined between Burnaby, B.C., and Bellingham, Wash., this week figure to have a significant impact on the playoff picture. Western Washington beat WOU 63-30 on Jan. 2 and beat Saint Martin’s 63-50 on Jan. 4, while Simon Fraser split with this week’s opponents with a 57-55 win over SMU on Jan. 2 and a 67-64 loss to the Wolves on Jan. 4.
 
Fresh off a 70-55 win over Alaska Anchorage last time out the reigning champion Yellowjackets will look to extend their winning streak to three games on Saturday against Seattle Pacific (6-16, 0-9). There is still plenty of time for the Alaska Nanooks (6-11, 1-8) to climb back into the playoff picture, and they have home-court advantage this week as they look to build off their first GNAC win of the season, 88-82 over SPU last time out.
 

2024-25 GNAC Women's Basketball Championships

The 2025 GNAC Men’s and Women's Basketball Championships will be held March 6-8 at Marcus Pavilion on the campus of Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Wash. The top six teams in the GNAC standings at the end of the regular season will advance to the GNAC Championships (tiebreakers will be applied as necessary). The top two seeds earn byes to the semifinal round. The quarterfinal round will match the Nos. 3 and 6 seeds in one game and the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in the other game. Quarterfinal winners will advance to Friday's semifinals. Semifinal winners will meet on Saturday for the championship. The winners of the GNAC Championships will automatically qualify for their respective NCAA Division II Championships events.
 

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GIESE, NELSON LATEST TO REACH 1K CLUB: The league’s newest members of the 1,000-career points club both achieved the feat last week, as Montana State Billings’ Aspen Giese and Kortney Nelson eclipsed the milestone in the friendly confines of Alterowitz Gym. Giese is a true senior from Fort Benton, Mont., who has played in 116 games and started 92 since the outset of her career in the fall of 2021. Nelson is a fifth-year senior from Scobey, Mont., who has played in 122 games and made 109 starts since debuting in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign. Fellow senior Dyauni Boyce (1,399 points), who ranks second among the GNAC’s active scoring leaders, makes it the first time in program history the Yellowjackets have had three players in their senior class with 1,000 career points.
 
   

GNAC Active Leaders – Career Points (as of Jan. 29, 2025)
Rank	Player	Points	School	Career
1	Sunny Huerta	1,698	Central Washington	2021-25
2	Dyauni Boyce	1,399	Montana State Billings	2020-25
3	Asher Cai	1,355	Central Washington	2022-25
4	Sophia Wisotzki	1,285	Simon Fraser	2021-25
5	Kortney Nelson	1,029	Montana State Billings	2020-25
6	Aspen Giese	1,009	Montana State Billings	2021-25
7	Jazzpher Evans	932	Alaska Anchorage	2021-25
8	Destiny Reimers	904	Alaska Fairbanks	2021-25
9	Kiana Rios	773	Saint Martin's	2022-25
10	Hunter Beirne	770	Seattle Pacific	2020-25

 
HUERTA BREAKS CWU RECORD, CONTINUES GNAC SCORING LIST ASCENT: Reigning GNAC Player of the Week Sunny Huerta achieved another milestone last week, breaking Rose Shaw’s Central Washington school record of 1,696 career points. Huerta finished the week with 1,698 points, bumping her up to No. 7 in GNAC history. Huerta ranks second in the conference this season with 18.3 points per game and is second in the league in 3-point shooting at 44.6%.
 

GNAC Women's Basketball All-Time Scoring Leaders (as of Jan. 29, 2025)
Rank	Player	Points	School	Career
1	Alisha Breen	2,001	Montana State Billings	2013-18
2	Erin Chambers	1,946	Simon Fraser	2011-15
3	Taylor Peacocke	1,946	Western Washington	2013-17
4	Bobbi Knudsen	1,831	Montana State Billings	2010-14
5	Jordan Wilson	1,783	Alaska Fairbanks	2013-17
6	Rebecca Kielpinski	1,752	Alaska Anchorage	2005-09
7	Sunny Huerta	1,698	Central Washington	2021-25
8	Rose Shaw	1,696	Central Washington	1998-02
9	Amanda Dunbar	1,654	Western Washington	2007-11
10	Katie Benson	1,645	Seattle Pacific	2010-14

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UAA’S LONG APPROACHING HISTORY: With nine games left in the regular season, Alaska Anchorage’s Emilia Long has maintained an unstoppable defensive pace and leads Division II basketball with 95 steals and 4.75 steals per game. She projects to become just the fifth player in league history to eclipse the century mark in steals in a season in the near future, and is on pace to eclipse the conference single-season record of 109 steals set by former Seawolf great Kiki Robertson in 2016-17. Three of the four 100-steal seasons have been achieved by Seawolves, with Robertson achieving the feat twice and Kian McNair producing 106 steals in 2018-19. Long is also far ahead of the GNAC per-game record of 3.62 set by Northwest Nazarene’s Alysson Kollmann in 2002-03.
   

GNAC Women's Basketball Single-Season Steals Leaders (as of Jan. 29, 2025)
Rank	Player	Steals	School	Season
1	Kiki Robertson	109	Alaska Anchorage	2016-17
2	Kian McNair	106	Alaska Anchorage	2018-19
3	Alysson Kollmann	105	Northwest Nazarene	2002-03
4	Kiki Robertson	100	Alaska Anchorage	2014-15
5	Emilia Long	95	Alaska Anchorage	2024-25
6	Taylor Simmons	94	Northwest Nazarene	2014-15
7	Marina Valles	92	Northwest Nazarene	2019-20
8	Trishi Williams	90	Western Washington	2012-13
	Kiki Robertson	90	Alaska Anchorage	2013-14
10	Shantell Marquis	89	Montana State Billings	2008-09
	Yazmeen Goo	89	Alaska Anchorage	2017-18

 

GNAC in the National & Regional Rankings

National top-25 rankings are released weekly by both the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (coach poll) and the D2 College Sports Communicators (media poll). The D2CSC also releases weekly regional top-10 rankings. Additional ranking information, including RPI projections, can be found in real time via Inkblot Sports online here. The official NCAA regional rankings, which will eventually determine the eight-team field for the 2025 NCAA West Region Championships, will be released towards the end of the season beginning in February, 2025.
 

WBCA National Top-25 Poll
Poll	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3
Preseason (10/29)	6. MSUB	RV WWU
Week 1 (11/19)	5. MSUB	RV CWU
Week 2 (11/26)	3. MSUB	RV CWU
Week 3 (12/3)	3. MSUB	RV CWU
Week 4 (12/10)	3. MSUB	RV CWU	RV UAA
Week 5 (12/17)	3. MSUB	24. CWU	RV UAA
Week 6 (12/31)	6. MSUB	RV UAA	RV CWU
Week 7 (1/7)	5. MSUB	RV UAA
Week 8 (1/14)	6. MSUB	RV UAA
Week 9 (1/21)	20. MSUB	RV UAA
Week 10 (1/28)	20. MSUB	RV UAA

 

D2CSC National Top-25 Poll
Poll	Team 1	Team 2
Preseason (11/5)	10. WWU	20. MSUB
Week 1 (11/12)	19. MSUB
Week 2 (11/19)	15. MSUB
Week 3 (11/26)	T10. MSUB
Week 4 (12/3)	16. MSUB
Week 5 (12/10)	12. MSUB
Week 6 (12/17)	9. MSUB
Week 7 (1/7)	9. MSUB
Week 8 (1/14)	9. MSUB	RV UAA
Week 9 (1/21)	24. UAA	RV MSUB
Week 10 (1/28)	RV MSUB	RV UAA

 

D2CSC West Region Rankings
Poll	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4	Team 5
Preseason (11/4)	1. WWU	3. MSUB	7. UAA	9. CWU
Week 1 (11/11)	2. MSUB	6. UAA	T7. WWU	T9. CWU	RV SFU
Week 2 (11/18)	2. MSUB	6. CWU	8. UAA	9. SFU	T10. WWU
Week 3 (11/25)	1. MSUB	6. UAA	7. CWU	8. SFU	RV WWU
Week 4 (12/2)	2. MSUB	6. UAA	7. CWU	RV SFU	RV SMU
Week 5 (12/9)	2. MSUB	6. UAA	7. CWU	10. SFU	RV WWU
Week 6 (12/16)	1. MSUB	6. UAA	7. CWU	10. SFU
Week 7 (1/6)	2. MSUB	5. UAA	8. CWU	T10. SFU	RV WWU
Week 8 (1/13)	2. MSUB	5. UAA	8. CWU	10. WWU	RV NNU
Week 9 (1/20)	4. UAA	5. MSUB	8. CWU	10. NNU	RV WWU
Week 10 (1/27)	4. MSUB	5. UAA	6. CWU	RV NNU

 

GNAC Players of the Week

 

Date	Player of the Week	School
11/4	Emilia Long	Alaska Anchorage
11/11	Sunny Huerta	Central Washington
11/18	Aspen Giese	Montana State Billings
11/25	Jada Travis	Saint Martin's
12/2	Alyson Deaver	Western Washington
12/9	Emilia Long	Alaska Anchorage
12/16	Aspen Giese	Montana State Billings
12/23	Dyauni Boyce	Montana State Billings
1/6	Olivia Wikstrom	Western Washington
1/13	Asher Cai	Central Washington
1/20	Tori Hollingshead	Alaska Anchorage
1/27	Sunny Huerta	Central Washington

?Jan. 27 GNAC Women’s Basketball Player of the Week
Sunny Huerta – Central Washington University
Fifth-career player of the week, second this season.
 
Huerta fueled her team to a pair of victories last week and broke the school scoring record in the process. In an efficient 28 minutes on the floor against Saint Martin’s on Thursday, Huerta made 9 of 10 field goals on her way to 25 points – her third-highest total of the season. She followed that by just missing a double-double against Western Oregon on Saturday, scoring 17 points and adding nine rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists. Overall on the week Huerta averaged 21.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 50.0% from the field (14-for-28). The Wildcat senior upped her season scoring average to 18.3 points per game, ranking her second in the conference.
 
CWU Head Coach Randi Richardson: “Sunny had a big week on the road for us. She stepped up huge in the second half of a very competitive SMU game where we never really were able to couple up stops and scores to go on a run. She always had a response for us, scoring 21 of 25 points in the second half and shooting an insane 90% from the field. Against WOU she backed it up with nearly a double-double and breaking our school’s all-time scoring record.”
 
Also Nominated: Jazzpher Evans, Alaska Anchorage; Destiny Reimers, Alaska Fairbanks; Dyauni Boyce, Montana State Billings; Kendall Clark, Northwest Nazarene; Jada Travis, Saint Martin’s; Emilia Bishop, Seattle Pacific; Sophia Wisotzki, Simon Fraser; Alyson Deaver, Western Washington.
 

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2024-25 All-Tournament Selections

D2CCA Tipoff Classic at the Trailhead
Nov. 1-3 at Billings, Mont. (Montana State Billings, Host)
MSU Billings: Dyauni Boyce; Aspen Giese
 
D2CCA Canadian Tipoff Classic
Nov. 1-3 at Langley, B.C. (Simon Fraser, Host)
Simon Fraser: Sophia Wisotzki
Seattle Pacific: Layne Kearns

Mt. McKinley Banks North Star Invitational
Nov. 15-16 at Fairbanks, Alaska (Alaska Fairbanks, Host
Alaska Fairbanks: Kayla Johnson; Taylor Pilot
Western Oregon: Natalie Brown

Yellowjacket Classic
Nov. 21-22 at Billings, Mont. (MSU Billings, Host)
MSU Billings: Dyauni Boyce; Kortney Nelson

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2024-25 GNAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll
Rank	Team (1st Place Votes)	Points	2023-24 Record	GNAC Record (Finish)	2024-25 Roster	2024-25 Schedule
1	Western Washington (4)	91	24-7	14-4 (2nd)	Roster	Schedule
2	Montana State Billings (5)	90	28-7	16-2 (1st)	Roster	Schedule
3	Alaska Anchorage (1)	79	19-9	13-5 (3rd)	Roster	Schedule
4	Central Washington	78	19-12	10-8 (T4th)	Roster	Schedule
5	Simon Fraser	59	17-14	10-8 (T4th)	Roster	Schedule
6	Northwest Nazarene	47	9-15	7-11 (7th)	Roster	Schedule
7	Saint Martin's	37	8-17	6-12 (8th)	Roster	Schedule
8	Seattle Pacific	34	11-18	8-10 (6th)	Roster	Schedule
9	Alaska Fairbanks	20	4-23	3-15 (T9th)	Roster	Schedule
10	Western Oregon	15	10-13	3-15 (T9th)	Roster	Schedule
Points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis

 

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2024-25 GNAC Women's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
Preseason Player of the Year: Sunny Huerta, Central Washington University
Name	School	Position	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous School
Tori Hollingshead	Alaska Anchorage	Forward/Center	6-3	Senior	Orem, Utah	Umpqua CC
Sunny Huerta	Central Washington	Guard	5-4	Senior	Whittier, Calif.	Saint Paul
Asher Cai	Central Washington	Guard	5-9	Junior	Colfax, Wash.	Colfax
Capri Sims	Central Washington	Forward	6-0	Sophomore	Post Falls, Idaho	Post Falls
Dyauni Boyce	Montana State Billings	Forward	5-11	Senior	Winifred, Mont.	Winifred
Aspen Giese	Montana State Billings	Guard	5-8	Senior	Fort Benton, Mont.	Fort Benton
Kortney Nelson	Montana State Billings	Guard	5-8	Senior	Scobey, Mont.	Scobey
Kendall Clark	Northwest Nazarene	Guard/Forward	5-10	Sophomore	Melba, Idaho	Melba
Madeline Gebers	Northwest Nazarene	Guard/Forward	6-0	Senior	Kennewick, Wash.	Spokane Falls CC
Sarah Lamet	Saint Martin's	Forward	6-4	Junior	Tigard, Ore.	Tigard
Hunter Beirne	Seattle Pacific	Guard	5-7	Senior	Mukilteo, Wash.	Kamiak
Schuyler Berry	Seattle Pacific	Center	6-3	Senior	Portland, Ore.	Grant
Sophia Wisotzki	Simon Fraser	Guard	5-10	Senior	Langley, B.C.	Walnut Grove Secondary
Mason Oberg	Western Washington	Guard	5-5	Junior	Vancouver, Wash.	Union
Olivia Wikstrom	Western Washington	Guard	6-1	Senior	Bainbridge Island, Wash.	Bainbridge