College Hoops: Seattle U. women edged by Saint Mary's

Northwest |

The Seattle University women's basketball team fell 63-56 to Saint Mary's on Monday evening at the Connolly Center.

Tatiana Heck had 15 points and a team-high five rebounds for the Redhawks (2-10), who got within a point of the Gaels twice in the last four minutes of the game but could never take control.

Special foe for SU

The Seattle University men's basketball team returns home tonight to face UC Irvine, the school where coach Cameron Dollar got his coaching start 12 years ago. Game time is 7:10 p.m. at KeyArena.

Dollar was an assistant under Pat Douglass for a year at Irvine that he says laid the foundation for the coaching career that has led him to Seattle U. "He's a great mentor and friend," Dollar said of Douglass.

The Redhawks played eight of their first 10 games away from KeyArena.

Fishing

The Lower Columbia tributary spring chinook forecasts appear to be better than past years, with a preseason forecast of 19,400 for the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis rivers.

Last spring, 7,200 adult spring chinook were predicted to return to the all three rivers, and the actual return was 7,200. The three-year-old jack returns were improved and in some cases the highest in years.

The Cowlitz River is expecting 12,500 adult fish, compared to 4,900 that returned last spring; the Kalama River is expecting 900, compared to 350; and the Lewis is expecting 6,000, compared to 1,900.

Notes

• Washington State will host a basketball doubleheader Saturday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick as part of the Tri-Cities Cougar Classic. The Cougars women will face San Francisco at 1:35 p.m., and will be aired at 10 p.m. on FSN. The Cougars men will play Portland State at 4:30 p.m. live on FSN.

• Eastern Washington center Brandon Moore and Portland State guard Phil Nelson, a former Washington Husky, shared the honor of Big Sky Conference men's basketball player of the week.

• Eastern Washington linebacker J.C. Sherritt was named to the Walter Camp Football Foundation 2009 Football Championship Subdivision All-America team.

• Portland guard Laiken Dollente, a native of Yakima, was named the West Coast Conference women's basketball co-player of the week.

Compiled from sports-information reports and other sources. Staff reporters Bob Condotta and Mark Yuasa contributed to this report.