Seth Hall is making the most of this odd college basketball season.
The Pacific Lutheran senior from Prairie High was named Northwest Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season for the week ending Feb. 28.
The 6-foot-3 guard was also named to the NCAA Division-III national team of the week by D3Hoops.com.
Hall scored 28 points in PLU’s 71-63 win over the University of Puget Sound on Sunday. That came one day after he scored 23 points in just 21 minutes of action in a 98-82 win over the Loggers.
Hall shot 60.6 % from the field for those two wins, which lifted the Lutes’ record to 7-1.
PLU is playing a 16-game schedule against three other D-III schools in Washington — Puget Sound, Whitworth and Whitman. But he Lutes have already seen four of those games postponed or canceled.
But that hasn’t stopped Hall, who is averaging a team-high 21.5 points per game, along with 6.8 rebounds.
Hall started 19 games as a junior, averaging 13.3 points and shooting 39% from 3-point range. He was named honorable mention all-conference.
Hall joined PLU after playing two seasons at Lower Columbia College in Longview.
At Prairie, Hall was the 3A Greater St. Helens League MVP as a senior in 2017.
Guermali hits stride at Gonzaga
Camas graduate Yacine Guermali ran an 8,000-meter time that only one other runner in Gonzaga history has beaten.
That other runner, James Mwaura, happened to finish just ahead of him.
Guermali placed second at the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships, held near Las Vegas on Feb. 24. The redshirt-junior’s time of 23 minutes, 07 seconds was five seconds behind Mwaura’s winning time, which set the Gonzaga 8K record.
Guermali and Mwaura helped Gonzaga place second in the team standings, matching the best finish in program history.
Gonzaga coach Pat Tyson praised his runners, especially considering the upheaval of the past year.
“”We’ve been frozen since November 2019,” Tyson said. “It’s been 15 months of the thrill of going to nationals in 2019 and just being left out, no track season in 2020, CoVID, smoky air season in Spokane, the isolation and having to train differently. People could have given up and quit, but our guys didn’t. These guys are self-starters, and it makes a coach proud.”
Guermali was the 4A state champion in 2016, his senior year at Camas.
Frimpong-Ellertson keeps WSU kicking
Coming off the best season in Washington State women’s soccer history, MacKenzie Frimpong-Ellertson is aiming to keep the Cougars in high gear.
As a freshman, Frimpong-Ellertson was a big reason the Cougars reached the NCAA Final Four for the first time in program history.
The King’s Way Christian grad played in 28 matches and scored four goals, including the game-winner over No. 3 Virginia to send the Cougars to the third round of the NCAA tournament. She was named to the Pacific-12 Conference All-Freshman team.
In four games this season, Frimpong-Ellertson has two assists as the Cougars have started 3-0-1. The forward got her first start of the season Sunday in a 2-0 win over Utah.
