Layne Kearns finished her last playing stretch of the 2025–26 season with 26 points at Alaska Anchorage and 32 at Alaska Fairbanks. Then an injury ended her year.

As Seattle Pacific approaches another regular season, those two games offer a more useful introduction to its senior guard than a preseason label alone. They show different ways to build a scoring night, and they explain why Kearns remains a player worth following even with the Falcons picked near the bottom of their conference.

The GNAC’s preseason all-conference announcement includes Kearns among 15 selections for 2026–27. The conference credits her with career-best averages of 12.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists last season. Her recognition arrives with an established college record, rather than an expectation built entirely on potential.

Two games, different scoring routes

Seattle Pacific’s postseason awards report describes the first half of that Alaska weekend. Against Anchorage on January 22, Kearns made ten field goals, including four three-pointers, while adding eight rebounds and six assists. SPU made a program-record 19 threes in that game.

Two days later, the official Fairbanks box score shows a different balance: Kearns went 8-for-18 from the floor, 2-for-4 from three and 14-for-18 at the free-throw line in a 69–56 victory. Fourteen of her 32 points came at the stripe.

Those performances offer a practical way to watch a scorer. A productive night need not depend on the same shot falling at the same rate. One game featured four made threes and substantial passing. The other required repeated trips to the foul line. The box scores establish those results without telling us that every drive, foul or defensive coverage worked the same way.

For SPU, maintaining multiple routes to points would make Kearns harder to reduce to a single assignment. An opponent preparing only to contest the perimeter could still have another kind of problem to solve.

Growth before the career highs

Her SPU biography documents the progression. Kearns averaged 5.7 points as a freshman, then 10.6 while starting all 31 games as a sophomore. That second season included 35 made threes and 68 makes in 78 free-throw attempts.

The longer record helps distinguish the Alaska burst from an isolated appearance by an unfamiliar player. Kearns had already taken on a larger workload and supplied a full season of starts. Last winter’s scoring peaks added to that history before the injury interrupted it.

A past injury should not become a guessed medical update. The preseason recognition establishes how the conference views her basketball résumé; game-by-game availability still belongs to current team information.

The team task is broader

The Falcons were picked ninth in the GNAC coaches poll. They also return senior guard Haylie-Anne Ohta, who averaged 3.2 assists in 2025–26, and senior center Naomi Hotchkiss. Kearns will have experienced teammates around her, not an entirely new group to introduce.

Individual recognition does not settle the team’s prospects. The useful test will be how SPU combines its returning players’ strengths over complete games, particularly when a leading scorer is not having a career night.

The official schedule lists the regular-season opener at Cal State LA on November 13. For viewers getting reacquainted with the Falcons, No. 22 is a sensible place to start. Follow the shot-making, but keep watching when she passes, rebounds or earns a trip to the line.