Monday, January 20, 2020

PORTLAND, Ore. – The nationally-ranked Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball team picked up GNAC play right where it left off last year: in the win column.

The Seawolves extended their winning streak to 13 games with a 79-67 victory over in-state rival Alaska on Tuesday and an 80-33 rout of Montana State Billings on Saturday to earn selection as the GNAC Team of the Week.

Tied with Alaska at halftime, 39-39, the Seawolves’ limited the Nanooks to just five points in the third quarter and then dropped 24 points in the fourth quarter to pull away. Three starters scored in double digits and the bench scored 28 points in the win.

Despite the 47-point victory over Montana State Billings, no UAA starters scored in double-digits in a primarily defensive game. The Seawolves limited the Yellowjackets to 22.6 percent shooting from the field and 17.2 percent shooting from three-point range. The Seawolves’ lockdown defense allowed just five points in the first quarter while blanking MSUB in the third quarter.

“We were not pleased with our performance on Tuesday and I think our ladies responded perfectly,” head coach Ryan McCarthy said about the win over the Yellowjackets. “It’s not often as a coaching staff that you can find virtually no faults in your team’s performance, but this was one of those nights.”

Junior forward Tennae Voliva led the Seawolves in Tuesday’s win over the Nanooks with 16 points to go with five rebounds, shooting 7 of 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from the free throw line. She then finished the week with seven points, six rebounds and two assists against the Yellowjackets as she shot 60 percent from the field. Voliva ranks second in the GNAC and 33rd in Division II with 157 total rebounds.

Senior guard Safiyyah Yasin scored 20 points and added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and a block in the pair of wins. Her week was highlighted by a 15-point performance in Fairbanks as she connected on 46.2 percent from the field while also contributing four rebounds, four steals, two assists and a block. Yasin is second in the conference and ranks 19th in Division II with 47 steals.

Junior guard/forward Sala Langi was the third of three Seawolves to score in double digits against the Nanooks. She scored 12 points to go with five steals, three rebounds and two assists. Langi also put up seven points against the Yellowjackets. She was a perfect 7 of 7 from the field on the week.

Junior guard Lauren Johnson led all scorers and was the only player to score in double digits in Saturday’s win over the Yellowjackets with a career-high 16 points, shooting 75 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc and 66.7 percent from the free throw line. Johnson also scored eight points on a perfect 4 of 4 shooting from the field against the Nanooks.

The Seawolves rank second in Division II with 261 steals while also ranking fifth with a 9.11 turnover margin and sixth in assists (321), scoring margin (+24.8 points per game) and scoring defense (51.8 points allowed per game).

The Seawolves’ current conference winning streak of 27 games dates back to Jan. 3, 2019 and is the second-longest behind Seattle Pacific’s 53-game streak that spanned from Feb. 9, 2002 to Feb. 5, 2005.

“We will celebrate this one for five minutes and get refocused for a couple of huge road games in the next week,” McCarthy said.

Alaska Anchorage improved to 18-1 overall and remains undefeated with an 8-0 conference mark. The Seawolves were ranked No. 6 in last week’s D2SIDA National Rankings and No. 7 in last week’s WBCA poll. They enter this week atop the D2SIDA West Region Rankings for the third straight week and will take to the road to play at Western Washington on Thursday and at Simon Fraser on Saturday.