Monday, January 28, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. - Two road wins last week have catapulted Alaska Anchorage back into the Great Northwest Athletic Conference post-season tournament race and also earned them GNAC Team of the Week honors for Jan. 21-27.

First-year coach Ryan McCarthy’s team defeated Western Oregon 63-54 last Thursday at Monmouth, then edged Saint Martin’s 48-45 at Lacey moving them into a three-way tie for fifth place with the Saints and Seattle Pacific.

The top six teams will qualify for the conference tournament, which begins Wednesday, Mar. 6 at Lacey, Wash.

Alli Madison, who earned Red Lion Player of the Week honors, keyed the two wins scoring 32 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. 

Madison, who was filling in for the injured Sasha King at point guard, matched her career-high with 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting and dished three assists with just two turnovers in 36 minutes in Thursday’s win.  She also grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds against the Wolves for her first career double-double. 

On Saturday, she improved with 17 points, including 2 of 3 three-pointers, while adding five assists, five rebounds and a career-high four steals in 40 minutes.

The Seawolves played both games with only eight active players, two of whom average less than four minutes. In addition to Madison’s 40-minute effort, junior forward Kylie Burns went the entire way at SMU and senior forward Alysa Horn did the same at WOU.

Horn had 27 points and 18 rebounds.  She has now scored 963 career points and needs 37 more points to become the 51st player in the 12-year history of the conference to reach the 1,000 point career mark.

Burns had 21 points and 15 rebounds in the two wins.

The victories were UAA’s second and third straight on the road, where they remain this week to face nationally ranked Simon Fraser and Western Washington on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.