Saturday, March 4, 2017

LACEY, Wash. – No. 1-seeded Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball knocked down 12 of 24 shots from 3-point territory on its way to a 79-70 win over No. 2 Western Washington for a third consecutive GNAC Championship and third win this season against Western Washington on Saturday at Marcus Pavilion.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Autummn Williams scored 28 points, making four of the Seawolves’ tournament record-tying 12 treys, while Tara Thompson made 5 of 6 from beyond the arc for 17 points. The Seawolves (28-1) win the GNAC’s automatic bid into the NCAA West Regional next week, which Alaska Anchorage is expected to host. The Vikings (25-5) will find out where they land in the West Regional bracket on Sunday. They have won 19 of their last 21 games with the only losses coming to the Seawolves during their 25-game winning streak.

The Seawolves offense exploded in the second half scoring 24 points in both the third and fourth quarters, making 15 of 30 field goals in the second half. Alaska Anchorage trailed by as much as four in the third quarter, but Williams and Alysha Devine both made lay-ups before Thompson knocked down a triple to give Alaska Anchorage the lead for good.

Later in the third quarter, Alaska Anchorage snowballed its lead with an 8-0 run started by a 3-point play from Shelby Cloninger. Williams then hit a lay-up after getting a steal. The Seawolves forced another Viking turnover and Hannah Wandersee got open from a pass by Devine and drilled the trey for a 54-44 lead.

The Seawolves lead got as large as 13 with Thompson’s fifth 3-pointer followed by a Williams free throw in the fourth quarter. The Vikings got that down to five with 93 seconds left in the game, but the Seawolves hit six free throws in a row down the stretch to secure their 29th consecutive win against an NCAA Division II team.

GNAC Player of the Year Taylor Peacocke led the Vikings with 22 points, breaking the GNAC single season scoring record in the process. Simon Fraser’s Erin Chambers set the record at 692 in 2015, but Peacocke broke that record late in the third quarter with a 3-pointer and went onto become the first GNAC player to record a 700-point season, which now stands at 702 points.

Kiki Robertson had six points, six assists and two steals for UAA, moving to within one steals of the GNAC’s single season steals record of 105. Robertson also has 688 career assists, which is just four away from the top 20 list in Division II history. Williams made 10 of 21 field goals in the victory to get within two field goals of the GNAC single season field goal record.