Sunday, March 1, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball team won two games last week, one over conference leader Western Oregon, to earn Red Lion Hotels Team of the Week honors.

The Seawolves (16-12, 12-6 GNAC) earned the No. 4 seed in the GNAC tournament this week with their victories over WOU and Saint Martin’s.

This is the fifth year in a row the Seawolves have finished in the top four in the final GNAC standings.

First-team GNAC guard Travis Thompson scored a team-high 33 points, including 22 against SMU, while starting guard Derrick Fain added 32.

Alaska Anchorage outscored the 20th-ranked Wolves in the first-half and rode that momentum to an 80-78 victory over the first-place team.

“I’m very proud of this group tonight,” head coach Rusty Osborne said. “We came and executed the game plan. I thought we had a very good mental game. As we got into the flow of the game I thought we loosened up a little bit and started having success offensively.”

UAA climbed back from an eight-point deficit early in the game to take a four-point lead into halftime.

The Seawolves and the Wolves were trading baskets in the second half and WOU eventually tied the game at 69 with less than five minutes in regulation.

Kalidou Diouf dropped-in two on an assist from GNAC honorable-mention guard Brian McGill and the Seawolves never looked back, beating the Wolves in their second-to-last home game.

UAA had four players scoring in double-figures, including Christian Leckband’s 16 and Dom Hunter’s 14 off the bench.

In Saturday’s contest against Saint Martin’s, the senior’s took control in their last game at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The four seniors, Thompson, Fain, Boomer Blossom and Brad Mears combined for 48 points. The four made 11 of the teams 19 three-pointers in the 101-67 win.

The Seawolves scored eight straight points two different times in the first half to take a 14-point lead at the break.

“I thought we had a pretty complete effort,” Osborne said. “We didn’t make a lot of shots early, which tends to happen on senior night. I thought we were patient and defended really well.”

Mears scored on an old-fashion three-point play early in the second half and Hunter and Thompson hit all three free throws after being fouled on back-to-back plays. By the end of the half, 42 of the team’s 56 second-half points came from either the three-point or the free throw line.

Thompson hit a team-high six three-pointers in the game and seven of the week. The senior guard has now hit at least one three-pointer in 42 straight games, dating back to Jan. 11 of last season.

“It’s nice to get this momentum going in to the conference tournament,” Thompson said. “Everyone’s happy, everyone’s up and that’s what we need, especially with the guys we have in our locker room. The more confidence we have the better we play.”

The Seawolves and their GNAC-leading 39 percent three-point shooters will take on the No. 5 seed, Western Washington, in the quarterfinals of the GNAC tournament Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Mountain.