Vikings Edge Western Oregon In OT

Steve White helped lead Alaska Anchorage past SPU

Western Washington let a late lead slip away, but recovered to defeat Western Oregon 89-81 in overtime at the New P.E. Building in Monmouth Thursday extending its win streak to six games.

The win kept the Vikings (19-3, 10-1) one-half game ahead of second-place Alaska Anchorage (16-4, 10-2), which won its fifth in a row beating Seattle Pacific 78-69 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

Senior guard Steve White helped key UAA's win with 15 points and five assists.

Montana State Billings (13-7, 8-4) also extended its win streak to four with a 75-64 road win at Alaska Fairbanks to move into a tie for third-place in the GNAC with Seattle Pacific (16-5, 8-4).

Simon Fraser (7-12, 2-9), meanwhile, got a half-court buzzer beater from Justin Brown to defeat Saint Martin's 88-85 at Marcus Pavilion.

Western Washington, ranked No.16 in this week's NABC Top 25 Poll, avenged its only conference loss of the season (an 83-73 defeat to WOU in Bellingham on Jan. 7) as John Allen led the way with 19 points.

Guard Kyle Long paced the Wolves with a game-high 26 points, including a fastbreak layin with five seconds left that forced overtime. Guard Blair Wheadon added 23 points.

Wheadon also had four steals to become just the fourth player in GNAC history to record 200 or more in a career. He now has 202.

The Vikings, who led by as much as 16 in the second half, had a 12-point lead (74-62) with five minutes left, but the Wolves (14-7, 7-5) ran off eight straight points to close the gap to four, then eventually pulled to within two (76-74) with 1:17 to go on a layup by James Gehring.

WWU then missed three shots, the final one with 10 seconds left. Gehring rebounded and threw an outlet pass to Long, who drove the length of the floor to tie the game.

WOU had an 80-77 lead early in overtime, but the Vikings took over, scoring on their next four possessions to grab an 85-80 lead with 1:13 left. Two free throws each by Richard Woodworth and Allen preserved the triumph.

Woodworth had 16 points, all of them after halftime.  The Vikings' Rory Blanche contributed 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Chris Mitchell had 12 points and Zach Henifin added 11.

The Vikings were seven of seven on three-pointers in the first half, and finished 12 of 18 tying a school-record for a game by hitting 66.7 percent of their treys.

Alaska Anchorage 78, Seattle Pacific 69

White lead a balanced scoring effort and help No. 21 Alaska Anchorage to a nine-point victory over Seattle Pacific.

In addition to White's 15, UAA also got 16 points and three assists from Travis Thompson as it earned a regular-season split with the Falcons. It's the seventh year in a row the two teams have split their games.

Seattle Pacific was led by game-highs of 22 points and seven assists from David Downs, but the Falcons were unable to dig out of an early hole and lost its seventh straight game at the WFSC.

The home team has now won the last 13 games in a series that includes 62 all-time meetings.

The Seawolves got off to a good start when Colton Lauwers and Kyle Fossman combined for three three-pointers in the first three minutes, and Abebe Demissie hit a jumper to make it 18-6 before the first official timeout.

Lauwers finished with his highest-scoring game since Dec. 29, tallying all 11 of his points in the first half to lead UAA to a 41-30 lead.

The teams traded baskets through much of the second half, with SPU making its biggest push late. The Falcons sliced an 11-point deficit almost in half on a pair of free throws by Downs and a trey from Jake Anderson with 4:30 left, making it 63-57.

White answered by hitting one of two free throws, and the Seawolves pushed the lead back to double figures with 3:12 on the clock when Thompson dialed up a long trey from the top of the key.

SPU, which won the rebounding battle 31-21, didn't get closer than nine the rest of the way.

The Seawolves got eight or more points from six different players, including 13 points on five of six shooting from Taylor Rohde.

Fossman finished with nine points on three of three three-point shooting, while Demissie tallied eight points.

Meanwhile, White, a fourth-year point guard, continued the finest offensive stretch of his career by shooting four of seven from the field and seven of nine at the free throw line.

The Australian also added four rebounds and committed only one turnover while playing a game-high 36 minutes. White now has 43 points over the last three games.

Montana State Billings 75, Alaska Fairbanks 64

Jaxon Myaer and Antoine Proctor scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, leading Montana State Billings to an 11-point road win at The Patty Center as Alaska Fairbanks (4-18, 1-11) lost its ninth game in a row.

The Yellowjacket converted on 50 percent (26-52) of their shots, including 14 of 24 in the second half. UAF was held to a 38.9 percentage, making 21 of 54.

Myaer made four of nine three-pointers, while Proctor made four of six treys. Overall the two combined for 15 field goals in 27 attempts. Taylor Stevens also was in double figures with 14 points.

Stevens hit three treys, all during a stretch in the second half when MSUB took control of the game.

The game was tied six times, but Stevens hit a pair of treys to put MSUB ahead for good. A fewer moments later the Yellowjackets scored 10 consecutive points on three-pointers by Myaer and Stevens, two free throws by Stevens and a layup by Robert Mayes to go ahead 52-41.

Alaska Fairbanks, which was led by Sergej Pucar with 21 points, never got closer than seven the remainder of the way.

The Nanooks also were led by Nico Matthews with 14. Carthal McDonald scored 11 points.

Simon Fraser 88, Saint Martin's 85

Simon Fraser led 85-77 with just 41 seconds left, but Saint Martin's (8-13, 4-8) scored eight consecutive points, tying the score 85-85 on Ryan Votaw's three-pointer with just four seconds remaining.

But Brown took the inbounds pass, dribbled to half court and launched a desperation shot that hit nothing but net.

“I make them all the time in practice,” Brown said. “It felt good coming out of my hands.”

Brown, who scored his team's first nine points of the game, equaled a GNAC season-high with his 35 points, which is 20 above his season average. Earlier this season both Antoine Proctor of Montana State Billings and Lacy Haddock of Central Washington had 35-point efforts.

“Justice was probably served,” SMU coach Keith Cooper said. “The guy who beat us all night sank the game winner at half court.”

Cooper thought the shot was good when it left Brown's hands. He just wasn't sure Brown got it off in time.

SMU's big three – Jeremy Green, Brok Pendleton and Roger O'Neill – combined for 66 of their teams 85 points. Pendleton led with 26 points, Green added 25 and O'Neill had 15.

SMU was in comeback mode all night. Down 38-37 at half time, the Saints trailed 72-62 on Brown's lay-in with 5:25 left. And just as the Saints have done all season, they rallied again with an 8-2 run, closing to 74-70 on O'Neill's basket with 2:50 left.

But then SFU led 85-77 on Brown's two free throws with 41 seconds left, seemingly icing the win.

But the Saints rallied again. Pendleton started the surge with two free throws to shrink the lead to six. Votaw then buried his first of two three-points in the run, cutting the gap to 85-82 with 17 seconds left.

Then on the inbounds pass, O'Neill swatted at the ball, bouncing it off a SFU player and out of bounds to force a turnover. Brady Bomber then missed a three-pointer, Green rebounded and passed to an open Votaw, who coolly rattled in a three-pointer to tie the score with four seconds left.

Until Votaw's back-to-back treys, SMU went one for 15 from three-point. But for the game, SMU shot well enough to win, going 35 for 65 (54 percent) from the field.

Simon Fraser, which had lost seven of its last eight games, shot 56 percent (17 of 30) from the field in the second half. Most of those were lay-ins. The Clan scored 26 points in the paint.

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