Thursday, March 3, 2016

LACEY, Wash. – Jeffrey Parker’s 31 points led No. 6 Western Washington to the first upset of the GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships Thursday as the Vikings defeated No. 3 Alaska Anchorage 78-73 at Saint Martin’s University’s Marcus Pavilion.

The First Team All-GNAC senior had one of his best individual performances of the season as he went 11 of 15 from the field and 5 of 8 from three-point range. He led a Western Washington team that rebounded from a rough start to shoot 43.6 percent from the field (25-55).

Parker led three Western Washington players scoring in double figures. Ricardo Maxwell finished with 18 points while Kyle Impero had a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Sekou Wiggs, the GNAC Newcomer of the Year, led Alaska Anchorage with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, which included a 9 of 11 performance from the free throw line. Brian McGill scored 16 points and Corey Hammell added 10 as the Seawolves finished shooting 37.9 percent from the field (22-58).

With the win, Western Washington (16-14) advances to face No. 2 Alaska in the first semifinal game on Friday at noon. Alaska Anchorage drops to 21-11 overall.

After coming out flat over the first two minutes of the game, Alaska Anchorage went on a 15-4 run, paced by eight points by Wiggs, to take a 15-8 lead with 11:50 left in the opening half. Western Washington bounced back with a 12-6 run of their own and Parker’s three-pointers with 8:07 to go brought the Vikings within 21-20 and took a 25-24 lead on Brett Kingma’s trey at the 6:36 mark. The scoring torrent continued as the Vikings closed the half on a 31-15 run to take a 39-30 lead at the half. Maxwell paced the Vikings with 13 points.

As expected, Alaska Anchorage charged back with a 17-7 run over the first five minutes of the second half and took the 47-46 lead on Christian Leckband’s three-pointer at the 15:15 mark. The Vikings did not lay down, rallying to take a 62-59 lead on Parker’s fourth three-pointer of the game with 7:38 left. Neither team led by more than four points until another Parker trey put Western Washington up 66-61 with 5:51 to go. He then had two free throws late to make it a 73-65 lead with 2:40 left.

Both teams performed well at the free throw line. Alaska Anchorage, who entered the week ranked No. 2 in Division II in free throw shooting, finished shooting 85.2 percent (23-27). Western Washington shot 82.1 percent (23-28).