Friday, March 8, 2024
by Evan O'Kelly, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Overcoming a slow start on Friday evening at Nicholson Pavilion, No. 6 seed Alaska Anchorage knocked off No. 2 seed Northwest Nazarene 64-63 to reach its fourth GNAC Championships title game in program history.

UAA held its breath through a desperation attempt by NNU with 0.4 seconds on the clock, completing a comeback from what was at one point a 10-point deficit for its second straight upset win. The Seawolves, who beat No. 3 seed Saint Martin’s 81-76 in Thursday’s quarterfinals, improved to 22-9 on the year, while the Nighthawks slipped to 17-10 with the defeat. UAA advances to the championship game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 1 seed Montana State Billings and No. 4 seed Central Washington.

Seniors Sawyer Storms and Tyson Gilbert took command with their team trailing 54-53 inside of five minutes to go, combining to knock down three consecutive threes to give UAA its largest lead of the game at 62-56. Storms followed his back-to-back treys with an emphatic blocked shot, spurring a defensive effort by the Seawolves that limited NNU to 2-for-7 shooting with two turnovers in the final two minutes.

Gilbert finished with a team-high 14 points on 4 of 8 accuracy from long range, while adding four rebounds and three steals in 34 productive minutes. Storms and Dillon Barrientos contributed a dozen points apiece, and Sloan Lentfer matched his season high with 10 rebounds to lead all players on the glass. UAA shot 44.4% overall (24-for-54), including 12 of 30 threes (40.0%), but made just 4 of 11 free throws (36.4%).

NNU was led offensively by a trio of double-figure scorers in Gabriel Murphy (12 points), Christian Rose (11 points) and Tru Allen (10 points). Rose led NNU to a slight 32-31 advantage in rebounding with a team-high eight of his own, while Allen and Murphy chipped in six apiece. Allen, the active GNAC leader in career steals, upped his total to 163 which ranks him 14th in conference history.

The Nighthawks started the game on an 8-0 run, as UAA struggled to generate offensive momentum early on. A 3-pointer by Barrientos finally broke the nearly four-minute dry spell to open the evening, and the Seawolves kept pace with the Nighthawks over the next 10 minutes of action.

Aaron Murphy scored consecutive buckets after subbing into the game with four minutes to go in the first, giving the Nighthawks their first double-figure advantage up 31-21. NNU kept itself in front in the closing minutes, and went into halftime with a 35-29 lead.

UAA worked itself back into the game early on in the second half, converting on a pair of second-chance opportunities. After a Dathan Satchell three at the 16:48 mark cut the spread to 40-36 in favor of NNU, the score never extended beyond a two-possession spread for the rest of the game.

While Storms’ clutch threes gave UAA the late lead, a chaotic final 90 seconds of action made for a dramatic finish. The Seawolves held tough through an ensuing turnover, which resulted in a trey attempt by Allen that circled the rim before rattling out. The near-miss would have tied the score at 64-64, but instead the Seawolves settled for allowing a last-ditch layup by NNU that wasn’t enough to tie the score.

NNU shot 44.2% (23-for-52) overall, 33.3% (4-for-12) from long range and 76.5% (13-for-17) from the free-throw line. NNU committed 15 turnovers while UAA had 14, and the Nighthawks out-scored the Seawolves in the paint 38-22.

GAME NOTES: Friday marked the second meeting between the teams at the GNAC Championships, with UAA winning 85-76 when the teams met on March 5, 2020 in Seattle…the teams split their regular-season meetings in 2023-24…UAA last made it to the GNAC Championships title game in 2020, when it lost 81-78 to Western Washington…UAA’s other appearances were a 74-70 loss to MSU Billings in 2012 and an 83-71 loss to Central Washington in 2011.