Friday, March 15, 2019

LA JOLLA, Calif. – One week removed from being named the GNAC Player of the Year, Alaska Anchorage senior Hannah Wandersee played up to her top award in Friday's NCAA Division II West Region quarterfinal against No. 6 seed Hawaii Pacific.

The forward/center led all scorers with 22 points while also pulling down six rebounds to lead the third-seeded Seawolves (29-2) to a 76-69 victory over the Sharks (23-9) at RIMAC Arena.

Wandersee connected on 8 of 13 from the field and made both three-pointers she attempted as UAA shot 38.5 percent from the field. Guard Safiyyah Yasin who held things down in the backcourt, coming off the bench to finish with an effective 11 points in just 16 minutes of action.  

Guard Starr Rivera led HPU with 18 points as she went 7 of 14 from the field.

It was Hawaii Pacific who led this one early, stringing together some stops on the defensive end of the floor to stake itself to an early 11-6 lead in the West Regional lid-lifter. That, however, would be its last lead of the game.

A monster 24-1 run quickly turned that five-point deficit into an 18-point lead for head coach Ryan McCarthy's team, an advantage it wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the afternoon. Yasin poured in eight of Alaska Anchorage's final 12 points in the second stanza, giving her club a 37-28 edge at the halftime break.

A hot start to the second half promptly pushed its lead back to double digits as the Sharks were unable to stop a balanced Seawolves attack. Five different players made the first five buckets of the third quarter as UAA opened up a 15-point lead at 45-30.

The margin would remain at a comfortable distance until the final minutes, when HPU was able to mount a last-ditch run to pull within one possession at 72-69.

Wandersee and senior Sydni Stallworth would ultimately step up, however, each making a pair of free throws in the contest's final 30 seconds to seal the deal on the 76-69 victory.

With the win, the region's No. 3 seed will face the winner of the Northwest Nazarene-Humboldt State quarterfinal on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. A Nighthawks victory in that quarterfinal would set up a rematch of Saturday's GNAC Championships title game, which saw NNU outlast the conference's regular-season champion for a six-point win.