Tuesday, January 27, 2015
PORTLAND, Ore. – No. 3 Alaska Anchorage controls its destiny in the GNAC at the halfway point of the season while the nine other teams push to the end for the best seeding in the GNAC tournament
The Seawolves are two games up on everyone else in the conference and have won 18 total games already, almost reaching the 19 wins the team had all of last year.
If the Seawolves win the rest of their games before the GNAC tournament, they would tie for the best conference record in GNAC history and be the fourth UAA team to have at least 27 wins in a season.
Meanwhile, three GNAC teams, SPU, WWU and SFU, are tied in second with 6-3 records.
No. 22 Seattle Pacific is coming off a down week, losing only its second and third games of the season. Western Washington has had more consistent play as of late, having won six of its last seven. Simon Fraser continues to lead the conference in made three-pointers while winning four of its last six.
Central Washington pulled out an overtime win against NNU to stay close to the top of the pack, only one game out of second place. Alaska currently would hold the sixth, and final, spot at the GNAC tournament if the season ended today.
Saint Martin’s, the Red Lion Hotels Team of the Week, won two big games last week over MSUB and Seattle Pacific to pull within one game of Alaska. The Yellowjackets also picked up a win on a last second layup from senior Kayleen Goggins over Western Oregon Saturday on ROOT SPORTS.
Western Oregon and Northwest Nazarene have some work to do, but have the potential to come back and insert themselves in the tournament race. Both have quality wins on their resume, the Wolves having defeated Seattle Pacific and NNU handing UAA its only loss of the season the first part of the year.
Only the top six teams will be traveling to the GNAC tournament, hosted by MSUB in Billings, Mont. March 4-7, where the winner receives an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
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