Friday, March 10, 2017

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Host and No. 1 seed Alaska Anchorage used a 21-2 run that spanned the second and third quarters to defeat No. 8 seed Hawaii Pacific 63-56 in the first round of the NCAA West Regional on Friday in the Alaska Airlines Center.

The last time the Seawolves hosted the West Regional, they were eliminated by another PacWest team and they were in danger of a similar result two years later. The No. 3 team in the PacWest, Hawaii Pacific, led the Seawolves 26-18 in the second quarter when the No. 2 team in the nation responded with a 21-2 scoring run.

Alaska Anchorage held the Sharks (21-7) scoreless for the first nine minutes of the run and Autummn Williams tallied the final six points of the run to give the Seawolves (30-1) a 39-28 lead late in the third quarter. The Seawolves extended the run to 28-4 with a 3-pointer by Tara Thompson that was enough to hold off a late run by HPU as the GNAC regular season and tournament champions won their 30th game of the season. The Seawolves also have a 26-game winning streak, which is just four games away from the all-time GNAC record. Four more consecutive wins would also put the Seawolves in the NCAA Division II championship game for the second year in a row.

Just like during the volleyball NCAA West Regional, which was also hosted in the Alaska Airlines Center, the women’s basketball version also features three GNAC teams in the semifinals with Alaska Anchorage joining Simon Fraser, who will be its semifinal opponent, and Western Washington, which is on the other side of the regional bracket.

Starting in a GNAC all-time record-breaking 127th career game, Kiki Robertson picked up three fouls in the first six minutes of play and didn’t step back on the court for the rest of the half. The Seawolves struggled to adjust without the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year on the floor. But as she has done so many times this year, Williams put the UAA offense on her back, sparking the run with a jumper in the second quarter. At the end of the first half, Williams then knocked down a triple that would give the home team the lead for good.

Williams finished with a team-high 23 points to push her total this season to 664 points. She has now also made a GNAC single-season record 251 field goals this year while maintaining a 50.5 field-goal percentage. Robertson had one steal in the second half, giving her a GNAC single-season record-tying 105 steals. Thompson finished the game with 15 points, making 4 of 9 attempts from beyond the arc.

The Seawolves game against No. 5 seed Simon Fraser will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Alaska Anchorage defeated the Clan during both meetings in the regular season, starting and finishing GNAC play in the regular season against SFU.