Thursday, March 3, 2022

SEATTLE, Wash. – A 17-0 run midway through the second half turned a 10-point deficit into a seven-point lead which got Alaska Anchorage off and running for the rest of the game.

The No. 3 Seawolves dropped 51 points in the second half, coming from behind after trailing by double digits, to beat No. 6 Seattle Pacific 88-75 in the GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships quarterfinals at Royal Brougham Pavilion. Oggie Pantovic led the way with a 27-point, 10-rebound double-double while Tobin Karlberg added 21 points.

Ahead for UAA (14-8) is a match-up with in-state rival Alaska in the semifinals. The No. 10 Nanooks knocked off No. 7 Simon Fraser and No. 2 Northwest Nazarene to be one of the final four teams.

For Seattle Pacific (14-12), it’s likely the end of a season in which the Falcons entered as a unanimous coaches’ selection to win the conference, but only managed a 7-8 conference record and the sixth seed in the tournament.

The Falcons looked like the better team for the first half of the game, jumping out to a 15-12 lead on two jumpers from Harry Cavell and eight straight points from Divant’e Moffitt. The next five field goals for SPU were all three-pointers, including three from Bijon Sidhu, as the Falcons built some distance. Seattle Pacific led by as much as 13 with nine minutes left in the first half.

Alaska Anchorage chipped away, cutting the deficit to just four at halftime after three-pointers from Keegan Crosby and Vojtech Ruzek followed by a driving layup from Karlberg, but the Falcons spread the scoring load around and took a 60-50 lead on a Cavell layup with 13:21 to go in the game.

The Falcons would not score again until the 6:49 mark. In the meantime, Alaska Anchorage went on a 17-0 run that took the score from 60-50 Falcons to 67-60 Seawolves. Nine of the 17 points came from Karlberg. Pantovic had four, and Crosby hit a dagger three-pointer in the midst of the run that extended a one-point UAA lead to four. Crosby finished with 15 points and six rebounds and shot 4 of 5 from beyond the arc.

While SPU mostly cooled in the second half, Moffitt did not. The senior guard finished with 26 points and scored SPU’s last eight points of the game. Moffit shot 9 of 17 from the field and a perfect 8 of 8 from the free-throw line.

Seattle Pacific shot 51 percent from the floor and outscored UAA 32-26 in the paint, but Alaska Anchorage converted 14 three-pointers to SPU’s seven. The Seawolves shot 48 percent from the field and 45 percent from three-point range and also had a major rebounding edge, grabbing 33 boards to SPU’s 21.