Box score, play-by-play
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Wrong time to go cold. And wrong opponent to go cold against.
Caitlyn Rohrbach, Jordan Harazin and Katie Benson scored 12 points apiece on Thursday, but some frigid second-half shooting by Seattle Pacific opened the door for Alaska Anchorage to come from behind and pull away to a 68-56 victory against the Falcons in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball game between nationally ranked teams.
The No. 25 Falcons (12-5, 6-3 GNAC) had beaten the 17th-ranked Seawolves (16-5, 7-3 GNAC) four straight times coming into Thursday's contest at the Wells Fargo Center. That included a 71-67 decision at home in Brougham Pavilion on Jan. 3.
Thursday's result helped Anchorage leapfrog Seattle Pacific into second place behind conference-leading Western Washington, which improved to 9-0 in GNAC play with a 64-59 victory against Northwest Nazarene.
SPU had a 29-25 lead at halftime, and stretched it to 32-26 early in the second half. The Falcons hit three of their first five shots coming out of halftime, including a 3-pointer from the left side by sophomore guard Rachel Murray (Bathurst, Australia) for a 38-33 lead with 15:40 to play.
But after that, Seattle Pacific drained just four of its final 23, and went for a span of 7 minutes, 21 seconds without a field goal. During that time, Alaska Anchorage expanded a 41-40 lead to 56-47 with 3:42 left.
“I think we just started settling for 3's,” Falcons head coach Julie Heisey said. (SPU was 3 of 13 in the second half, 6 of 23 for the game from downtown.) “In the first half, we did a pretty good job of attacking the basket. We tried to emphasize at halftime that we had to attack more, and we emphasized ball reversal. Last time against them, we did a pretty good job of shooting mid-range jumpers. We didn't do that tonight.”
The Falcons never got closer than that nine-point margin the rest of the night against the GNAC's top-ranked defensive team. The Seawolves came in allowing a conference-low 53.2 points and limiting their opponents to just 35.8 percent success from the field.
SPU wound up shooting 33.3 percent for the night (17 of 51). Anchorage hit 20 of 54 (37 percent).
“Part of it is it's so important to get into a flow offensively – if you don't, it's just hard to score,” Heisey said. “We had some good looks. We had shots, and we just didn't make them, and (the Seawolves) made shots when they needed it, that's for sure.”
Junior guard Nyesha Sims, although she was limited to just three points, grabbed nine of Seattle Pacific's 38 rebounds. The Seawolves pulled down 36 boards.
Hanna Johansson and Alyssa Horn scored 17 points apiece for Anchorage, with Johansson getting 13 of hers after halftime.
SPU led for most of the first half, extending it to as many as seven points at 25-18. The Seawolves went on a 7-0 run to climb back into a tie before the Falcons scored the last four points to take a four-point lead into the locker room.
“Bottom line, I think we did some really good things in the first half,” Heisey said. “We put in a new zone defense, and they scored just once time against it. We did a good job rebounding in the first half, and we played with a lot of energy.
“Unfortunately, we've had a lot of leads at halftime and haven't been able to finish. (In its last three losses, Seattle Pacific has been ahead at the break.) We have to start working on some of those things and figure out why are we breaking down in the second half.”
The Falcons return to action on Saturday at Alaska Fairbanks at 2 p.m. PST. Seattle Pacific beat Fairbanks on New Year's Day in Seattle, 80-64, and has won 18 straight against the Nanooks.
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wells Fargo Center/Anchorage, Alaska
(No. 17) Alaska Anchorage 68, (No. 25) Seattle Pacific 56
SEATTLE PACIFIC (12-5, 6-3 GNAC)
Harazin 3-5 4-4 12, Rohrbach 5-14 0-0 12, Benson 3-5 6-7 12, Maloney 3-11 3-6 10, Murray 1-3 1-2 4, Reich 1-5 1-4 3, Sims 1-5 1-2 3, Reimer 0-0 0-0 0, Callen 0-0 0-1 0, Gorman 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 17-51 16-26 56.
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (16-5, 7-3 GNAC)
Johansson 4-12 9-11 17, Horn 6-12 3-4 17, McBride 2-6 8-9 12, Aden 3-8 0-0 9, Robison 3-5 0-2 6, Mathews 1-4 2-2 5 Denson-Griffin 1-2 0-0 2 Burns 0-0 0-0 0, De Angelis 0-3 0-0 0, Herrin 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 22-28 68.
Seattle Pacific..................... 29 27 - 56
Alaska Anchorage.............. 25 43 - 68
3-point goals – Seattle Pacific 6-23 (Rohrbach 2-5, Harazin 2-3, Maloney 1-5, Murray 1-3, Gorman 0-2, Sims 0-3, Benson 0-2), Alaska Anchorage 6-20 (Aden 3-8, Horn 2-5, Mathews 1-4, De Angelis 0-1, Herrin 0-2.
Fouled out – Seattle Pacific none, Alaska Anchorage – De Angelis.
Rebounds – Seattle Pacific 38 (Sims 9), Alaska Anchorage 36 (Robison 6, Horn 6, Aden 6).
Assists – Seattle Pacific 14 (Maloney 4), Alaska Anchorage 14 (McBride 7). Total fouls – Seattle Pacific 20, Alaska Anchorage 19.
Technical fouls – Seattle Pacific – None, Alaska Anchorage – None.
A – 470.
Records – Seattle Pacific 12-5, 6-3 GNAC. Alaska Anchorage 16-5, 7-3 GNAC.
Next game – Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, Saturday, 2:00 p.m. PST.
