Box Score Box score, play-by-playSEATTLE – Before the scoreboard clock – and the 2015 calendar – ran out of time, the Seattle Pacific Falcons ran out of points.
Brian McGill scored on a driving lay-up with 5.2 seconds left on Thursday to cap 19-7 scoring run through the final 8½ minutes as Alaska Anchorage knocked off No. 9-ranked SPU in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball contest, 61-59.
The Falcons (9-2, 2-1 GNAC) had their nine-game winning streak snapped.
"In all reality, it wasn't the last eight minutes," head coach
Ryan Looney said. "The whole game, we were sluggish. We just weren't ready to play a game after Christmas break. I thought early in the game, how hard we were willing to play defensively wasn't anywhere close to where we were playing earlier in the year."
Sekou Wiggs poured in 21 points and had 10 rebounds in Brougham Pavilion on New Year's Eve afternoon for the Seawolves (10-4, 3-0 GNAC). It was Wiggs who gave his team a 57-56 lead by hitting the second of two free throws with 1:17 left.
UAA was up 59-57 with 33.1seconds to go when
Will Parker drained two free throws to lift Seattle Pacific into a 59-59 tie. The Seawolves brought the ball into front court and called timeout with 23.1 seconds left. When action resumed McGill held the ball in a dribble near midcourt as the clock wound down. He then drove into the lane from the left side and laid it in for the last of his 11 points.
The Falcons got it into front court, but Parker's 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short off the rim.
"They're a good team – credit to them," Looney said of the Seawolves. "They didn't do a whole lot different than what we thought we would see. … We weren't the same team tonight that we've been."
SPU, which plays host to Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday at 7:00 p.m., had a 52-43 lead with 8:23 left in the game, having gone on a 21-6 run spanning the end of the first half and the first seven-plus minutes of the second half.
Senior center
Gilles Dierickx (Ghent, Belgium) led the Falcons with 16 points. Senior forward
Mitch Penner (Seattle / Kennedy HS) added 12, and junior guard Parker (Sammamish, Wash. / Skyline HS) finished with 10.
Seattle Pacific shot a season-low 33 percent from the floor (18 of 54) against Anchorage, and just 5 of 26 from downtown. The Seawolves hit 40.4 percent (23 of 57), but also was cold from long range at 21.1 percent (4 of 19).
The Falcons won the boards, 44-32, although UAA came up with some big offensive boards during its rally.
"On a night like tonight where you shoot terribly from the floor and your defense and rebounding aren't as good as they were earlier in the year, it's going to be hard to win against anybody," Looney said.
It was 37-31 for the Seawolves when SPU found some spark. The Falcons got the final four points of the half on a tip-in by Dierickx and a fast-break lay-up by
Brendan Carroll to close within 37-35 by halftime.
They kept it going at the outset of the second half, putting the first 10 points on the board to cap a 14-0 run and take a 45-37 advantage. Anchorage missed its first 10 shots of the half and didn't score until 12:24 remained in the game – a stretch of nine minutes without a point, spanning the two halves.
Senior guard
Bryce Leavitt (Kennewick, Wash. / Kennewick HS) led the Falcons with nine rebounds and four assists.
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
Alaska Anchorage 61, (No. 9) Seattle Pacific 58
ALASKA ANCHORAGE (10-4, 3-0 GNAC)Spencer Svejcar 3-7 0-0 8, Corey Hammell 2-6 5-6 9, Jackson McTier 0-0 0-00, Sekou Wiggs 9-22 3-6 21, Diante Mitchell4 -7 1-1 9, Christian Leckband 1-3 0-0 3, Damien Fulp 0-2 0-0 0, Travis Parrish 0-1 0-0 0, Tayler Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Drew Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, Brian McGill 4-9 2-3 11, Brian Pearson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-57 11-16 61.
SEATTLE PACIFIC (9-2, 2-1 GNAC)Mitch Penner 2-8 7-8 12,
Garrett Swanson 0-6 0-0 0, Gilles Diericks 7-14 2-3 16,
Bryce Leavitt 3-6 12-2 8,
Will Parker 2-7 4-4 10,
Sam Simpson 0-0 0-0 0,
Kevin Johnson 0-0 0-0 0,
Brendan Carroll 2-7 0-0 5,
Joe Rasmussen 2-4 0-0 4,
Nathan Streufert 0-2 4-4 4. Totals 18-564 18-21 59.
Alaska Anchorage 37 24 -- 61
Seattle Pacific 35 24 -- 59
3-point goals – UAA 4-18 (Svejcar 2-3, Hammell 0-1, Wiggs 0-5, Mitchell 0-2, Leckband 1-3, Fulp 0-1; McGill 1-3), SPU 5-26 (Penner 1-4, Swanson 0-5, Leavitt 1-3, Parker 2-7, Carroll 1-5, Rasmussen 0-2).
Fouled out – SPU: Diericks.
Rebounds – UAA 32 (Wiggs 10), SPU 44 (Leavitt 9).
Assists – UAA 7 (McGill 3), SPU 10 (Leavitt 4).
Turnovers – UAA 6, SPU 10.
Total fouls – UAA 23, SPU 19.
Technical fouls – None.
Attendance – 215.
Next game -- Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Jan. 2, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion
