SEATTLE -- Oggie Pantovic tallied 23 points Friday, including a three-point play that produced the go-ahead points for fifth-seeded Alaska Anchorage, which upset host and top-seed Seattle Pacific, 86-85, in the semifinal round of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament.
 
The defending-champion Falcons had rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit to gain a few brief leads late in the contest. Consecutive pairs of free throws, by Divant'e Moffitt and Gabe Colosimo, drew them even with UAA at 83-83 with 1:02 remaining.
 
Pantovic gathered the ball inside on the next possession and made a layup while being fouled. His ensuing free throw provided an 86-83 edge with 42.6 seconds showing on the clock.
 
Shaw Anderson's layup trimmed that margin to 86-85 with 27 seconds left, but neither team managed to score after that.
 
Twice inside the last 20 seconds the Falcons had possession with a chance for the winning points as Anchorage players missed the front end of one-and-one free throw situations. But Harry Cavell's shot from close range rimmed off with seven seconds remaining and Moffitt's running 3-pointer from the left side missed the mark as time expired.
 
The Seawolves (20-13) advance to Saturday's conference championship game against No. 2 seed Western Washington. The 5 p.m. matchup will be contested on Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion.
 
WWU defeated No. 6 Alaska Fairbanks 76-64 in Friday's first semifinal. The Vikings have one GNAC Tournament title to their credit, in 2017, and Anchorage has never hoisted the league's playoff trophy.
 
Seattle Pacific (22-7) won the GNAC regular-season title by a five-game margin. The 18-2 conference record included victories in both meetings versus Anchorage. But the league's automatic bid goes to the tournament champion, so the Falcons will view Sunday night's NCAA Division II Tournament selection show seeking an at-large berth.
 
SHAW  ANDERSON DUNK
Moffitt finished with 28 points to pace all players. He hit 8 of 17 shots from the field to go with 11-for-13 accuracy from the line.
 
Four other Falcons reached double-figure points, Colosimo with 17 and Anderson with 12 along with 11 apiece from Cavell and Filip Fullerton.
 
SPU shot 52 percent after halftime (15 of 29) and 48 percent for the game (29 of 60), but was unable to overcome the 56-percent performance of the Seawolves (31 of 53) that featured 13-for-28 accuracy on treys. That was the highest percentage posted by a Falcons' opponent this season.
 
Pantovic hit 7 of 9 shots and 8 of 10 free throws to go along with seven rebounds. Niko Bevens collected 18 points, all of them coming on 6-for-12 shooting on 3-pointers, and Tyrus Hosley had 16.
 
After the Falcons claimed their final lead, at 79-77 on a banked jumper by Moffitt with 2:53 left to play, Hosely answered with consecutive 3-pointers. The latter trey provided an 83-79 UAA margin at 1:41.
 
Scoring came in threes for the Falcons in the opening five minutes as 3-pointers by Fullerton and Cavell sandwiched a conventional three-point play by Colosimo. That provided an early 9-6 lead as UAA countered with treys by Bevens.
 
The game was tight early on with five ties and 11 lead changes. The 10th change came after SPU's Moffitt drove into the lane and nailed a floating jumper for a 30-29 edge with 7:42 left in the first half.
 
The final first-half lead change occurred 19 seconds later when Hosley's 3-point put the Seawolves ahead for good, 32-30.
 
It was a six-point game, 38-32, in favor of UAA with 4:42 showing on the clock and both teams shooting just over 50 percent. That's when the visitors heated up and the Falcons cooled.
 
Anchorage closed with a 12-4 spree by hitting its final five shots. SPU missed eight of its last 10 shots of the half to find itself on the short end of a 50-37 halftime scoreline. The differential would have been wider, but Cavell grabbed a missed UAA free throw and went coast-to-coast on the dribble before finishing with a two-handed dunk to conclude the half.

HARRY  CAVELL DUNK

The first-half stats were even in many categories with just one rebound separating the teams and each had five turnovers with matching 6-for-8 free throw ledgers.
 
It was 3-point shooting that proved decisive in the first half with UAA nailing half (8) of its 16 attempts and the Falcons making just 3 of 8 treys.
 
At intermission the Seawolves were shooting 62 percent overall (18 of 29) and SPU had 45-percent accuracy (14 of 31).