ANCHORAGE (Jan. 26) -
Peter Bullock bulled his way through a succession of Northwest Nazarene defenders Saturday night on his way to a career-high 40 points, leading the UAA men's basketball team to an 81-71 win at the Sports Center.
The sophomore forward became the first Seawolf since Jason Kaiser in 1994 to score 40 in a game, while UAA (6-12, 6-3 GNAC) also got 20 points from guard Mark Drake. NNU (6-11, 4-6) got a huge game from forward Kevin Richard with 27 points and 16 rebounds.
Bullock shot 16 of 27 from the field, including 1 of 2 threes, and was perfect on seven free throws. He also blocked two shots, including a crowd-awing stuff of Richard as he attempted a dunk on the first possession of the second half. Richard drove through the lane and appeared to have a clear path the basket, but Bullock snuck behind another player and came from the side, stopping Richard squarely at the top of his windmill-dunk attempt.
Six-foot-six from Anchorage's East High School, Bullock became just the fifth Seawolf to score 40 in a game, joining Bo Jackson (1978), Rich Rust (1977), Jessie Jackson (three times, 1986-87) and Kaiser (1994). Bullock joined Western Oregon's Robert Day as the only Great Northwest Athletic Conference players with 40 points this season, but Day scored his 41 in a double-overtime game.
Meanwhile, Drake, a leading candidate for GNAC Freshman of the Year, reached the 20-point plateau for the fourth time, hitting 8 of 18 shots (4-10 3FG) and dishing seven assists. He joined Bullock and point guard Bryson Vaughan as the only Seawolves to play all 40 minutes this year.
Sophomore Josh Evans continued his impressive play off the bench, pulling down a career-high 11 rebounds and scoring 6 points.
UAA led 42-31 at halftime and pushed the lead as high as 58-39 with 13:04 remaining. But the Crusaders made a run behind the Richard and front-court mate Larry Graves (16 points), cutting it to 63-56 six minutes later.
But the Seawolves responded with two layups by Bullock, a free throw from Evans and finally a three from Drake to push the advantage to a more comfortable 71-57. UAA shot well from the line down the stretch, finishing 15 of 19. Vaughan was 4-for-4 on charities, boosting his percentage to 88.2, third-best in the GNAC.
The Seawolves have six days off before hosting arch-rival Alaska Fairbanks at the Sports Center on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m.
