ANCHORAGE (Jan. 5) - Sophomore
Peter Bullock enjoyed a career shooting night and posted a double-double to lead the UAA men's basketball team to a 79-72 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory over Central Washington at the Sports Center tonight.
UAA (3-9, 3-0 GNAC) committed a season-low seven turnovers, while forcing 20 by Central (8-4, 1-3). CWU's Justin Thompson was the game's high scorer with 26 points to go with his 10 rebounds.
Bullock, a forward from Anchorage, shot 9 of 12 to rack up 21 points. His 11 rebounds gave him his team-best fifth double-double of the season.
Bullock's great shooting numbers came in large part off pinpoint feeds from point guard Bryson Vaughan, who dished a career-best 9 assists. Vaughan, a junior from Malad, Idaho, also had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals while playing the entire 40 minutes.
The Seawolf bench, which had struggled recently in non-conference losses to Angelo State, came through big Saturday, outscoring Central's subs 31-12. Shane Bannarbie led the charge with 11 rebounds and 5 rebounds, while guard Cody Gallatin had 9 points and guard Nathon Glover had 8 points in just 9 minutes to playing time.
After CWU staked itself to an early 10-6 lead, UAA stormed back to go up 22-15. The Wildcats then ran off seven straight points to knot the score before UAA finished the half on a 12-6 streak to go up 34-28 at half.
The Seawolves came out hot in the second half, building their biggest lead, 49-34, when Bannarbie hit a three-pointer with 14:58 remaining, then followed that with a layup 30 seconds later.
But the Wildcats made sure Thompson touched the ball on almost every possession, and they pulled within 66-65 with 2:57 left.
The Seawolves responded with a free throw and a driving layup by freshman guard Mark Drake - his only three points of the game - to go up 69-66. Bullock then hit a layup before he and Vaughan closed out the victory from the foul line.
UAA now hits the road for four straight GNAC games, beginning Jan. 10 at Western Oregon (6 p.m. AST).
