ANCHORAGE (Feb. 1) - The trio of Shane Bannarbie, Bryson Vaughan and Blaine Durrant came off the bench to lift the UAA men's basketball team to a 78-68 comeback victory over Western Oregon at the Sports Center tonight.
Junior forward Peter Bullock led the Seawolves (8-10, 5-4 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) with game-highs of 23 points and 15 rebounds and teamed with the reserves to bring the Seawolves back from an eight-point deficit in the second half.
Western Oregon (9-9, 2-7) got 18 points from Robert Day and 17 from Sean Kelly, but the two Wolves stars - the first- and third-leading scorers in the conference - were held to just 10 combined points in the second half.
UAA fell behind from the outset and trailed 45-37 with 12 minutes to play before Durrant nailed a three-pointer at the 11:11 mark to spark a huge rally. A Vaughan free throw and consecutive layups from Scott Stevens and Bullock tied it at 47, and Durrant finished the 12-0 spurt with a pair of free throws that made it 49-47.
Drew Summers' three-pointer put WOU up by a point with 8:20 left, but the Seawolves responded with a 6-0 run to take the lead for good.
At halftime, UAA trailed 31-30 and had a combined zero points, one assist and two rebounds from Vaughan, Bannarbie and Stevens. Durrant did not see action in the first 20 minutes.
The second half was a different story as those players put off respective numbers of: eight points and six rebounds from Durrant; 10 points from Bannarbie; seven points and three assists from Stevens; and three points and seven assists from Vaughan. Vaughan matched his season-high with eight assists for the game.
Once UAA took the lead, Bannarbie helped stretch it with eight straight points, including a pair of threes, that made it 63-57 with 5:52 left. WOU would get no closer that five from that point, with Bullock controlling the boards and UAA hitting 9-of-14 free throws in the last two minutes.
The Seawolves' bench outscored the Wolves' reserves 35-11 and recorded a 13-2 advantage in assists.
Bullock's double-double was his 10th of the season and moved him past Todd Fisher (1988-90) alone into the second place on UAA's career list with 28. His point total also moved him past Chris Hamey (1995-00) for sixth on the Seawolf career scoring list with 1,177 points.
UAA takes to the road next week to begin the second round of GNAC play at Central Washington (Feb. 6) and Saint Martin's (Feb. 8). Both games begin at 6 p.m. AST and can be heard in Anchorage on AM-550 KTZN "The Zone" or over the Internet at this site (using RealPlayer).
