ANCHORAGE (Mar. 8) - The UAA men's basketball team suffered a season-ending loss against an unlikely antagonist Saturday as Northwest Nazarene came back from a 10-point, second-half deficit to beat the Seawolves 79-74 at the Sports Center.
Peter Bullock had his 16th double-double of the season for UAA (13-14, 10-8 GNAC), but it was guard Larry Graves that played the hero for NNU (5-21, 3-15 GNAC) with 19 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
UAA fell behind early as the visitors from Nampa, Idaho, built a 27-20 lead with 9:38 left in the first half. But the Seawolves closed strong as sophomore guard Mark Drake scored 13 of his 17 points before the intermission to give UAA a 45-42 lead.
The Seawolves seemed to have the game under control as a 10-2 run gave them a 60-50 advantage with 13 minutes remaining. However, the Crusaders answered with three straight three-pointers to cut their deficit to 60-59. Bullock, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, scored on an assist from Bryson Vaughan to put UAA back up by three before NNU's Tyler Jeans nailed another trey to tie it 62-62 with 9:12 left.
UAA scored the next four points but then went on a six-minute scoreless drought, allowing the Crusaders to take over. Two free throws by Ryan McCarthy (11 points) completed NNU's 12-0 run that made it 73-66 with two minutes to play. The Seawolves got no closer than four points the rest of the way.
UAA, which shot a miserable 27-of-71 (38 percent) from the field and 11-of-22 from the free throw line, lost the game despite committing only eight turnovers.
Vaughan, a senior point guard, dished a game-high 11 assists, while freshman swingman Adam Fitt-Chappell was the third Seawolf in double-figures with 11 points. Junior center Bob Austin had 10 rebounds, pulling down double-digit boards for the second straight game.
The loss gave UAA its first back-to-back losing seasons in the 26-year history of the program and snapped a five-game winning streak against the Crusaders. Despite the setback, the Seawolves finished in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with Central Washington and Western Washington.
