ANCHORAGE (Feb. 28) - The Seawolf women's basketball team got 62 points from four seniors to go out in style on Senior Night with a 76-64 victory over rival Alaska Fairbanks at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex tonight.
Forward Mindy Mendenhall led UAA (11-14, 6-10 GNAC) with a career-high 27 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while fellow senior Tanya Nizich poured in 18 points. UAF (9-15, 5-11) got 23 points from guard Adrienne Taalak.
Junior point guard Jessica Reilly stepped up for the Seawolves, scoring a career-high 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, on a night when senior star Kamie Jo Massey played only 31 minutes because of foul trouble. Massey wound up scoring eight of her 12 points from the free throw stripe, and recorded seven rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks before fouling out with 1:30 remaining and UAA up 62-54. It was the first time in 51 career games that Massey fouled out.
The game was tight throughout, featuring seven ties and 19 lead changes. Neither team led by more than four in the first half as UAF went to the locker room with a 32-31 edge.
UAA came out strong in the opening five minutes of the second half, taking a 41-36 lead on a Mendenhall layup and forcing a Nanook timeout. But UAF ran off the next seven points to take a 43-41 lead at the 12:51 mark.
Another Mendenhall layup was followed by a rare three-pointer from Reilly - just her fourth of the season - and Reilly added a fastbreak layup to make it 48-43.
The Nanooks took their final counterpunch, however, getting back-to-back threes from Taalak and Cecilia Chan to go up 52-50 with nine minutes left. UAA's defense clamped down at that point, holding UAF without a point for the next six and a half minutes.
Massey hit six straight free throws to put the Seawolves up 56-52 with 4:36 left, and the Nanooks never got any closer despite fouling down the stretch.
The win gave the Seawolves the first season sweep of their arch rivals since 1999-00, and equaled their overall and conference win totals from last season.
UAA, which is in a four-way battle for sixth place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, closes the year on the road at Western Oregon and Humboldt State.
