ANCHORAGE (Jan. 15) - The Seawolf men's basketball team erased a 19-point deficit Saturday, but visiting Saint Martin's made the big plays it needed in the end as the Saints escaped the Wells Fargo Sports Complex with a 79-76 victory.
Mark Drake and Adam Fitt-Chappell combined for 39 points for UAA (8-7, 2-4 GNAC), while Saint Martin's (5-9, 2-3) was led by 21 points from guard Joe Chirhart.
The Seawolves led briefly, 3-2, in the early-going, but the Saints stormed ahead and went to the locker room with a 46-31 lead. Chirhart, a junior from Anchorage's Dimond High School, had 19 of his points in the opening 20 minutes, going 5-for-5 from three-point range.
The Saints opened a 50-31 edge a minute into the second half before UAA started its comeback. Seawolf center Bryan Freshwater (career-high-tying 12 points, 5-7 FG) sliced the deficit to single-digits at 67-58 with a layup at the 8:47 mark.
After a Saints basket, the Seawolves went on an 11-0 run that was capped by two Freshwater free throws, tying it 69-69 with 2 minutes left.
With his team scoreless for the last six minutes, Saints point guard Jabbar Gray then took matters into his own hands, scoring driving layups on two straight possessions to put his squad to stay.
After another Freshwater basket, both teams traded a pair of free throws to make it 75-73. Chirhart, who had not scored in the second half, then went to the line with 10 seconds remaining and sank both shots. UAA raced down and got a three-pointer from Drake with 5 seconds left, cutting it to one again.
Saints guard Anthony Di Tomassi calmly buried his free throws with 4.3 on the clock, but his teammates did little to guard on the inbounds pass, and Drake had a wide-open attempt from the top of the key that bounced off the rim at the horn.
Drake finished with 20 points (5-11 3FG, 3-3 FT), while Fitt-Chappell had 19 points and a team-high six rebounds.
Seawolf point guard Luke Cooper dished six assists against zero turnovers, but his counterpart, Gray, was the hero in the end, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers.
Forward Brendan Campbell had a double-double (10 points-10 rebounds) for the Saints.
The victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for Saint Martin's and was the Olympia, Wash., school's first-ever in nine tries in Anchorage.
Things get even tougher for the Seawolves as they begin a three-game road swing with games at 14th-ranked Western Washington and Seattle Pacific next week.
