ANCHORAGE – Rebecca Kielpinski had 15 points, 12 rebounds and a school-record eight blocked shots Sunday to help the Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team to its 10th straight victory with a hard-fought 70-62 decision over Southwest Minnesota State at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA (10-0) also got 10 points apiece from Jayci Stone and Mari Callahan to extend the best start in program history. SMSU (4-5) got a career-high 22 points from guard Kady Telschow and seven assists from Abby Oakland in the losing effort.
The Seawolves fell behind 5-0 to begin the game but took their first lead at 10-7 on a Stone three-pointer and never trailed again. The Mustangs, of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, used a 7-1 run to end the first half, however, and tied it three times early in the second stanza, the last at 32-32.
But Kielpinski, UAA's standout sophomore center, asserted herself with the game's next seven points and the Seawolves stretched their lead to 45-32 on Limor Pelleg's free throw with 10:57 to play.
While the Mustangs sliced their deficit to single digits on six more occasions, the visitors from Marshall, Minn., could not get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Callahan, a senior from Roosevelt, Utah, matched her career-high with five assists and scored all of her points in the second half to prevent a comeback by SMSU. Meanwhile, freshman point guard Keyona Brooks doubled her previous-best scoring output by making all eight of her free throws.
The 6-2 Kielpinski broke the Seawolves' previous school record of seven blocks (by Dana Bottoms vs Seattle, 2/22/01; and by Sonya Welch vs Denver, 1/7/89). She currently stands fourth on UAA's career blocks list with 82.
UAA has one more non-conference game remaining – a 5 p.m. AST tip vs Notre Dame de Namur, Dec. 29 at the WFSC – before beginning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule Jan. 3 against rival UAF at home.
