ANCHORAGE (Feb. 11) - Kemmy Burgess had 22 points and six assists and the Seawolf men's basketball team played a near-flawless game Saturday to beat nationally 5th-ranked and league-leading Seattle Pacific 89-75 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

The Seawolves (16-9, 7-6 GNAC) shot 51 percent from the floor and committed a season-low seven turnovers to move over .500 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play for the first time. SPU (19-3, 11-2), which suffered just its second loss to a Division II team, was led by forward Dustin Bremerman's 17 points and five assists.

Joe Davis scored 17 points (5-9 FG, 7-9 FT), while seniors Brian Hills and Adam Fitt-Chappell chipped in 10 apiece for UAA.

After seven early lead changes, the Seawolves went on a 12-0 run that was capped by an Eric Draper (8 points, 2-4 3FG) three-pointer, making it 23-13. The Falcons, the top-ranked team in the West Region, would slice their deficit to one on three occasions, pulling within 33-32 at the 4:50 mark on a jumper by point guard Tony Binetti (16 points). A turnaround jumper by Carl Arts and a driving layup by Luke Cooper (7 assists, 1 turnover) started UAA's 10-0 first-half-ending run, however, that culminated with a 15-footer by Burgess with one tick left.

After the break, the Seawolves quickly pushed to their largest advantage of the night, 54-37, when Hills (3-4 FG, 4-6 FT, 5 rebounds) converted a feed from Cooper with 16:54 remaining.

SPU battled back to cut its deficit to single digits several times, ultimately pulling within 72-66 on a pair of Bremerman free throws at the 7:45 mark. After neither team converted on their ensuing possessions, UAA senior Aaron Lawrence hit his biggest shot of the season, a three-pointer that stretched the lead to nine. Burgess (6-14 FG, 2-6 3FG, 8-8 FT) sank a pair of charities moments later, and the Falcons never again got closer than eight.

The victory, which snapped SPU's 5-game winning streak, was UAA's second over a ranked opponent this season.

After winning five of their last seven games, the Seawolves are now tied for fourth with arch-rival Alaska Fairbanks in the GNAC standings with five games to play. UAA is half a game behind Humboldt State in the race for third place, setting up a major battle with the Lumberjacks next Saturday (Feb. 18) in Arcata, Calif.

Before that, however, UAA must play at Western Oregon on Thursday, Feb. 16. That game begins at 6 p.m. AST and can be hard in Anchorage on AM-550 KTZN "The Zone," or over the internet on this site.

NOTES: Fitt-Chappell is now just two points shy of becoming the 15th Seawolf to accumulate 1,000 career points, and Burgess needs only 22 more to join that list with 165 assists, Cooper is just slightly off pace to break UAA's single-season assist record of 200 (Bryan Anderson, 1992-93).