ANCHORAGE (Feb. 11) - Rebecca Kielpinski broke her own UAA freshman scoring record with 31 points and the Seawolves shot a season-high 59 percent Saturday to record a 70-64 upset of Central Washington at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA (10-11, 3-9 GNAC), which had four players go the entire 40 minutes, was also boosted by 13 points apiece from freshmen Sarah Jones and Limor Pelleg. CWU (12-8, 7-6) was led by 17 points from guard Ashley Fenimore.
The Seawolves recovered from an early 9-4 deficit to tie the game at 20-20 on a three-pointer from Jones (4-6 FG, 3-4 3FG, 2-2 FT) with 7:23 to play in the first half. At that point, the Seawolves had committed 10 turnovers, but they made only two more the rest of the half and took a 34-27 lead into the break.
CWU, No. 9 in this week's NCAA Div. II West Regional rankings, quickly sliced its deficit to 34-32 on baskets by Hanna Hull and Jamie Corwin (14 points), but the Seawolves answered back and built their advantage to 54-43 on Kielpinski's three-pointer at the 10:11 mark.
The Wildcats cut its back to 56-49 less than two minutes later before UAA went on a 9-2 spurt of its own, taking its largest lead at 65-51. CWU made one last charge, crawling within 68-64 with 17 seconds to play, but Jones clinched the win with two free throws.
The victory snapped a 4-game losing streak against CWU and avenged a 93-54 setback against the Wildcats last month in Ellensburg, Wash.
Also coming up huge in the victory were senior forward Kelsey Larsen (7 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists) and junior guard Mari Riser, who did a little bit of everything with six points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Riser, Larsen, Kielpinski and Pelleg never came out of the game for UAA, which used just six players.
Kielpinski, who two weeks ago broke Seawolf Hall of Famer Robin Graul's freshman scoring record with 30 points at Northwest Nazarene, topped herself by going 13 of 19 from the field and 4 of 8 from the free throw line. She also dished a career-best eight assists.
UAA's 27-of-46 overall shooting was its best of the season, while its 60 percent (6 of 10) three-point shooting was its second-best percentage this year.
The Seawolves return to the road next week for Great Northwest Athletic Conference games at Seattle University (Feb. 16) and Saint Martin's (Feb. 18).
