ANCHORAGE – Carl Arts scored a career-high 27 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Alaska Anchorage to a comeback victory over Northwest Nazarene, 60-57, in men's basketball action at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex on Saturday.
UAA (11-3, 2-1 GNAC) also got five assists apiece from center Ivan Platenik and swingman Trenton Millar in the hard-fought contest. NNU (6-9, 1-3) was led by 13 points apiece from Kendall Gielow and Justin Parnell.
After jumping to a 9-6 lead in the opening minutes, the Seawolf offense went flat when standout point guard Luke Cooper went to the bench with two fouls. The Crusaders took advantage with a huge run, eventually stretching to a 35-23 lead on Parnell's transition three-pointer with 57 seconds to play in the half.
The Seawolves responded with a Cameron Burney free throw and Arts grabbed an offensive rebound to set up Millar for a three that cut the home team's deficit to 35-27 at the break.
The spurt continued in the second half as Arts (10-15 FG, 1-2 3FG, 6-7 FT) found his offensive rhythm to lead UAA to the first 11 points of the half, culminating in a traditional three-point play and a layup that made it 38-35.
Despite playing with the lead, the Seawolves could not put the Crusaders away as the visitors from Nampa, Idaho, stayed within single digits. The Seawolves led 58-51 when Arts made two free throws at the 2-minute mark, but NNU had one last comeback of its own.
After Parnell made a pair of charities, UAA's Eric Draper (8 pts, 4 rebs) missed a layup at the other end, setting up a traditional three-point play by Casey Fisher (12 pts) with 54 seconds left. The Crusaders – the No. 1 free-throw shooting team in NCAA Div. II (80.2 percent) – then came up with a steal and Fisher went to the line when he was fouled by Arts on a loose-ball scramble.
Fisher, however, missed his team's only free throw of the night (16-17) on the first of two attempts, leaving his team trailing by one point. The Seawolves then had trouble inbounding the ball as Draper stepped out of bounds for UAA's 17th turnover.
Parnell drove the lane and tried to draw contact on a short jumper, but it came up short and Arts corralled the rebound in traffic and got fouled with 2.9 seconds left. The junior from Valdez made both free throws and NNU's Marcus Clift could not get his tying attempt off before the buzzer.
For Arts, who also had two assists, two blocks and three steals, it was a banner offensive evening as he broke his career-best scoring output of 20 that he had reached on five occasions.
It was the first win for the Seawolves this season when shooting under 50 percent (19 of 41, .463) as a team. UAA also failed to have two players reach double-figure points for the first time this year – one week after putting six in double digits in a win over Central Washington.
The game ended a 5-game homestand for UAA, which must play its next four Great Northwest Athletic Conference game on the road, beggining with a 6:30 p.m. AST showdown at Saint Martin's on Jan. 18.
