ANCHORAGE – The Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team used its strong inside presence to forge a huge second-half comeback Thursday that fell just short in a 68-65 loss to Seattle Pacific at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
McCade Olsen and Carl Arts led the Seawolves (9-3, 0-1 GNAC) with 13 points apiece, but the defending league champion Falcons (8-4, 1-0) got a game-high 22 points from guard Dustin Bremerman and 18 points from forward JoJay Jackson to hang on.
UAA – which premiered in Wednesday's first NCAA statistical rankings as the third-best field-goal percentage team in Division II (.538) – shot a paltry 9 of 26 (.346) in the opening 20 minutes as SPU built a 37-16 lead and led 40-21 at the break.
The Falcons still led 59-42 with 10 minutes to play when the Seawolves made their move. Joe Davis (10 pts) and Ivan Platenik (10 pts, 5-6 FG) scored on back-to-back dishes from point guard Luke Cooper (7 assists, 0 turnovers) to start a 10-1 UAA spurt, and the Seawolves sliced it to 63-59 with 4 minutes left on a pair of Cooper free throws.
Olsen made it 64-61 with two more charities as the Falcons continued to go without a field goal for the game's final 10 minutes.
When SPU's Casey Reed missed a three-pointer with 40 seconds left, the Seawolves capitalized and cut it to 66-65 when Trenton Millar scored his only basket of the night on a backdoor feed from Arts.
Jackson missed a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession, and Davis grabbed the rebound as UAA called a set play. The Seawolves' execution worked perfectly, freeing Davis for an open inside look, but the 6-7 forward's layup attempt rolled teasingly off the rim and Jackson was fouled with 1.8 seconds showing.
Jackson made his free throws and Cooper's desperation attempt from 60 feet came up about 12 inches short at the buzzer.
SPU outrebounded UAA 35-23 on the opening night of Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
The loss snapped a 4-game winning streak for the Seawolves and was only their second at the WFSC in the last two seasons.
The Seawolves will try to crack the league win column again Saturday when they host Central Washington (6-6, 1-0) at 7 p.m.
