ANCHORAGE (Nov. 25) ? Nicci Miller scored 15 of her game-high 19 points in the first half Tuesday as two-time defending tournament champion Alaska Anchorage opened the women's portion of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout with a 72-44 blowout of Cal State Northridge at Sullivan Arena.
The Seawolves (6-1) ? ranked No. 9 in NCAA Div. II ? scored their fifth straight Shootout win as they posted their largest margin of victory ever against a Div. I program.
The Matadors (0-5), of the Big West Conference, got 10 points off the bench from freshman center Neeta Sreekanth as they lost for the 10th straight time dating back to last season.
After pulling out four nerve-wracking, single-digit victories in the past two Shootouts, the Seawolves left little doubt in their 2008 opener, racing to a 10-3 lead and never trailing. A three-pointer by senior guard Jackie Thiel (9 pts, 5 reb, 3-3 3FG) made it 19-7 midway through the first half, giving the Seawolves a double-digit lead for good.
Miller, a junior forward, took over from there, hitting a series of driving layups and three-pointers (3-7 3FG). The transfer from Central Arizona College capped the half by dropping in a 28-foot trey just before the buzzer that made it 39-13. The Seawolves' defensive effort marked its fewest points allowed in a half against a D-I opponent.
UAA pushed its lead as high as 58-18 with 12:09 remaining.
Miller had a game-high eight rebounds for UAA, while starting guards Elisha Harris (6 rebounds) and Kiki Taylor tallied 10 points apiece. Seawolf senior Rebecca Kielpinski, the Most Outstanding Player of the last two Shootouts, had a relatively quiet game but still wound up with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks.
UAA is now 28-47 all-time in the Shootout, with all but one of those victories coming over D-I programs. Tuesday's winning margin topped UAA's previous best against any D-I school (74-51 vs Nicholls State, Dec. 17, 1989 at El Paso, Texas) and in the Shootout (74-52 vs Nevada, Mar. 14, 1980).
The Seawolves, who outrebounded the Matadors 49-27, move on to Wednesday's 5 p.m. AST championship game against the winner of the late Syracuse-Jackson State matchup.
