ANCHORAGE ? Jordan Brooks and Michael Freeman led a balanced scoring effort with 11 points apiece Wednesday to push their Hampton squad to a 69-61 victory over host Alaska Anchorage in the opening game of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout at Sullivan Arena.
The Pirates (2-2) shot 11 of 22 from three-point range and committed just 10 turnovers to hold off the Division II Seawolves (0-4).
UAA was led by a season-high 23 points from sophomore Div. I transfer Brandon Walker (Loyola Marymount), who shot 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from three-point range. Senior center Jeremiah Trueman scored a career-high 21 points (9-11 FG) and grabbed six rebounds for the Seawolves.
Brooks ? a 5-9 sophomore guard ? nailed 3 of 4 from long range, including on back-to-back possessions after the Seawolves had pulled within 51-46 at the 6:25 mark.
Senior guard Kenny Barker grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, but the Seawolves' go-to scorer managed just two points on 1-of-10 shooting. In fact, beyond Trueman and Walker, the rest of the Seawolves shot 7 of 31 from the field.
Hampton, the first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference school ever to appear at the 31-year-old tourney, moves on to face the winner of Northern Illinois and Portland State in Thursday's 5:30 p.m. AST semifinal. The Seawolves will play the NIU-PSU loser at noon Thursday.
