ANCHORAGE ? Senior point guard Luke Cooper broke his own school and Great Northwest Athletic Conference record with 17 assists Thursday at the 9th-ranked Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team motored to a 90-46 win over Montana State Billings at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
Carl Arts scored 23 points and Chris Bryant added 21 points and three blocks for UAA (21-4, 12-1 GNAC), which posted its largest margin of victory in the 54-game history of the rivalry.
MSUB (1-24, 1-13) was led by 19 points from freshman guard John Brooks.
Brooks did most of his damage in the first half to keep the Yellowjackets within 37-28 at the break, and his three-pointer on the first possession of the second half cut the Seawolf lead to just six points.
But there would be no more drama as Arts converted an incredible backdoor feed from Cooper, and the Seawolves held the Yellowjackets scoreless on their next 11 possessions during a 20-0 spurt.
Cooper ? whose previous mark of 16 assists was set last year against UMKC and this season against Alaska Fairbanks ? passed another milestone as he moved into seventh place on the all-time NCAA Div. II assists list. With 793, the Aussie is now just eight shy of the No. 6 spot and 12 short of No. 5.
He committed only one turnover Thursday in 25 minutes of playing time, helping UAA establish a new school record with a mere four team turnovers.
Arts (11-15 FG), Bryant (7-9 FG, 5-7 3FG) and McCade Olsen (17 pts, 6-8 FG, 5-6 FT) were the beneficiaries of most of Cooper's passes as the trio outscored Billings single-handedly with 61 points on 75 percent shooting.
As a team, UAA outshot the Yellowjackets 59.7 percent to 34.9 percent and outrebounded them 37-17, marking the second-fewest rebounds ever allowed by a UAA squad.
The Seawolves set a team season-high with 30 assists also, while holding the Yellowjackets to just six helpers.
With second-place Central Washington idle Thursday, the Seawolves extended their GNAC lead to two full games over the Wildcats.
Regionally 5th-ranked CWU will travel to arch-rival Western Washington on Saturday, while UAA, ranked No. 1 in the West Region, is back in action that night for a 7 p.m. home showdown against region No. 8 Seattle University (16-7, 9-5).
