ANCHORAGE ? Alaska Anchorage sophomore Lonnie Ridgeway came off the bench to score a game-high 19 points Thursday, but it wasn't enough against the Great Northwest Athletic Conference leaders as Western Washington earned a 69-54 victory over the Seawolves at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA (10-11, 4-4 GNAC) also got 15 points and five assists from senior guard Kenny Barker, but was foiled by its worst three-point shooting and rebounding performances of the season.
Meanwhile, WWU (14-3, 6-1 GNAC) won for the fourth straight time and the eighth time in nine games thanks to the sharp-shooting of guard Ira Graham and Morris Anderson.
Graham scored 16 points (4-6 3FG) and tallied three of the Vikings' eight blocks, while Anderson had 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Currently ranked No. 3 in the NCAA Div. II West Region, the Vikings led from start to finish as they extended their GNAC advantage to a half-game over idle Central Washington.
The game started as a blowout, with WWU jumping to 6-0 and 21-6 leads. However Ridgeway came off the bench to score five straight points and help UAA claw within 28-27 at halftime. Senior center Jeremiah Trueman had all of his 10 points and eight rebounds in the opening stanza for UAA.
The Vikings quickly took control in the second half, nailing three-pointers on their first two possessions. UAA kept the margin within single digits until Calin Schell (8 pts, 5 reb) converted a layup with 7:20 to play, sparking a 13-0 run for the visitors from Bellingham, Wash.
With the game already decided and under one minute remaining, Barker would nail UAA's only three-pointer of the night (1 of 7) to keep alive the Seawolves' streak of consecutive games with at least one trey to 508. UAA has not gone scoreless from beyond the arc since an NCAA First Round win over Chico State (0 of 5) on Mar. 15, 1991.
The Seawolves also suffered through their worst rebounding half in many moons, getting out-boarded 15-6 by WWU in the last 20 minutes.
Ridgeway shot 8 of 11 and fellow reserve Kyle Doerr, a redshirt freshman forward, came through with 6 points (3-5 FG) and four assists, but UAA's starters were outscored 52-29 by their counterparts.
The Seawolves' 54 points also marked the fewest at the WFSC since a 52-51 loss to Western Oregon in Dec. 2004, head coach Rusty Osborne's first season at the helm.
The opponent gets no easier for UAA in its next contest as it hosts regionally 5th-ranked Seattle Pacific (13-6, 6-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the WFSC.
