ANCHORAGE ? Sparked by the hot shooting of guards Kenny Barker and Kevin White, the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team took a huge early lead and rolled to an 87-62 victory Thursday over regionally 8th-ranked Saint Martin's at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA (14-14, 8-7 GNAC) was bolstered by solid efforts up and down the lineup to even its record and earn a split of the season series with the Saints.
SMU (21-8, 9-6) got 16 points from guard Jake Linton, but the league's leading scorer (23.4 ppg) also had seven of his team's 17 turnovers. Forward Blake Poole had a 13-points, 10-rebound outing for the visitors from Lacey, Wash., who came in with a four-game win streak and seven victories in their last eight games.
The Seawolves led for all but 16 seconds, using a 27-9 run in the middle portion of the first half to take complete control. Ahead 12-9, White stoked the burst with four three-pointers, and Barker completed the stretch with a trey of his own to make it 39-16 at the 5:44 mark.
The Saints cut it to 45-29 at the intermission and opened with the first bucket of the second half, but UAA answered with seven straight points and kept a minimum 20-point advantage for the last 14 minutes.
Barker ? the only player in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's top 10 in scoring, rebounds and assists ? had another great all-around performance with 23 points (7-12 FG, 3-6 3FG, 6-8 FT), 8 rebounds and seven assists. A 1-year transfer from Alaska Fairbanks, Barker is now 23 points shy of becoming the 14th GNAC player to reach 1,500 for his career, with one game remaining.
White, meanwhile, scored 14 of his 19 points (6-11 FG, 5-10 3FG, 2-2 FT) in the first half, and completed a near-flawless night with five rebounds, five assists and no turnovers. The Australian came two points short of equaling his career-high scoring total.
Center Jeremiah Trueman had 17 points (7-9 FG, 3-4 FT), five rebounds and two blocks, while sophomore Lonnie Ridgeway came off the bench with 12 points (4-8 FG, 4-4 FT). Both players also tied their career-highs with four steals apiece. The Seawolves finished with a 22-to-10 assist-turnover ratio and made 11 steals.
Brandon Walker and Kyle Doerr scored five points apiece in the win, while freshman point guard Steve White equaled his season-high with four assists.
With a victory over Western Oregon on Saturday (7:30 p.m. AST), the Seawolves would earn their four straight winning record and the 25th in the program's 32 years. Barker and Trueman, the team's two departing seniors, will be honored with a short ceremony before that game.
