ANCHORAGE - Haley Holmstead and Hanna Johansson combined for 45 points Saturday as the 12th-ranked Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team earned its fifth straight win, 80-48 over Central Washington at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
The Seawolves (19-3, 10-1 GNAC) hit their first seven shots and 11 of their first 12 as they grabbed a 48-16 halftime lead and never looked back. UAA cooled to 50 percent shooting for the game but managed to hold the Wildcats (6-12, 3-8) to 18.3 percent marksmanship, marking CWU's lowest percentage since turning NCAA Div. II in the 1999-2000 campaign.
Holmstead, a junior guard from American Fork, Utah, scored 11 points in the first five minutes and finished with 24, topping the 20-point plateau for the seventh time this season. She shot 6 of 12 from the field and 12 of 13 at the free-throw line, sinking the most charities for the Seawolf in the past two seasons.
Johansson, meanwhile, picked up her second straight double-double and ninth this year with 21 points and 11 rebounds. The 6-2 senior center shot 9 of 13 from the field and added three assists and two steals.
The Seawolves held a 37-7 lead at the final media timeout of the first half and extended to 60-20 with 11 minutes left in the game. UAA's 32-point halftime lead marked its second-largest ever in a conference game, trailing only a 58-23 advantage against Alaska Fairbanks on Feb. 27, 2010.
UAA, which swept its four-game homestand by an average of margin of 33.8 points, also got a combined 12 points and 12 assists from starting guards Sasha King and Gritt Ryder. King made 2 of 4 three-pointers and tied her career-high by dishing exactly seven assists for the fifth time in the last seven games.
Holmstead led UAA with three steals as the Seawolves forced 22 Wildcats turnovers and held the visitors to five team assists. Junior forward Alysa Horn picked up six rebounds for UAA.
The Seawolves' win was their 11th consecutive over the Wildcats and their seventh straight in Anchorage.
UAA now holds a two-and-a-half-game lead in the GNAC standings over Western Washington with seven games remaining in the regular season. The Seawolves return to the road next week for games at Seattle Pacific (Thur., Feb. 2) and Montana State Billings (Sat., Feb. 4), who are currently tied for third place with 7-4 league marks.
