ANCHORAGE - Senior point guard Steve White had 15 points and five assists to power a balanced scoring effort Thursday and help 21st-ranked Alaska Anchorage to a 78-69 victory over Seattle Pacific at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
UAA (16-4, 10-2 GNAC) also got 16 points and three assists from sophomore guard Travis Thompson as it earned a regular-season split with the Falcons and kept pace in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings. The Seawolves - winners of five straight - remain one-half game behind Western Washington but increased their lead to two games over SPU for second place. The top six teams earn spots in the GNAC Tournament, Feb. 29-Mar. 3, with the first- and second-place squads receiving quarterfinal byes.
SPU (16-5, 8-4) was led by game-highs of 22 points and seven assists from sophomore guard David Downs, but the Falcons could not dig out of an early hole and lost their seventh straight game here. The home team has now won the last 13 games in a series that includes 62 all-time meetings.
The Seawolves got off to a good start when sophomore guards Colton Lauwers and Kyle Fossman combined for three three-pointers in the first three minutes, and Abebe Demissie hit a jumper to make it 18-6 before the first official timeout.
Lauwers finished with his highest-scoring game since Dec. 29, tallying all eight of his points in the first half to lead UAA to a 41-30 lead.
The teams traded baskets through much of the second half, with SPU making its biggest push late. The Falcons sliced an 11-point deficit almost in half on a pair of free throws by Downs and a trey from Jake Anderson with 4:30 left, making it 63-57.
White answered by hitting one of two free throws, and the Seawolves pushed the lead back to double figures with 3:12 on the clock when Thompson dialed up a long trey from the top of the key. SPU, which won the rebounding battle 31-21, would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Seawolves got eight or more points from six different players, including 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from center Taylor Rohde. Fossman finished with nine points on 3-of-3 three-point shooting, while Demissie (3-3 FG, 2-2 3FG) and Lauwers tallied eight points apiece.
Rohde led the Seawolves with five rebounds and fellow senior Lonnie Ridgeway added five points and a career-high-tying five assists.
Meanwhile, White, a fourth-year point guard, continued the finest offensive stretch of his career by shooting 4 of 7 from the field and 7 of 9 at the free-throw line. The Australian also added four rebounds and committed only one turnover while playing a game-high 36 minutes. White now has 43 points over the last three games.
The victory avenged an 85-51 setback to SPU on Jan. 7 in Seattle and guaranteed there will be no season sweep for the seventh straight year.
With six games left in its regular season, the Seawolves next face another longtime rival when Montana State Billings comes the WFSC on Saturday, Feb. 4. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
NOTES: The win gave 8th-year head coach Rusty Osborne his 150th victory at the Seawolf helm, improving his winning percentage to .649 (150-81) ... Fossman has made 13 of his last 17 three-pointers to take over the UAA career lead at 48.4 percent, currently leading record-holder Kemmy Burgess (.474 from 2003-06) ... Ridgeway's five assists matched his career high for the third time, having last accomplished it over three years ago, on Jan. 3, 2009 against Lincoln Christian ... with 940 points in 54 career games, Rohde is now just 27 points shy of joining UAA's all-time top-20 scoring list.
