ANCHORAGE – The Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team parlayed a tenacious defense and a pass-happy offense into a convincing 97-71 win over Western Oregon in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

The UAA victory – it's 20th consecutive win over WOU – lifted the Seawolves (11-2 overall) into first place in the GNAC at 4-1, a half-game ahead of a trio of teams. That group includes Saint Martin's, UAA's foe on Saturday night, which fell at Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday, 78-64.

The Wolves of WOU fell to 4-8 overall and 1-3 in GNAC play.

UAA forced 32 WOU turnovers on the night and the Seawolves distributed an eye-popping 34 assists on 38 buckets – including 10 three-pointers.

Senior forward Kylie Burns paced a balanced UAA scoring attack with 19 points to go with her team-high seven rebounds. She was supported by the double-figure scoring of Alli Madison with 16 and the off-the-bench production of Emily Craft (14) and Alyssa Hutchins (12).

“I really liked the effort of our second group tonight,” said head coach Ryan McCarthy. “They really gave us a spark when we needed it with their effort and energy. I thought we took a big step forward with our inside presence tonight. Our big posted up well and called for the ball – which, in turn, gave us some good looks from the perimeter.”

Thanks in part to 12 first-half points by Craft off the bench, UAA led 45-34 at halftime. Leading just 37-32 at the 1:50 mark, three-pointers by Christina Davis and Hutchins over the final minute, staked the Seawolves to it's 11-point lead.

But it was all UAA in the second half, as the Seawolves outscored the Wolves 15-6 to grow the lead to 21, 61-40, at the 15:54 mark.

WOU was led by the 20-point, eight-rebound effort of Dana Goularte. Chantel Divilbiss added 13 points and Kelsey Henry 10 for the visitors from Monmouth.

Saint Martin's will come to Anchorage for Saturday's 7 p.m. AST tip sporting a 9-4 overall record, including a 3-1 GNAC mark.