Scoreboard

Men host CU, #1 WOU in home finales

Men's Basketball UAA Media Relations

Men host CU, #1 WOU in home finales

THIS WEEK IN SEAWOLF MEN'S BASKETBALL

Thursday, Feb. 18 – 7 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska
Concordia, Ore. (7-16, 5-11 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (19-8, 12-4 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Feb. 20 – 2 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska
#1 Western Oregon (22-2, 15-1 GNAC [2/18 @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage

TV: Both games live throughout Alaska on GCI cable Ch. 1 (SD) and Ch. 999 (HD).

RADIO: None

LIVE VIDEOSTREAM & STATS: Both games free at portal.stretchinternet.com/uaa

TICKETS: $10 at the door, online at alaskaairlinescenter.com, or by calling 907-786-1562 ... discounts apply for UAA staff/faculty, alumni, senior (60+), youth (3-18) and military ... groups of 10 or more can purchase in bulk for $6 per ticket ... UAA students free with valid WolfCard ... more information at GoSeawolves.com.

UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2015-16 stats)
G—Brian McGill, 6-2, Sr. (18.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.5 spg, .506 FG, .333 3FG, .942 FT)
G—Sekou 'Suki' Wiggs, 6-4, Jr. (23.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.4 spg, .428 FG, .335 3FG, .767 FT)
G—Spencer Svejcar, 6-4, Jr. (12.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.2 apg, .448 FG, .381 3FG, .870 FT)
F—Corey Hammell, 6-6, Jr. (12.4 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.5 apg, .447 FG, .825 FT)
F—Brian Pearson, 6-9, So. (0.3 ppg, 0.8 rpg, 0.6 bpg, .625 FT, 6.6 mpg)
       or Travis Parrish, 6-4, Jr. (1.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg, .464 FG, 9.5 mpg)

SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @UAAMBB (for in-game updates) and @UAASeawolves
Facebook: Alaska Anchorage Seawolves
Instagram: UAA_Seawolves
YouTube, Periscope & SnapChat: UAA Seawolves
Hashtags: #SeawolfHoops #UAASeawolves

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: In its first season as an NCAA Div. II and GNAC member, Concordia snapped a 3-game losing skid Saturday with its most impressive win of the year, beating Western Washington 80-76 at home in Portland ... the Cavaliers are led by Drew Martin (15.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 2.0 apg, .343 3FG) and Latrell Wilson (14.5 ppg, 2.6 rpg, .376 3FG, .802 FT) ... top-ranked in both the NABC and the D2SIDA NCAA Div. II Top 25 polls, Western Oregon rides a 13-game winning streak into Thursday's game in Fairbanks ... the Wolves – who suffered their only D-II setback of the year Dec. 31 at Central Washington (81-77) – are led by reigning GNAC Player of the Year Andy Avgi (22. ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg, .574 FG, .422 3FG, .724 FT) and Julian Nichols (12.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 5.0 apg, .787 FT).

TEAM COMPARISONS     UAA    CU   WOU
UAA Home/Opp. Road  10-4   2-7   8-2
Points per Game     84.6  71.3  79.4
Points Allowed/Game 73.9  85.6  68.6
Rebounding Diff.    +5.9  -8.6  +0.4
Assists per Game    15.7  12.8  14.3
Turnovers per Game  11.2  15.9   9.0
Steals per Game      5.5   7.0   8.8
Blocks per Game      2.6   2.7   3.3
FG%                 .462  .442  .467
3-pt FG%            .367  .344  .375
FT%                 .805  .659  .715

THE SERIES vs CONCORDIA: CU leads 2-1
In Anchorage: CU leads 2-0
Last Meeting: UAA 90-71 (1/23/16 at CU)
Streak: UAA 1
Notes: CU surprised UAA in back-to-back non-conference meetings
last season, including a 79-74 win in the fi rst-ever men's basketball
game at the Alaska Airlines Center, Nov. 7, 2014.

THE SERIES vs WESTERN OREGON: UAA leads 20-11
In Anchorage: UAA leads 11-3
Last Meeting: WOU 76-66 (1/21/16 at WOU)
Streak: WOU 1
Notes: WOU has taken three of the last four meetings after UAA won nine straight from 2010-14 ... the Seawolves upset a nationally ranked Wolves club 80-78 in Anchorage last season, led by Christian Leckband's 16 points ... UAA leads 20-9 in GNAC regular-season meetings (since 2001-02) … first and only non-GNAC meeting came when both teams were Pac West foes, with WOU winning 91-81, Jan. 28, 1999.

FINALLY SOME REST: After playing four games in eight days –spanning three states and Canada – the Seawolves are in the midmidst of a much deserved 7-day rest, marking their longest layoff since late December ... last Tuesday, the Seawolves ran into a hot-shooting Montana State Billings team at Alterowitz Gymnasium, suffering their most lopsided loss of the year in a 90-71 setback ... Jr. G Suki Wiggs led UAA with 27 points (4-6 3FG) and 7 rebounds in the loss, while Sr. G Brian McGill had 14 points and 5 assists ... two days later in Anchorage, a short-handed Seawolf squad erased an 8-point second-half deficit to earn a 76-71 win over rival Alaska Fairbanks ... McGill had 28 points (8-16 FG, 9-10 FT) and 5 assists and Wiggs added 20 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists as both players logged the entire 40 minutes ... Jr. F Corey Hammell came up big with 9 points (7-7 FT) and 15 rebounds, and Jr. G Drew Peterson scored a career-high 14 points (4-8 FG, 3-5 3FG) to help UAA sweep the season series from UAF and gain a one-game cushion over the Nanooks and Seattle Pacific for second place in the GNAC.

TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves are seeking the 15th 20-win season in program history and the first since 2011-12 (23-7) ... UAA has clinched the program's 11th straight winning season and the 33rd in 39 years … having clinched a berth last week, the Seawolves have now qualified for the GNAC Tournament each year since the event was instituted in 2011 ... the Seawolves have clinched their sixth straight winning record in GNAC play and are looking to extend the same streak of top-4 finishes ... at 8-0, UAA had its second-longest unbeaten start to GNAC play in the league's 15-year history, trailing only the 2007-08 Final Four squad that won its first 11 league contests ... the Seawolves' 9-game winning streak tied for the 6th-longest in program history and was the longest since winning 10 straight early in the 2011-12 campaign ... the Seawolves were No. 7 in the final D2SIDA NCAA West Region weekly poll on Feb. 8; that poll will be replaced this week by the official NCAA West Region rankings, which premiere Wednesday ... UAA ranks 2nd in the NCAA Div. II national stats with its .805 FT pct., along with top-40 marks in assist/turnover ratio (26th, +1.4), scoring margin (29th, +10.7), fewest turnovers per game (30th, 11.2), rebound margin (31st, +5.9) and scoring offense (40th, 84.6 ppg).

SUKI SMOOTH: Jr. G Sekou 'Suki' Wiggs has made a strong push for All-America honors in his first season since transfering from Div. I Idaho, leading the GNAC in scoring (23.7 ppg, 9th nationally) and defensive rebounding (6.3 drpg), along with league ranks of 3rd in rebounding (7.3 rpg), 5th in steals (1.4 spg), 8th in assists (3.5 apg), 8th in A/T ratio (1.4) and 3rd in minutes (34.5 mpg) ... Wiggs set UAA and GNAC records by scoring at least 20 points in 21 straight games – both overall and to start a season; although the NCAA does not keep official records on streaks, Wiggs's 20-plus string is known to be the longest in Div. II since at least the 2011-12 season ...  the former Seattle O'Dea High star started early by setting the CCA Div. II Tip-Off Classic single-game scoring record with 34 points against Cal Baptist on Oct. 31, and he tallied a combined 50 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists in UAA's 2- and 4-point wins over Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific in November ... more recently, Wiggs posted his sixth and seventh double-doubles with 33 points and 10 rebounds in UAA's 108-105 double-OT win at Western Washington, followed by 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win over UAF ... with five 30-point efforts already, Wiggs has become just the seventh Seawolf with that many in a career ... he has already broken UAA's season records for FTs made (197) and attempted (257), while his scoring average is No. 3 all-time; in raw numbers, Wiggs is 8th in points (641), needing just 54 more to catch Jason Kaiser (695 pts in 1993-94) for 2nd place on that list ... in late November, he earned GNAC Player of the Week and GCI Great Alaska Shootout all-tourney honors after breaking the 38-year-old tournament's scoring record with 98 points, surpassing the 97 by Purdue legend Glenn Robinson from 1993; Wiggs tied for the 2nd-highest scoring game by a Seawolf in Shootout history with 35 in the opener against eventual champ Middle Tennessee, and he led the tourney in scoring by more than 10 ppg, becoming first player to tally at least 30 in all three games ... the Preseason All-GNAC selection was a double-digit career scorer in two seasons at Idaho, winning the Western Athletic Conference's Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman in 2013-14.

HAMMELL TIME: Jr. F Corey Hammell has shown why he averaged a double-double last season at Santa Rosa Junior College, leading the GNAC and ranking 14th nationally with 11 such performances ... Hammell leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game (4.4) and is 13th in rebounds per game (10.0) ... the Californian is on pace to become the fifth Seawolf to average a double-double and the first since Peter Bullock in 2002-03 ... Hammell is also on pace for one of the most productive free-throw campaigns in program history, getting to the line 194 times in his first 27 games and ranking 8th in the GNAC with a .825 FT%; he had a streak of 27 in a row from Nov. 28-Dec. 14 and 20 straight from  ... Jan. 30-Feb. 9 ... the 6-6, 225-pounder leads the GNAC by nearly three rebounds per game and ranks 19th in scoring with 12.4 ppg ... with 17 points and 17 rebounds against NNU on Dec. 5, Hammell grabbed the most boards for a Seawolf since 2009 and matched UAA's program-best in a GNAC game (Bullock, twice, 2002-03), while his 19 points and 17 rebounds at Concordia marked his fourth '15/15' outing ... overall, Hammell has 14 double-digit rebounding efforts, including six games with 15-plus.

B-MAC IN TOWN: Sr. G Brian McGill has given the Seawolves a huge boost since rejoining the lineup on Dec. 31, scoring double figures in 13 of 14 contests and leading the team with 4.0 assists per game ... McGill earned his third career GNAC Player of the Week honor after exploding for 65 points (18-33 FG, 3-5 3FG, 26-26 FT) in the recent road wins at Western Washington and Simon Fraser, including a career-high 34 points and 4 steals at SFU ... in the GNAC-only stats, he ranks 5th in scoring (18.4 ppg), 11th in FG% (.506), 7th in assists and leads the league with a school-record pace of .942 at the FT line ... McGill has posted the two best single-game FT efforts in program history since mid-January, going 16 of 16 at UAF and 15 of 15 at WWU ... with a miss late in the UAF game, he also had a streak of 40 straight chairities come to an end ... the Oregon native is connecting at a .582 FG% from inside the arc, including the game-winning layup at Seattle Pacific with 5 seconds left ... McGill has scored double figures in 32 of his last 42 outings dating to last year, including 12 times with 20-plus ... on UAA's career lists, the former Western Oregon transfer stands 2nd in assists (382), 4th in assists per game (5.3), 13th in scoring average (15.4 ppg), 15th in points (1,111), 7th in FT% (.850), 5th in FTs made (295), 7th in FTs made per game (4.1), 12th in 3FG% (.413) and 13th in games started (63) ... a 2015-16 Preseason All-GNAC pick, McGill garnered All-GNAC Second Team honors in 2013-14 and was honorable mention last year.

SVEJCAR SVWISHING: Jr. G Spencer Svejcar has stepped his game up a level in conference play, shooting .469 from the field and .405 from 3FG range ... an NJCAA All-Region IX First Team selection as a sophomore at Laramie (Wyo.) CC last year, the Colorado native has tallied double figures in 18 of 26 games as a Seawolf, including 22 points (7-13 FG, 4-6 3FG) at UAF, 18 points (8-9 FT) against Chaminade, and 18 points (7-11 FG)/5 assists against Western Washington ... after starting the year 20 of 70 (.286) from 3FG range, he has nailed 31 of his last 64 (.484), including the game-tying trey at UAF to force overtime and the game-winning trey at WWU in double-OT ... Svejcar leads the GNAC in FT% at .870 (Brian McGill has not played enough games to be eligible), along with other league ranks of 20th in scoring (12.4 ppg), 7th in 3FGs per game (2.0) and 18th in 3FG% (.381).

LECKBAND TOGETHER: Sr. F Christian Leckband is the most experienced Seawolf on the roster, with his 110 career games now 10th in program history ... coming off the bench in 26 of 27 contests this year, he has improved on his career scoring (9.3 ppg from 5.3 ppg) and rebounding (4.4 rpg from 3.2 rpg) averages, boosted by his 21 points against Simon Fraser, 16 points against MSUB and 11 rebounds at SFU ... Leckband currently ranks 17th in the GNAC in FG% at .490, while on UAA's other career lists he is 34th in scoring (742 pts) and 19th in 3FGs made (111) ... the Nome native has 11 double-figure scoring efforts this year, plus 14 games with at least 5 rebounds.

UNSUNG HEROES: Jr. G Drew Peterson became the latest Seawolf to emerge with a clutch performance, scoring a career-high 14 points – including the go-ahead three-pointer – on 4-of-8 shooting (3-5 3FG, 3-4 FT) in the 76-71 win over UAF ... the former San Diego Miramar JC standout has notched at least one trey in the last four games, logging his second start and a career-high 32 minutes against the Nanooks ... Jr. G Damien Fulp had his highest-scoring GNAC effort with 7 points against Seattle Pacific, and he had 3 assists and no turnovers in a career-high 25 minutes at Simon Fraser on Feb. 6 ... Jr. F Travis Parrish has played mistake-free ball all season, committing a mere 12 turnovers – including only one in the last seven contests – while logging 247 total minutes in 26 of 27 games ... Parrish contributed 4 points (2-2 FG), 2 rebounds, 2 assists and no turnovers in the double-OT win at Western Washington ... Jr. F/C Tayler Thompson is shooting a sizzling .679 (38 of 56) for the season, making 9 of his last 11 shots ... Thompson scored a career-high 11 points (5-6 FG) and grabbed 6 rebounds in the Jan. 23 win at Concordia.

INJURY REPORT: The Seawolves have been without the services of Jr. G Diante Mitchell since the GNAC's 2nd-leading FT% (.852) and 3FG% (.460) shooter injured his lower leg Jan. 28 against Saint Martin's ...  a former NJCAA Academic All-American at Western Nebraska, Mitchell also currently ranks 11th in the GNAC in assists (2.9), and 12th in FG% (.500) ... his return to the lineup is being evaluated on a weekly basis ... UAA suffered its first big blow on Nov. 6 when So. F Sjur Berg suffered a broken elbow in the Seawolves' home opener ... following surgery, Berg is expected to miss the rest of the season ... the Norwegian ranked second on the team (15th GNAC) last year with 5.2 rpg and was averaging 7.0 rpg through the first three games this year.

THE OSBORNE FILE: Now in his 12th year as head coach, Rusty Osborne (227-127) has now led the Seawolves to 11 straight winning seasons, along with five NCAA Tournaments and a trip to the 2008 NCAA D-II Semifinals in his tenure at the helm … with UAA's victory over Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 10, 2015, he became the first UAA basketball coach to reach 200 career victories … Osborne captured his first career GNAC and NABC West District coach-of-the-year awards in 2008 after becoming the second coach to lead UAA to three consecutive NCAA berths (2006-08), and in 2011-12 his Seawolves posted a 24-10 record to equal the 2nd-most victories in program history; Osborne's 2007-08 club holds that record with a 29-6 mark … before taking over the head job in 2004-05, the Texas native previously served 13 seasons (1991-04) as a UAA assistant, including 11 years as the top assistant … the Seawolves have won over 60 percent of their games with Osborne on the staff, claiming four conference titles and eight trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Osborne is assisted in 2015-16 by Cameron Turner (5th season) and Kasey Riley (1st season).

SEAWOLVES TABBED 4TH: The Seawolves were picked to finish fourth in the 2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll, released Oct. 15.

2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference
Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches' Poll
Rk  Team (1st-pl. votes)   '14-15 Records     Pts
 1. Western Washington (5) 20-11/11-7 (t-5th) 114
 2. Western Oregon (4)     23-7/15-3 (1st)    106
 3. Seattle Pacific (2)    24-8/13-5 (2nd)    100
 4. Alaska Anchorage       16-13/12-6 (t-3rd)  92
 5. Central Washington     17-9/12-6 (t-3rd)   80
 6. Alaska Fairbanks       7-19/4-14 (8th)     63
 7. Saint Martin's         6-22/3-15 (t-9th)   41
    Montana State Billings 5-23/3-15 (t-9th)   41
 9. Northwest Nazarene     14-16/11-7 (t-5th)  37
10. Concordia, Ore.        25-7 1st Yr in GNAC 32
11. Simon Fraser           11-15/6-12 (7th)    20
(Votes awarded on 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis)

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Players Mentioned

Christian Leckband

#1 Christian Leckband

F
6' 5"
Freshman
Brian McGill

#RS Brian McGill

G
6' 2"
Sophomore
Sjur Berg

#2 Sjur Berg

F
6' 7"
Freshman
Damien Fulp

#RS Damien Fulp

G
6' 1"
Freshman
Brian Pearson

#35 Brian Pearson

F
6' 8"
Freshman
Corey Hammell

#25 Corey Hammell

F
6' 6"
Junior
Diante Mitchell

#11 Diante Mitchell

G
6' 1"
Junior
Drew Peterson

#21 Drew Peterson

G/F
6' 3"
Junior
Spencer Svejcar

#20 Spencer Svejcar

G
6' 4"
Junior
Tayler Thompson

#24 Tayler Thompson

F
6' 8"
Junior
Sekou

#2 Sekou 'Suki' Wiggs

G
6' 4"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Christian Leckband

#1 Christian Leckband

6' 5"
Freshman
F
Brian McGill

#RS Brian McGill

6' 2"
Sophomore
G
Sjur Berg

#2 Sjur Berg

6' 7"
Freshman
F
Damien Fulp

#RS Damien Fulp

6' 1"
Freshman
G
Brian Pearson

#35 Brian Pearson

6' 8"
Freshman
F
Corey Hammell

#25 Corey Hammell

6' 6"
Junior
F
Diante Mitchell

#11 Diante Mitchell

6' 1"
Junior
G
Drew Peterson

#21 Drew Peterson

6' 3"
Junior
G/F
Spencer Svejcar

#20 Spencer Svejcar

6' 4"
Junior
G
Tayler Thompson

#24 Tayler Thompson

6' 8"
Junior
F
Sekou

#2 Sekou 'Suki' Wiggs

6' 4"
Junior
G