ANCHORAGE – Junior guard Jack Macdonald scored a career-high 23 points and junior forward Tyler Brimhall collected 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists Thursday to lead the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team to a 79-63 win over Central Washington at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (8-7, 3-4 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got a combined 27 points and seven assists from juniors Niko Bevens and Sjur Berg as they shot 54 percent from the field and sank a season-high 14 three-pointers.

The Wildcats (8-7, 2-5) were led by 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and four rebounds from point guard Naim Ladd, but the visitors from Ellensburg were outrebounded 32-25 and lost in Anchorage for the fourth straight time.

“I think we're starting to come into our own,” said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne, whose team committed a season-low seven turnovers. “We've talked about turnovers from day one, and now the last two games we've finally gotten under double digits. And when you shoot a high percentage and don't turn it over, you're going to be successful.”

The contest opened at a lightning pace for both teams offensively, with Central Washington jumping on top 24-18 at the 11:41 mark of the first half. UAA responded with the next 12 points, however, and held onto the lead from there.

Brimhall nailed back-to-back threes to give the Seawolves a 43-30 edge and Macdonald put UAA ahead 45-33 at halftime when he converted a short jumper off a pass from Berg.

The Wildcats cut their deficit to single digits just once more, 48-40, when Jeryn Lucas nailed a trey early in the second half, but Berg and Bevens combined for the next seven points as the Seawolves began to pull away. Bevens fed Berg for another layup with 5:23 left, giving UAA its largest advantage at 75-57.

“I know they were on about a 112-point pace at the second media timeout and they only ended up with 63, so for us to be able to make the adjustments we made and sit down and guard them that well, I'm very, very encouraged,” Osborne added.

Macdonald – who was coming off his best GNAC scoring effort with 18 points in Saturday's loss at Seattle Pacific – came out firing against the Wildcats, making his first four shots and racking up 15 points in the opening 11 minutes. The Melbourne, Australia, native shot 9 of 15 from the field, 3 of 6 from long range and sank both of his free throws to top his previous career high of 20 points in the season-opening win over Antelope Valley.

Meanwhile, Brimhall nailed 6 of 9 three-pointers and matched a career high with his four assists. Bevens scored double figures for the fourth straight game as he collected 14 points, and Berg scored 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Berg also matched his career best with four assists, while he shot at least 50 percent from the field in his 12th consecutive game.

Point guard Brennan Rymer equaled his own UAA season high with six assists, and senior center Brian Pearson blocked three shots to move into fourth place on the Seawolves' career list, now with 79.

The Seawolves return to the Alaska Airlines Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they host GNAC co-leader Northwest Nazarene (11-2, 6-1). Call 907-786-1562 or visit GoSeawolves.com or AlaskaAirlinesCenter.com for tickets.