ANCHORAGE (Jan. 9) – Senior guard Safiyyah Yasin scored 15 points and sophomore guard Nicole Pinckney keyed a late surge Thursday to help No. 7 Alaska Anchorage pull away for a 68-51 victory over Central Washington in women's basketball action at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (15-1, 5-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got 10 points apiece from guard Jahnna Hajdukovich and forward Lauren Johnson as they overcame a 36-29 rebounding disadvantage by committing just six turnovers and forcing 21 by the visitors.

The Wildcats (7-6, 2-3) were led by 14 points and nine rebounds from reserve forward Samantha Bowman, but the visitors from Ellensburg could not complete a late comeback as they played without starting guard and GNAC Preseason Player of the Year Alexis Pana, who missed the contest with an injury.

"Even without Pana, Central proved tonight why it is one of the top programs in our league, and it took some clutch plays to pull this one out," said UAA head coach Ryan McCarthy, whose team led by only four points with less than six minutes to play. "Fortunately our senior veterans stepped up at the right time, and Nicole Pinckney hit a couple huge threes when our momentum had seemingly vanished. We will celebrate this one for about five minutes and get ready for another huge game (vs. Northwest Nazarene) on Saturday."

Despite winning each quarter and taking a 49-39 lead into the fourth, the Seawolves could not put away the GNAC preseason coaches' poll favorites until late. After Hajdukovich nailed a three-pointer to make it 52-42, the Wildcats answered with a 6-0 run, including a pair of inside buckets by Bowman, to slice it to 52-48 at the 5:26 mark.

UAA answered with the biggest shot of the game just six seconds later when Pinckney – who had not taken a shot to that point – buried a three-pointer, and the former Chugiak High School star drained another from the identical spot on the wing with 4:13 left.

Senior point guard Yazmeen Goo delivered a traditional three-point play that made it 61-48 with 2:43 on the clock as the Seawolves closed the contest by keeping the Wildcats without a field goal for the final six minutes.

UAA's six team turnovers tied the third-fewest in program history, boosted by a five-assist, no-turnover effort from Goo.

Johnson shot 4 of 6 from the field (2-3 3FG) and dished two assists as the junior-college transfer scored in double figures for the first time as a Seawolf, while Hajdukovich has now scored double-figures in a career-best three of the last four games.

Junior center Tennae Voliva fought through foul trouble to collect four steals, and sophomore forward Kimani Fernandez came off the bench with seven points (3-4 FG) and four rebounds to help UAA extend the third-longest winning streak vs. an opponent in program history, beating Central for the 15^th time in a row.

The victory also extended UAA's GNAC regular-season homecourt win streak to 33 and its overall Alaska Airlines Center win streak to 21.

UAA – the defending GNAC regular-season champion – returns to the same court Saturday at 7:30 p.m. for a showdown against 2019 GNAC Tournament champion Northwest Nazarene. Visit GoSeawolves.com for ticket information.