ANCHORAGE (Feb. 1) – Junior wing
Lauren Johnson scored 15 points to lead a balanced scoring effort and 9th-ranked Alaska Anchorage rode a dominant second quarter to a 69-49 women's basketball victory over Seattle Pacific on Saturday.
The Seawolves (21-2, 11-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got nine points apiece from
Tennae Voliva,
Stephanie Jackson and
Nicole Pinckney as they swept the season series from SPU and won their 25th consecutive game at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The Falcons (7-13, 5-7) – who entered with seven wins in their last 11 contests – were led by 12 points and three assists from staring forward Ashley Alter, but the visitors were hurt by 26 turnovers and outrebounded 41-36.
"That was far from pretty, but we managed to get it done against a team that's much better than its overall record indicates," said UAA head coach
Ryan McCarthy, whose program's last home loss came against SPU in the 2018 GNAC Tournament semifinals. "We missed a lot of open looks that we usually knock down on offense. Fortunately, we brought our typical defensive effort, and we got the job done."
Coming off a hard-fought 59-56 home win over Saint Martin's on Thursday, UAA managed to forge a 16-11 lead after 10 minutes against SPU. Alter scored inside to bring the visitors within 22-18 at the 6:46 mark of the second quarter, but Seawolf point guard
Yazmeen Goo answered with a three-point play just 15 seconds later, sparking a 19-3 run over the remainder of the half.
The Seawolves finished with 18 steals as they kept their lead between 17 and 26 points throughout the second half.
Johnson shot 6 of 8 from the field and 2 of 3 at the charity stripe to collect her second-most points as a Seawolf, while Pinckney was 3 of 5 from long range and tied senior point guard
Yazmeen Goo with a team-high four assists. Goo added seven points, and
Amelia Motz and
Sala Langi tied for team-high honors with six rebounds apiece.
With the win, UAA increases its lead over idle Northwest Nazarene (15-5, 10-2) to one game atop the GNAC standings. The Seawolves will visit the Nighthawks on Thursday (5 p.m. AST) in Nampa, Idaho, with live video and stats available at gnac.tv.
