Box Score NAMPA, Idaho – Senior
Safiyyah Yasin and junior
Tennae Voliva scored 12 points apiece and senior
Yazmeen Goo dished six assists Thursday to help the 8th-ranked Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team take control of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference race with a 68-54 victory over Northwest Nazarene at the Johnson Sports Center.
The Seawolves (22-2, 12-1 GNAC) also got eight points apiece from
Jahnna Hajdukovich and
Sala Langi as they outshot the hosts .456 to .309 and swept the regular-season series for the first time since 2016-17. With the win, UAA claims a two-game lead over NNU, Simon Fraser and Western Washington in the GNAC standings with seven games left in the regular season.
The Nighthawks (15-6, 10-3) were led by 13 points and seven rebounds from reserve guard Zoe Wessels as the defending GNAC Tournament champions could not benefit from a 42-33 rebounding advantage and saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.
"We were not pleased at all with our performances the last couple times we came to this gym, and our veterans really took it upon themselves to make sure that wouldn't happen again tonight," said UAA head coach
Ryan McCarthy, whose team lost its last two games in Nampa by an average of 21 points. "It was a slow start offensively, but after we called that early timeout, we were able to start making some plays on the defensive end that got us back on track. I loved the way our ladies stayed aggressive – even when NNU made its run in the second quarter – and we never took our foot off the gas in the second half."
Having beaten the Nighthawks 73-58 on Jan. 11 in Anchorage, UAA surrendered the first six points in the rematch and found itself trailing 8-4 before righting the ship midway through the first quarter.
Sparked by steals from Yasin and Goo, the Seawolves went on a 13-1 run to take the lead for good, leading by as many as 11 points before NNU sliced it to a 34-29 game at the half.
The Nighthawks scored on the first possession of the second half, but they would get no closer, with Yasin and Hajdukovich scoring five points apiece to highlight a 15-1 run over the next five minutes. Sophomore guard
Nicole Pinckney drained a trey to make it 52-34 with three minutes left in the third quarter, and the Seawolves continued to pull away, stretching their largest advantage to 64-40 on freshman
Rachel Ingram's three-pointer with 6:29 left in the game.
Voliva – who posted a double-double in UAA's home win over NNU – shot 5 of 9 from the field and grabbed a game-high rebounds, along with a pair of blocks. Yasin was 5 of 14 from the field, along with five rebounds, three assists and a game-high four steals, while Goo added seven points, four rebounds and three steals, helping the Seawolves force 17 Nighthawks turnovers.
The Seawolves stay on the road for one more game, facing GNAC preseason favorite Central Washington (13-8, 8-5) at 5 p.m. AST Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash. Live video and stats for that game can be found online at gnac.tv.
