THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE MEN'S BASKETBALL...
 
Thu., Jan. 12 – 5:15 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska
Western Washington (9-6, 2-3 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (8-6, 2-3 GNAC)
&
Sat., Jan. 14 – 7:30 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska
Simon Fraser (5-10, 0-5 GNAC [Thu. @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
 
LIVE VIDEO: Both games free at youtube.com/@UAASeawolves
LIVE STATS: goseawolves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAMBB Twitter feed for in-game updates.
TICKETS: GoSeawolves.com
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2022-23)
G—TBA
G—Tyson Gilbert, 6-2, Jr. (8.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.0 spg, .371 3FG, 1.000 FT)
G—AJ Garrity, 6-3, Sr. (6.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.3 spg, .620 FG, .586 3FG, .850 FT)
F—Jaedon Bradley, 6-5, Jr. (9.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.7 apg, .413 3FG, .800 FT)
F—Sawyer Storms, 6-7, Jr. (10.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.4 apg, .579 FG, .649 FT)
 
BORDER RIVALS INVADE: The Seawolves return to the Alaska Airlines Center this week for their first contests of 2023 when they host GNAC rivals Western Washington (Thur., 5:15 pm) and Simon Fraser (Sat., 7:30 pm) ... Thursday's game will be a battle of teams currently tied for fifth in the league standings.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: Western Washington dropped three in a row, despite battling hard in narrow losses to league leaders Saint Martin's (89-84) and MSU Billings (80-76) recently ... the Vikings feature five double-digit scorers, led by D'Angelo Minnis (13.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.3 spg, .524 FG, .453 3FG) and Daniel Hornbuckle (13.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.9 apg, .377 3FG, .842 FT) ... still searching for its first GNAC win, Simon Fraser takes a four-game skid into Thursday's contest at UAF ... the Red Leafs are led by George Lefebvre (10.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, .435 FG, .646 FT) and David Penney (9.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.1 apg, .372 3FG).
 
THE SERIES...
vs WWU: WWU leads 26-18 overall; UAA leads 11-10 at home
Streak: UAA 1
Last: UAA 81-75 (2/5/22 at UAA)
Notes: UAA's win last February snapped a 5-game losing skid against WWU ... the last five games have been decided by 3-6 points, including two overtime contests ... the last 14 games have been decided by 10 points or fewer ... WWU leads 23-17 in GNAC regular-season games (since 2001-02) ... first and only non-GNAC meeting was an 89-77 UAA home win, Jan. 20, 2000, when both schools were in the Pac West.
 
vs SFU: UAA leads 23-2 overall, 12-1 at home
Streak: UAA 2
Last: UAA 75-70 (2/14/22 at SFU)
Notes: UAA has won the last two meetings at the Alaska Airlines Center ... the Seawolves won the first 20 games in series history ... UAA leads 20-2 in GNAC meetings since SFU joined the league in 2010-11 ... teams met twice in UAA's first year of Div. II membership in 1977-78, with UAA winning both at home … teams also met when SFU was a provisional NCAA member in 1999-00 and both teams were in the Pac West.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK: The Seawolves opened the road portion of their GNAC schedule last week by earning a 90-72 victory against Central Washington and falling 48-47 at Northwest Nazarene ... in the first game, Jr. F Jaedon Bradley paced five Seawolves in double figures with 16 points (6-11 FG, 2-3 3FG, 2-2 FT), 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, helping UAA shoot season bests of .579 FG (33-57), .529 3FG (9-17) and .938 FT (15-16) ... Sr. PG Da'Zhon Wyche added 15 points, 4 assists and no turnovers, while Jr. F Sawyer Storms had 13 points (5-7 FG), 3 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks in the win ... two days later in Idaho, Wyche scored 9 points and grabbed 3 steals to lead a late comeback attempt, but the Nighthawks held on for last-second victory ... Storms had 8 points and 4 assists in his home state, while Jr. G Tyson Gilbert finished with 7 points and season-high 7 rebounds.
 
SEAWOLVES LOSE WYCHE: The Seawolves suffered a big personnel loss this week with the announcement that Sr. PG Da'Zhon Wyche has had his eligibility extension waiver declined by the NCAA, ending his collegiate career ... the Texas-Tyler transfer averaged team highs  of 15.8 points (4th in GNAC), 4.5 assists (4th in GNAC) and 2.5 steals per game (1st in GNAC) in his 14 games in Green & Gold ... Wyche will stay on with the team as a volunteer assistant coach for the remainder of the season.
 
'WOLF BITES: Jr. G Sawyer Storms has been a consistent force since transfering from regional rival Chaminade, producing double-figure scoring nine times, including 23 points in the win over Westminster and 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the win at Central Washington ... the Idaho native is UAA's leading active scorer with 10.9 ppg, along with GNAC ranks of 8th in FG% (.579) and blocks (0.9 bpg) ... Sr. G AJ Garrity leads the GNAC with a .586 3FG%, along with sterling marks of .620 FG% and .850 FT% ... the SoCal native went 6 of 6 from deep over a 5-game stretch Nov. 14-Dec. 3, with two-game totals of 15 points (4-4 FG, 3-3 3FG, 4-5 FT), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals and no turnovers in UAA's wins over Westminster and TAMIU in Fairbanks ... Jr. F Jaedon Bradley has premiered with double-figure scoring in his seven of his first 13 games as a Seawolf, including 16 points against MSU Billings and 16 points (6-11 FG, 2-3 3FG) in the win at CWU ... the CSU-Pueblo transfer ranks 10th in the GNAC in FT% (.800) and 12th in 3FG% (.413) ... other Seawolves among the current GNAC leaders include Jr. G Jaron Williams at 6th in steals (1.6 spg) and 9th in A/T ratio (2.3), Jr. G Dathan Satchell at 5th in 3FGs per game (2.1), So. G Lachlan Viney at 7th in steals (1.5 spg) and 12th in FG% (.552), and Jr. G Tyson Gilbert at 17th in 3FGs per game (1.6) and 20th in 3FG% (.371) ... another CSU-Pueblo transfer, Gilbert is also a perfect 14 of 14 from the FT line.
 
TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves rank among the top 15 in six NCAA Div. II national stats categories, including No. 2 in both turnover margin (+10.8) and turnovers forced per game (21.5) ... UAA is also 3rd in steals per game (11.2), 5th in assist/turnover ratio (1.71), 11th in assists per game (18.3) and 12th in fewest turnovers per game (10.7), along with top-50 ranks of 29th in FT% (.765), 34th in 3FGs per game (9.7) and 49th in scoring defense (66.3) ...  UAA leads the GNAC stats in turnover margin, A/T ratio, steals, assists and scoring margin (+15.6), while ranking 2nd in scoring defense (65.0 ppg) and FT% ... this year's club is aiming for the 16th winning record in the program's last 17 seasons (the other was .500) and the 37th in 45 seasons of program history ... UAA also boasts 32 winning league records in 40 years of conference play, including 16 of 20 years in the GNAC.
 
TRUST IN RUSTY: In his 18th season (19th year) at the helm, head coach Rusty Osborne (322-195) has now led the Seawolves to 15 straight seasons of .500-plus records, along with five NCAA Tournaments and a trip to the 2008 NCAA D-II Semifinals … the longest tenured coach in program history and in the GNAC, he became the first UAA basketball coach to reach 200 career victories when the Seawolves beat Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 10, 2015 … 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 by associate head coach Ryan Orton (8th season/9th year), Jalon McCullough (2nd season) and volunteer assistant Ryan Engebretsen (2nd season/3rd year).
 
2022-23 Seawolf Individual Honors
SAWYER STORMS
Mt. McKinley North Star Bank Invitational All-Tournament Team
DA'ZHON WYCHE
Mt. McKinley North Star Bank Invitational MVP
Preseason All-GNAC Team
 
UAA School Records Broken/Tied in 2022-23
TEAM
Game
Fewest Points Allowed — 28 vs Portland Bible, Dec. 29 (old record: 30 vs Lancaster Bible, 11/5/06 & at Carver Bible, 12/30/99)