HONOLULU (Dec. 17) – Guards Dillon Barrientos and Tyson Gilbert scored 11 points apiece and the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team used a gritty defensive performance to earn a 51-49 victory over Texas-Tyler on Sunday night at the Hoops In Hawaii Classic at The Shark Tank.

The Seawolves (9-2) also got nine points apiece from Sloan Lentfer and Jaron Williams, who made the eventual game-winning free throws with 1:53 remaining. Sawyer Storms added eight points, nine rebounds, four assists and no turnovers to help UAA rally from a 34-20 deficit with 17 minutes left.

The Eagles (1-8) were led by 16 points from Alec Zambie and 15 points and eight rebounds from Juan Pablo Camargo, but the Lone Star Conference squad got more than three points from just one other player and was hurt by 15 turnovers.

"We did not play particularly well, but we did play hard," said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne, whose team won despite shooting .279 (17 of 61) from the field and getting outrebounded 44-40. "With (reserve point guard) Trey Evans out (illness) and Dillon getting in foul trouble, we got out of sync offensively. However, we missed a lot of open shots and that made things seem worse. Hopefully we can control our adrenaline tomorrow and shoot like we're capable."

The Seawolves fell behind early in the first-ever game between the non-conference foes, but trailed just 19-18 one back-to-back inside buckets from Lentfer and Storms with 8:42 to play in the half. An offensive drought followed, however, as UAA went without a field goal over the next 12 minutes spanning halves.

Barrientos scored off an offensive rebound by Lentfer to snap the cold spell with 16:28 left, and the pair split all the scoring duties on an 8-0 Seawolves run as they scored on five straight trips.

UAA continued to chip away slowly, drawing within two on free throws by Williams (5-6 FT), and finally retaking the lead, 49-47, on a traditional three-point play by Gilbert at the 2:45 mark. After Williams doubled the advantage with two more charities, the Eagles answered just 11 seconds later on a dunk by Camargo for the final points of the game.

The Seawolves survived two missed free throws by Bryce Roberts with 44 seconds remaining, and Zambie's 10-foot running jump shot missed at the buzzer.

UAA got a huge boost from Lentfer, who came off the bench to play 24 minutes and was the only Seawolf to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, knocking down 4 of 6 attempts.

Williams added seven rebounds, two assists and a block.

The Seawolves face No. 9 Cal State San Bernardino at 4:30 p.m. AST Monday in the second of their three-game Honolulu trip.