THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE MEN'S BASKETBALL...
 
Thur., Jan. 18 – 6 pm AST – Carver Gymnasium – Bellingham, Wash.
Alaska Anchorage (13-3, 3-2 GNAC) at Western Washington (10-6, 2-3 GNAC)
&
Sat., Jan. 20 – 6 pm AST – SFU West Gymnasium – Burnaby, B.C.
Alaska Anchorage at Simon Fraser (2-14, 0-5 GNAC [Thu. vs UAF])
 
LIVE VIDEO: Thursday at youtube.com/WWUVikingsAthletics
                       Saturday at youtube.com/sfusports
LIVE STATS: Thursday at wwuvikings.com/sidearmstats/mbball
                      Saturday at athletics.sfu.ca/sidearmstats/mbball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2023-24 stats)
G—Dathan Satchell, 6-3, Sr. (8.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.9 apg, .337 3FG, .833 FT)
G—Tyson Gilbert, 6-2, Sr. (13.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.8 spg, .384 3FG, .721 FT)
G—Dillon Barrientos, 6-1, Jr. (10.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.4 apg, 2.4 A/T)
F—Sawyer Storms, 6-7, Sr. (10.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.2 spg, .456 FG, .725 FT)
C—Sloan Lentfer, 6-7, Fr. (4.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, .492 FG)
 
RUN FOR THE BORDER: Winners of four in a row, the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team makes its annual trek to Bellingham, Wash., and Burnaby, British Columbia, to face Western Washington and Simon Fraser ... this week's games mark the one-third point in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference campaign, which sees the top six finishers qualify for the league tournament.
 
KNOW THE FOES: Western Washington has dropped three in a row after winning seven straight from Nov. 25-Jan. 4 ... the Vikings feature the GNAC's leading scorer in Kai Johnson (21.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.7 spg, .533 FG, .380 3FG, .808 FT), alongside Will Nelson (15.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.9 apg, .456 3FG) ... Simon Fraser will be trying to halt a nine-game losing skid and earn just its second D-II victory of the season when it hosts Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday night ... the Red Leafs are led by Elliot Dimaculangan (12.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.5 apg, .814 FT) and David Penney (11.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.9 apg, .925 FT).
 
THE SERIES...
vs WWU: WWU leads 27-19 overall, 13-8 in Bellingham
Streak: UAA 1
Last: UAA 89-79 (2/11/23 at WWU)
Notes: UAA has won two of the last three, following a five-game WWU streak ... the road team has won five of the last eight regular-season meetings ... the last 16 games have been decided by 10 points or fewer, including three OT contests ... WWU leads 24-18 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 25-2 overall, 12-1 in Burnaby
Streak: UAA 4
Last: UAA 58-51 (2/9/23 at SFU)
Notes: SFU earned its lone home victory over the Seawolves with a 92-81 decision, Feb. 6, 2020 ... the Seawolves won the first 20 games in series history ... UAA leads 22-2 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.
 
STILL SAFE AT HOME: The Seawolves improved to 8-0 at the Alaska Airlines Center by sweeping their first GNAC home contests last week, winning 75-61 over Central Washington and 71-68 over Northwest Nazarene ... on Thursday, Jr. PG Dillon Barrientos had 15 points (5-10 FG, 3-4 3FG), a career-high 8 rebounds and 8 assists to power a balanced effort against the Wildcats ... Sr. G Tyson Gilbert had 16 points (6-10 FG, 4-6 3FG), Sr. G Dathan Satchell tallied 15 points (6-10 FG, 3-6 3FG) and 6 rebounds, and Sr. F Sawyer Storms added 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks as UAA outshot the visitors .519 to .375 ... on Saturday, Satchell exploded for a career-high 24 points (8-11 FG, 6-8 3FG) and snagged a team-high 6 rebounds to help UAA hand NNU its second league loss ... Barrientos finished with 14 points (3-6 3FG) and 6 assists, and Sr. F Jaron Williams added 10 points (3-5 FG, 2-2 3FG, 2-2 FT), 5 assists and 3 steals – including two key swipes in the final minutes – as the Seawolves knocked down a season-high 13 treys and shot .500 (24-48) overall.
 
TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves lead the nation in 3FG% defense at .259 and are No. 2 in scoring defense at 60.5 ppg allowed ... UAA is also top 40 nationally in A/T ratio (21st, 1.5), turnover margin (21st, +3.9), assists per game (28th, 17.1), scoring margin (31st, +11.1), FG% defense (35th, .414) and turnovers forced per game (39th, 15.7) ... UAA paces the GNAC in scoring defense, assists per game, TO margin, A/T ratio and 3FG% defense, and is among the top half of the league in 13 of 21 statistical categories ... the Seawolves' 8-0 start was the best in program history, although many season-opening streaks were stopped by D-I opponents in the Great Alaska Shootout over the years ... UAA's .279 (12-43) opponent FG% against Hawaii Pacific was the best against a fellow D-II team since holding Simon Fraser to .273 (15-55) on Jan. 5, 2017 ... the 51-49 win over UT Tyler marked the third-fewest points scored by UAA in a victory, while the four turnovers at Hawaii Pacific were just one more than the program record (3, set twice) ... the Seawolves need just two more victories to clinch  the program's 37th winning record in 46 seasons of NCAA Div. II existence ... UAA is also aiming for its 33rd winning conference record in 42 years in belonging to a league.
 
TYSON TOUGH: The Seawolves' top scorer and 11th in the GNAC stats with 13.1 ppg, Sr. G Tyson Gilbert has started his final season with double figures in 13 of the first 16 games, including a career-high 27 points (8-14 FG, 5-8 3FG, 6-6 FT) to power the 77-72 win over Chaminade ... the MVP of the GNAC/PacWest Challenge, Gilbert is also 3rd in the GNAC in steals (1.8 spg), 3rd in 3FGs per game (2.4), 19th in FT% (.721), 15th in 3FG% (.384) and 18th in assists (2.2 apg), while leading the league with a 3.5 A/T ratio ... after two seasons on the sidelines due to an Achilles' injury and heart surgery and Covid, the CSU Pueblo transfer finished as UAA's leading scorer (10.4 ppg) in his 2022-23 comeback campaign, earning honorable mention All-GNAC recognition ... Gilbert reached a major milestone with his last basket against NNU on Saturday, surpassing as 1,000 career points (now 1,001) in his time at both CSUP and UAA.
 
STORMS WARNING: Another returning honorable mention All-GNAC performer, Sr. F Sawyer Storms is again displaying his all-around skills with league ranks of 5th in assists (3.2 apg), 8th in rebounding (6.3 rpg), 18th in FT% (.725), 20th in 3FG% (.358) and 14th in steals (1.2 spg) ... UAA's third-leading scorer among active players, Storms has produced team season highs in steals (4 at SPU), blocks (3 vs CSUSB) and FTs made (9 at SPU), and snagged at least four rebounds in all but one game ... the Chaminade transfer dished 8 assists without a turnover to aid the 77-72 win over his former squad, and posted a season-high 17 points in the 83-67 win over Adams State.
 
'WOLF BITES: The Seawolves have shown impressive depth, getting at least 10 minutes per game from 10 of their 12 active players ... Jr. G Dillon Barrientos ranks 3rd in the GNAC with 3.9 assists per game, along with 6th in A/T ratio (2.4) ... a transfer from College of the Canyons (Calif.), Barrientos has begun his NCAA career with eight double-figure scoring efforts in the first 15 games, and four-plus assists in seven contests ... Sr. F Jaron Williams scored double figures in back-to-back games for the second time in his Seawolf career against Adams State (5-7 FG in both games), and followed with 17 total points on 6-of-11 accuracy in the road losses at MSUB and SPU ... the former East Anchorage HS star ranks 11th in the league at .505 FG%, along with 11th in FT% (.769) and 14th in steals (1.2 spg) ... Williams's 11-of-13 FG (.846) performance at HPU tied for 13th on UAA's single-game accuracy list (min. 10 att.) and was the best since Jacob Lampkin shot 9 of 10 against UAF on Nov. 28, 2017 ... Williams was named the GNAC Player of the Week for his performance in Hawaii.
 
TRUST IN RUSTY: Now in his 19th season (20th year) at the helm, head coach Rusty Osborne (340-206) has led the Seawolves to .500-plus records in 15 of the 16 seasons, 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 coach in any sport to reach 300 career victories when the Seawolves beat Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 13, 2021 … 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 (9th season/10th year) and Ryan Engebretsen (3rd season/4th year).
 
2023-24 Seawolf Individual Honors
TYSON GILBERT
GNAC/PacWest Challenge MVP
GNAC Player of the Week, Oct. 30-Nov. 5
DATHAN SATCHELL
Preseason All-GNAC Team
BISHOP TOSI
GNAC/Pac West Challenge All-Tournament Team
JARON WILLIAMS
GNAC Player of the Week, Dec. 9-19
Hoops In Hawaii Classic All-Tournament Team