ANCHORAGE (Jan. 4) – Senior forward Vishe' Rabb dazzled in her season debut with 16 points, including a crucial layup with 16 seconds remaining, to help the Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team to a 61-54 victory over No. 14 Western Washington on Thursday at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (7-5, 1-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got seven points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and no turnovers from junior guard Ja'Niah Alexander as they stretched their winning streak to five games and snapped a five-game skid against the visitors from Bellingham.

The Vikings (9-3, 1-1) were led by 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from senior center Brooke Walling, but the two-time defending regular-season GNAC champs were forced into 26 turnovers and limited to .392 (20 of 51) shooting as a team.

Ten months and two days after tearing her ACL in the GNAC Tournament quarterfinals in Bellingham, Rabb started her comeback by nailing her first three-pointer to open the scoring, and connected on 7 of 10 field goals. The First Team All-GNAC performer also had four rebounds, three assists and three steals in just 16 minutes.

"Vishe' could have walked away from basketball and moved on after tearing her ACL, but from the first second she came out of the locker room on that night, she has shown incredible dedication to making this comeback, and has continued to lead our club from within," said McCarthy, whose team crept two games above .500 for the first time this year. "On top of that, this was an incredible team win, which shows when you get at least one basket from all 11 players. Obviously we're overjoyed for Vishe' and to get this win tonight, but we will have to refocus quickly and get ready for another very tough test (vs. Simon Fraser) on Saturday."

In a battle of teams that have accounted for every GNAC regular-season title since 2014-15, the Seawolves controlled the lead for over 35 minutes, but were unable to pull away.

Rabb scored nine first-half points to help UAA to a 28-24 lead at the break, before Vikings forward Aspen Garrison scored inside for a 33-33 deadlock at the 7:24 mark of the third quarter.

Alexander and Tori Hollingshead (4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks) answered with back-to-back buckets for the Seawolves, and junior point guard Mia Ross (6 points) nailed two free throws to cap a 6-0 run.

Nursing a 43-40 lead at the final quarter break, UAA pushed its largest advantage to 48-40 on five straight points from Senya Rabouin and Rabb, and still led 52-44 with 4:25 on the clock.

Stephanie Peterson and Riley Dykstra connected on consecutive three-pointers for the Vikings, however, and a steal by Olivia Wickstrom led to a transition putback layup from Maddy Grandbois to slice it to 55-54 with 1:49 left.

The visitors had two chances to take the lead after misses by Jazzpher Evans and Rabb, but Evans redeemed herself with a steal at the 1:24 mark, and Peterson missed a long jumper with 41 seconds left that fell into the hands of Evans.

With the clock ticking down, Rabb took a pass from Kya Pearson and snaked along the baseline for a bank-in layup to give UAA a three-point cushion and force a Western Washington timeout with 16.6 seconds showing.

Wickstrom got a decent look from the corner that bounced off and into the hands of Kate Robertson, who made a pair of clinching free throws with eight seconds left.

Evans finished with eight points, and Rabouin had five points, four assists, two steals and no turnovers.

The Seawolves face Simon Fraser on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center, with tip set for 7 p.m. AST. Navigate to GoSeawolves.com for direct links to tickets, live video and stats, and more.