ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Mar. 8) – Tyson Gilbert scored 14 points and fellow senior Sawyer Storms powered a big second-half surge Friday to lead Alaska Anchorage to a 64-63 victory over Northwest Nazarene in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championships semifinals at Nicholson Pavilion.

The 6th-seeded Seawolves (22-9) also got 12 points from junior guard Dillon Barrientos and a career-high 10 rebounds from freshman center Sloan Lentfer as they advanced to Saturday's title game against host and 4th-seeded Central Washington, which stunned top-seeded Montana State Billings 81-80 in Friday's late semifinal.

The 2nd-seeded Nighthawks were led by 12 points from center Gabriel Murphy and 11 points and eight rebounds from forward Christian Rose, but the Idahoans were outscored 36-12 from the three-point arc and failed to capitalize on several late opportunities.

"I thought that this would be a back-and-forth, physical battle, but I was confident in our group because they are very resilient," said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne, whose team overcome a double-digit deficit for the fourth time in the last eight games. "We were not executing very well in the first half, but we were able to keep the game ugly a little bit and survive. Multiple people (in the locker room) said 'Hey, we've faced worse and we've just got to stick with it,' and that's what we did."

After splitting the regular-season series with closely contested home victories for each club, the Seawolves fell behind 8-0 out of the gate in the rubber match. Barrientos and Gilbert got their scoring going, however, and senior Caleb Larsen delivered a key five points off the bench to keep it within a 35-29 margin at the half.

UAA trailed 38-29 early in the second half before Lentfer got loose inside for back-to-back buckets, and took its first lead at 41-40 on Storms's three-pointer at the 15-minute mark. NNU answered UAA's rally as the teams combined for seven lead changes through the middle 10 minutes of the second half, capped by a Gilbert three-pointer that made it 56-54 with 4:38 left.

Storms – an honorable mention All-GNAC performer who sat most of the first half with foul trouble – came through with two huge three-pointers in a 44-second span to expand the lead to 62-56, and Williams scored on a driving layup for a 64-59 edge with 53 seconds to play.

Following two free throws by Rose, the Nighthawks stole the inbounds pass, only to see Tru Allen's three-point attempt bounce off and into the hands of Barrientos.

Barrientos missed the front end of a one-and-one with 24 seconds left, but UAA again denied the Nighthawks defensively when Gilbert stole the ball and was fouled with 11 seconds to play. The First Team All-Conference guard also missed his bonus opportunity, and Murphy made an uncontested layup with 3.1 ticks showing.

Following a timeout, the Seawolves misfired on another inbounds pass, and the Nighthawks called for timeout with four-tenths of a second left. UAA defended the Ryzin Bergersen's desperation three-point attempt effectively, though, as it fell well short at the buzzer.

Gilbert finished 4 of 8 from long range and collected three steals, while Storms scored all 12 of his points after halftime on 4-of-9 three-point shooting, along with a critical block of Allen's layup attempt with 1:40 left.

"In my head, I just needed to see one fall after sitting on the bench most of the first half, and I got one to go early in the second half," said Storms, an Idaho Falls native. "My teammates and my coaches, they just give me all the confidence in the world that they trust me to take those shots, and they were finding me. Tonight it happened to be me, but any night it can be someone different on our team."

Barrientos shot 5 of 10 from the floor and dished three assists with no turnovers in a game-high 38 minutes, while Williams scored seven points and matched his career high with six assists.

Senior Dathan Satchell chipped in six points and a pair of key offensive rebounds, and Lentfer snagged double-digit rebounds for the first time against a fellow NCAA Div. II opponent.

Seeking its first GNAC tourney title, UAA advances to the title game for the fourth time since the event's founding in 2011.

Find live video and stats links for Saturday's 6:30 p.m. AST tip at either GoSeawolves.com or gnacsports.com.