ANCHORAGE (Jan. 30) – Junior forward Bishop Tosi flirted with a triple-double and sophomore guard Zach Ibbetson had his second-highest scoring effort of the season, but the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team suffered another close loss Thursday, falling 76-73 to Western Washington at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (10-13, 3-7 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) got 20 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high seven assists from Tosi as they outrebounded the visitors 40-31 and attempted 19 more shots (71-52).

The Vikings (13-7, 5-5) were led by 20 points from forward Will Wilson and 18 points and eight assists from guard Tijan Saine to propel their fifth straight victory.

"We battled – you certainly can't fault our effort tonight," said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne, whose team was missing injured key contributors Sean Evans and John McFadden.

Looking for their first win since beating the Vikings 71-67 on Jan. 4 in Bellingham, the Seawolves erased a 42-33 halftime deficit behind the play of Ibbetson, whose 15 points were his most in a GNAC game.  

The Southern California native connected on layups at the 9:09 and 6:09 marks to knot the game at 58-58 and 60-60, and scored again inside to grab a 63-62 lead with 5:07 left.

UAA took a pair of four-point leads on threes by Tyler Burraston and Ibbetson, but the Vikings answered with treys of their own on both occasions. As the clock ticked under two minutes, a long defensive rebound by the Vikings led to a fast-break layup for Garrett Levesque, putting the visitors up for good at 72-71.

Tosi missed a potential tying dunk with 34 seconds left when he was blocked from behind by Levesque, however a pair of missed free throws kept the Seawolves within a possession with seven seconds remaining. UAA called timeout to set up a three-point attempt by Ibbetson, but his shot bounced off the rim and into Tosi's hands as time expired.

Tosi shot 8 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 4 at the foul stripe, along with a pair of blocks, while Ibbetson shot 6 of 13 with two assists.

Burraston finished with 11 points and junior forward Jesse Stines matched his career high with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Stines also swatted a career-high three shots, tying McFadden for the most by a Seawolf this season.

UAA returns to the Alaska Airlines Center on Saturday for a 5:15 p.m. tip against Simon Fraser. Find tickets and live links at GoSeawolves.com.