CARSON, Calif. (Mar. 14) – Senior center
Tori Hollingshead scored a career-high 28 points and freshman forward
Ashlyn Rean delivered 16 points Friday to help 4th-seeded Alaska Anchorage hold on for a 69-66 first-round victory over 5th-seeded Montana State Billings in the NCAA Div. II West Regional Championships at the Torodome.
Ranked No. 16 nationally, the Seawolves (28-4) also got 11 points and three assists from senior guard
Jazzpher Evans as they advanced to Saturday's 6:30 p.m. ADT regional semifinal against top-seeded and nationally 4th-ranked Cal State Dominguez Hills (32-1).
The Yellowjackets (25-8) were led by 19 points and nine rebounds from all-conference forward Dyauni Boyce as they nearly completed a furious, last-minute comeback, seeing a three-pointer from Aspen Giese rattle in-and-out at the buzzer.
"That's March," UAA head coach
Ryan McCarthy said of the wild final minute. "We knew Billings was a great team coming into it. They've been a top-25 team all year, and we knew after we got a big lead at half that they were going to make a run at some point. Those last two minutes were a little bit crazy, but fortunately we were able to hang on. Their shot went in and out, and here we go – we get to start all over again tomorrow."
Playing Billings for the third time after each team held home court in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, UAA fell behind 7-0 in the opening minutes. Hollingshead – coming off MVP honors at last week's GNAC Tournament – scored three early baskets to help draw things even, and
Jaisa Gamble sank two midrange jumpers to claim a 19-14 lead after one quarter.
The Seawolves dominated the rest of the half behind the play of Rean and Evans, who combined for 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the second quarter, with Evans's last-second baseline floater forging a 39-24 lead at the break.
Hollingshead converted one of
Emilia Long's six steals into a basket midway through the third quarter to push UAA's largest advantage to 47-31, but the Yellowjackets began to find their offensive rhythm, using threes from Giese and Chloe Williams to make it 53-43 heading into the final period.
Rean made four straight free throws as the Seawolves maintained at least an eight-point lead throughout the fourth quarter, and Evans sank a free throw for a seemingly insurmountable 67-55 lead with 62 seconds remaining.
Billings reserve guard Layla Baumann nailed a trey with 47 seconds left, however, and she and Boyce nabbed back-to-back steals for two quick layups, giving the GNAC regular-season runners-up a 7-0 run in 13 seconds.
Baumann answered a Hollingshead free throw with another three-pointer to slice it to a one-possession game, and Evans converted one of two free throws for UAA with 17 seconds left to make it 69-65. The Seawolf defense didn't allow a quick shot, but Williams drew a shooting foul with 2.7 seconds showing. With both teams out of timeouts, Williams made the first and purposely missed the second, allowing Boyce to sneak in for an offensive rebound. Boyce fired to Giese – a 42 percent three-point shooter – for the tying attempt, which rattled off both sides of the rim before popping out at the buzzer.
Hollingshead shot 13 of 20 from the field as the first-team all-region and all-conference performer added 10 rebounds for her 12th double-double. The Orem, Utah, native also recorded all three of her blocked shots in the late going to help preserve the victory.
Rean, a 6-2 freshman from New Zealand, shot 6 of 9 from the field, along with nine rebounds and five assists.
Long and Gamble tallied six points apiece, with Long adding three assists.
"It definitely felt more intense because we knew that if we didn't win we're just done for, but I think every game we always have really high energy, and we approach it the same," said Rean. "We know that if we do what we do, we're going to be OK."
Saturday's UAA-CSUDH game pits the GNAC regular-season and tournament champions against the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season and tourney champs, with the winner facing either No. 6 seed Central Washington or No. 7 seed Chico State in Monday's 6 p.m. ADT regional title game. The winner of the regional advances to the NCAA Div. II Elite Eight, Mar. 24-28 in Pittsburgh, Pa.
NOTES: Saturday's game will feature the top two players in the NCAA Div. II steals stats with Long (4.2 spg) and CSUDH's Nala Williams (4.1 spg) … the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, Long increased her UAA and GNAC single-season record to 135 total steals, grabbing five-plus for the 12th time this year … the Seawolves improved to 27-17 in NCAA Tournament games and 13-7 in opening-round contests … UAA leads the all-time series with CSUDH 7-2 … UAA and CSUDH have played just once in the NCAA Tournament, with UAA winning 82-53 in the first round in 2016 in Azusa, Calif., on its way to reaching the national championship game … Hollingshead's 13 field goals were the most by a Seawolf this season … Hollingshead moved into the top 10 on the UAA career list with 15 double-doubles in her two seasons since transferring from Umpqua (Ore.) CC.
