ANCHORAGE (Jan. 24) – Sylas Williams and Hasaan Herrington combined for 52 points with career-high scoring efforts, and the Alaska Anchorage men's basketball team used a late surge to defeat Montana State Billings 84-70 on Saturday night at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (14-6, 6-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) got 28 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and no turnovers from Williams to register his sixth double-double, while Herrington had 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting (4-5 3FG) and nine assists.

Senior forward Bishop Tosi added 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting as UAA snapped a third-place tie with Billings and caught Northwest Nazarene for second place at the midpoint of the GNAC campaign.

The Yellowjackets (16-6, 5-4) got 22 points and five assists from guard Mason Landdeck, but the visitors were hurt by a 36-25 disadvantage on the boards and faded after rallying to tie it with under nine minutes remaining.

"The three keys to the game were tempo, rebounding and ball security," said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne. "We were excellent in all three areas. Billings is excellent at speeding you up, pounding you on the offensive boards and turning you over, but we won all three phases tonight. We held them way under their season average, only gave up seven offensive rebounds and committed just 11 turnovers against their press – great numbers against a talented team."

Despite a seemingly comfortable 46-32 halftime lead, UAA fell victim to a 12-3 Yellowjacket run out of the break, and forward Croix Cox brought Billings with 55-52 on a tip-in basket midway through the second half.

Jonas LaTour swished a corner jumper for a 57-57 tie at the 8:39 mark, but the momentum would not last for his team. Herrington dished to Williams for a layup to beat the shot clock on the next possession, and the two combined for all the scoring (five points apiece) and two assists during a deciding 10-0 run.

Billings never got closer than 67-59 the rest of the way as UAA enjoyed a double-figure lead for the final five minutes.

Williams shot 10 of 19 from the floor (6-11 3FG), while Herrington came one assist shy of matching his career best.

UAA also got six points, five rebounds and a career-high six assists from senior forward Akok Machar.

UAA hits the road next week to face Western Washington on Thursday and Simon Fraser on Saturday. Both games start at 6 p.m. AST, with live links available at GoSeawolves.com.