ANCHORAGE (Nov. 6) – Senior forward
Sylas Williams had 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds and senior guard
Mack Keighran tallied 16 points and five assists to lead hot-shooting Alaska Anchorage to a 94-65 win over Evergreen State in its season opener Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
A crowd of 3,874 – the second-largest men's basketball crowd in the 12-year history of the arena – watched the hosts outshoot the visitors .533 to .351 and win the rebounding battle 53-27 in the head-coaching debut of
Cameron Turner. The game was UAA's annual Slam-Dunk-Into-Higher-Education day, sponsored by Premera, with thousands of Anchorage School District fifth-graders in attendance.
The Geoducks, who counted the game as an exhibition, were led by 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from guard Jayson Mathews.
"I loved the atmosphere – it was super electric," Turner said. "I'm just so glad those kids could come and experience UAA and a college game. I remember doing that stuff when I was a kid, and my first time playing basketball was in the fifth grade because I had these types of cool experiences as a young fan.
"As far as our team, not having an exhibition like some teams already, we're going to have some bumps and kinks to work out. I'm fine where we're at, and now we're just going to have to work to get better."
Featuring a new-look lineup with nine transfers, the Seawolves took the lead for good at 7-5 on a midrange jumper by
Tarrance Warren, and stretched it to 24-13 on a three-pointer from Keighran. UAA held the NAIA club without a field goal for a six-minute stretch midway through the first half, building its lead to 43-27 at the break.
Walker Timme and Keighran scored to open the second half, and Evergreen could get no closer than 73-55 with 8:11 remaining.
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year, Williams shot 7 of 16 from the floor to claim his 12th career double-double.
Keighran, a transfer from Chadron State, shot 7 of 8 from the field, including 2 of 3 on three-pointers, while fellow newcomer
Karim Elgizawy totaled 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and seven rebounds. Timme had 13 points, and Warren and
Will Kuykendall finished with seven points apiece.
The Seawolves and Geoducks play again Saturday at 4:15 pm at the Alaska Airlines Center. Find tickets and live links at GoSeawolves.com.
