UAA men advance to basketball's Final Four

The fourth-ranked Seawolves (29-5) advance to the semifinals against 10th-ranked Augusta State (26-6) at 2 p.m. Thursday ADT. The Georgia school moved on with a 106-104 double-overtime thriller over Central Oklahoma in the day's first quarterfinal.

It is UAA's first appearance in the Division II final since advancing to the national title game in 1988.

The Seawolves came out sloppy at the start, falling behind 14-5 after eight minutes. Freshman Kevin White helped spark UAA's comeback with a layup, and Arts nailed a jumper to get the offense rolling. A putback layup by Arts gave UAA a 25-23 lead going into the locker room.

The Vulcans (28-6) quickly rallied at the start of the second half and had a 44-37 lead with 9:23 remaining. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champs then seemed to take control, going up 50-46 on reserve guard Theron Colao's back-to-back three-pointers with 5:36 left.

UAA, ranked fifth in the nation in points allowed per game, fought back with another tough defensive effort, holding Cal scoreless over the next five minutes. Seawolf senior forward McCade Olsen, who had been held scoreless to that point, then knotted the game at 50-50 on a baseline jumper with 3:20 left.

With the teams still tied, Arts pulled down a rebound on the defensive end with less than 40 seconds to play. UAA went inside to Olsen, who made a strong post move and banked in a jump shot from about 8 feet away in the lane.

After another Cal miss, Arts converted two free throws to put UAA up 54-50 with 12 seconds showing. Colao (19 points, 5-10 3FG) drove in for an uncontested layup with 3.8 seconds left to cut his team's deficit in half, and the Vulcans fouled Chris Bryant (11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) with 2.5 seconds on the clock. Bryant made the first free throw and missed the second, allowing the Vulcans one last chance.

Colao got a good look from about 35 feet, but his desperation shot hit glass and rimmed off at the buzzer.

UAA earned the win largely at the free-throw stripe, where the Seawolves went 14 of 17, compared to Cal's 3 of 4. The Seawolves also shut down Vulcan star center Ron Banks, who was held to just four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

UAA head coach Rusty Osborne said the plan was to stop Banks down low, even if it meant giving up a few outside jumpers.

"When teams are so good, you can't let them go to their strengths, so that was worth it," said UAA's fourth-year head coach. "We developed a good game plan over the last week and it worked. We got the (defensive) help down low and never let those guys get going."

Osborne also commended his team for not panicking when it trailed late.

"We talked early in the year about 'We're not always great, but we're always resilient,' " he said. "And we just felt that if we could keep it close, we could get back in it and we could execute at the end."

Thursday's semifinal will be video-streamed live at the Web site www.ncaa.com. The normal Seawolf radio broadcast will also be live on AM-1080 in Anchorage.