The Seawolves downed Central Washington 82-65 behind Taylor Rohde's 31 points to claim their fourth straight victory, all of them on the road -- an almost unheard of accomplishment in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, where any road win is a bonus and consecutive ones are a reason to throw a parade.
"I don't know if it's ever been done before in our program," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said. "Throw in the fact where it's three weeks out of four we've been on the road, and our kids have really battled and I'm just really proud of the way they've attacked."
The last and maybe only time a UAA men's team won four straight on the road was the 1985-86 season.
UAA's streak started after a 73-68 loss to league-leader Western Washington, the team's only loss this season at Wells Fargo Sports Complex. Since then the Seawolves have beaten Western Oregon, Saint Martin's, Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington to maintain their hold on second place in the GNAC with a 9-2 record. They are 16-4 overall.
"You always read about the other teams having to come on the grueling Alaska road trip and the understanding is it's never as hard to come down here as it is for them to come up there," Osborne said in a phone interview from Ellensburg, Wash., after Saturday's game.
"This is not our goal, but it is still an accomplishment. We didn't about it before the game or during the trip, we talked about it after the game," he said. "This is a special accomplishment they should take pride in. In future years, it's sometihng we can point to -- the resiliency of this group. They've had a lot of bad things thrown at them and they didn't roll over."
Injuries have been the bane of UAA's existence this season, shelving several players, among them all-conference senior guard Mario Gill, who hasn't played a game all season because of a hand injury and hopes to get a medical redshirt year so he can return next season.
Another top returner, senior Lonnie Ridgeway, went out Dec. 4 with an injury and didn't return until last week, in time to make the trip to Nazarene and Central Washington. A slashing guard/forward who can create his own shots, he gives the Seawolves another offensive weapon. Against Central, he hit all four of hits shots to finish with 12 points.
UAA led 36-29 at the half and took command in the second half by making Rohde the focus of its offense. He hit 2 of 4 shots and spent 10 minutes on the bench in the first half and when he returned in the second half, Central Washington continued to concentrate on UAA's perimeter shooters.
"We just said, 'Taylor gets the ball every possession.' That was the instructions. We told them, this is not going to be fun for the guys who have to throw it in all the time, but it's how were going to be successful. They worked the ball around and threw it into him and we had a ton of success."
Steve White added 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting to help the Seawolves shoot 58.9 percent from the floor to Central's 42.0. Rohde hauled down nine rebounds and Abebe Demissie grabbed six to give UAA a 34-22 rebounding advantage.
The Seawolves play four of their remaining seven games at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex, including a pair this week that are by no means gimmes. On Thursday, always-dangerous Seattle Pacific, which is in third place in the GNAC, comes to town.
"We've got a long ways to go," Osborne said, "but we've put ourselves in a nice position."
Reach Beth Bragg at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335.
UAA (82) -- Rohde 13-19 5-6 31; White 5-8 2-2 12; Ridgeway 4-4 4-4 12; Fossman 3-7 0-0 8; Demissie 3-6 0-0 7; Thompson 2-4 2-2 6; Jackson 1-1 0-0 2; Gibcus 1-4 0-0 2; Hearn 1-1 0-0 2; Lauwers 0-2 0-1 0. Totals 33-56 13-15 82.
Central Washington (65) -- Tyler 7-14 5-9 22; Haddock 5-13 4-4 14; Johnson 1-1 7-8 9; Starr 3-5 0-0 7; Coby 3-8 0-0 7; Clyde 2-8 1-2 5; Nelson 0-0 1-2 1; Magee 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-50 18-25 65.
UAA 36 46 - 82
Central Washington 29 36 - 65
3-point goals -- UAA 3-7 (Fossman 2-4; Demissie 1-1; Thompson 0-1; Lauwers 0-1), Central Washington 5-14 (Tyler 3-5; Coby 1-5; Starr 1-1; Haddock 0-3). Fouled out --UAA - None, Central Washington - None. Rebounds -- UAA 34 (Rohde 9), Central Washington 22 (Clyde 6). Assists -- UAA 10 (Rohde 2; Fossman 2; Thompson 2), Central Washington 8 (Haddock 3). Total fouls -- UAA 16, Central Washington 16. Steals -- UAA 0, Central Washington 6 (Clyde, Tyler 2). Blocks -- UAA 2 (Demissie, Gibcus 1), Central Washington 2 (Clyde, Nelson 1). Turnovers -- UAA 9 (White 3), Central Washington 8 (Johnson 3). Technical fouls -- UAA - None, Central Washington - None. A -- 753
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