Anchorage Daily News

Invisible much of the way, McCade Olsen came through when the UAA men's basketball team needed him most -- and now the Seawolves are members of college basketball's most exclusive club.

Playing in the Final Four.

All game, the 6-foot-8 all-conference forward struggled to avoid fouls and rediscover the shooting stroke that made him the Most Outstanding Player in the West Regional. With just over three minutes to go, Olsen had zero points.

Yet the senor managed to deliver his team's biggest baskets to help UAA pull out a 55-52 victory Wednesday over California University of Pennsylvania in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Championships in Springfield, Mass.

And now, the Seawolves are going to the Final Four for the second time in school history.

Olsen drained two midrange jumpers down the stretch, including a tough turnaround bank shot despite contact with 27 seconds left that put UAA ahead for good.

All-Americans Carl Arts (17 points) and Luke Cooper (12 points) led the fourth-ranked Seawolves in scoring against the ninth-ranked Vulcans. But Olsen supplied the knockout blow.

"Credit to him for sticking with it. He didn't drop his head when he wasn't involved in the game," Cooper said by cell phone. "He knew later in the game we'd need him. Then he basically won us the game."

The Seawolves (29-5) advanced to the national semifinals today at 2 p.m. ADT against 10th-ranked Augusta State (26-6) of Georgia, which beat Central Oklahoma 106-104 in double overtime.

The last time UAA marched into the Final Four was 1988, when Seawolves lost the championship game.

"We're happy to be in the Final Four. We're 40 minutes away from putting ourselves in the national championship game," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said by phone. "It was a great accomplishment for these kids."

For the Seawolves to advance, they had to rally from an early 14-5 deficit and dig themselves out of a 44-37 hole with nine minutes to play. And they had to overcome the hot shooting of guard Theron Calao, who pumped in 19 points and canned 5-of-10 long-range 3-pointers to lead the Vulcans (28-6).

Early on, it looked like UAA might get run out of the gym after missing its first eight shots and having more turnovers (four) than field goals (two) in the opening eight minutes.

That led to a nine-point deficit that felt -- and looked -- worse. Even Cooper, a reliable ballhandler who came into the game with a sterling 3.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, coughed it up early and often.

"The guy got up in me and I just made some dumb decisions," said Cooper, who finished with five turnovers, three in the first half.

Despite all that, UAA carried a 25-23 advantage into halftime. A big reason was the scoring of Cooper, who bagged his season average of seven by the break.

"I was able to get to the hoop and I made my free throws, which was a bonus," said Cooper, a career 69-percent foul shooter who sank 6 of 8 Wednesday.

Another reason the Seawolves led at halftime was because UAA held Cal's top two leading scorers, Ron Banks and Alioune Mbaye, to four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

UAA stretched its lead 28-23 on Chris Bryant's 3-pointer at the start of the second half before the Vulcans battled back behind Calao and Julian Logan (12 points).

Those two combined to score 14 straight points for their team to propel a big scoring run, capped when East Regional MVP Banks converted a left-handed reverse layup to put Cal up 44-37.

From there, though, the Seawolves turned up their defensive intensity. They held the Vulcans to just eight points over the final 6:27 of the game to overcome a sloppy effort on offense.

"Our defense bailed us out tonight," Osborne said. "We weren't very good offensively. We were out of sync. We were not moving. And we were missing open shots, but the defense held us in there.

"We held that team to 20 points below its average and held their two leading scorers to a combined seven points."

Indeed, Banks and Mbaye finished 3 for 11 from the field.

"That was huge,"Olsen said. "They are two beasts. They outweighed our guys by 20, 30 pounds. We knew we had to take them out of the game if we wanted to stand a chance."

With their team trailing 44-37, Arts, Bryant and Cooper netted UAA's next 11 points to get within 50-48. That's when Olsen finally showed up.

He tied the game on a midrange jumper -- his first basket of the game -- and then scored the go-ahead basket by banking in a 10-footer despite getting bumped by the defender.

"In the regular season, he was probably fouled three times on the play, but this is the postseason," Osborne said. "He was strong and got himself square. People probably think it was a mistake that he banked it in but he does that from there quite often."

Asked if he called glass, Olsen laughed. "Uh-uh," he said.

"But I'll take it."

The Seawolves hit a couple free throws to extend the lead to 55-52. With two seconds left, the Vulcans had a last-gasp hope of forcing overtime.

And they got off a decent look, too, with Calao hitting the backboard and then the front of the rim on a desperation 30-footer at the buzzer.

"As soon as he let it go I felt it was in," Cooper said. "It was nice that it rimmed out. It was nice that we had a bit of luck on that one."

Athletes often say they'd rather be lucky than good. On Wednesday, UAA was both.

Find assistant sports editor Van Williams online at adn.com/contact/vwilliams or call 257-4335.

California (Pa.) 23 29 -- 52

UAA 25 30 -- 55

California (Pa.) -- Colao 7-14 0-0 19; Logan 6-10 0-0 12; Hairston 3-5 2-2 9; Brooks 2-5 0-0 5; Banks 2-7 0-0 4; Mbaye 1-4 1-2 3; Johnson 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 21-48 3-4 52.

UAA -- Arts 6-12 4-4 17; Cooper 3-8 6-8 12; Bryant 4-8 1-2 11; Trueman 3-3 1-1 7; Olsen 2-6 0-0 4; Hardy 0-1 2-2 2; White 1-3 0-0 2; Burney 0-1 0-0 0; Ridgeway 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-42 14-17 55.

3-point goals -- California (Pa.) 7-17 (Colao 5-10; Hairston 1-1; Brooks 1-4; Johnson 0-1; Banks 0-1), UAA 3-10 (Bryant 2-5; Arts 1-3; Olsen 0-1; White 0-1). Fouled out -- None. Rebounds -- California (Pa.) 23 (Mbaye 8), UAA 29 (Arts 8). Assists -- California (Pa.) 10 (Brooks 3), UAA 9 (Cooper 4). Total fouls -- California (Pa.) 15, UAA 11. Technical fouls --None. A --3,722

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