Alaska News

UAA women's basketball team sweeps GNAC awards

After rolling to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season championship, the UAA women's basketball team Tuesday made an unprecedented sweep of the conference's major awards.

League coaches voted senior center Hanna Johansson Player of the Year.

Junior guard Haley Holmstead was named Newcomer of the Year.

Guard Gritt Ryder was voted Freshman of the Year and sixth-year coach Tim Moser -- he of the amazing .838 career winning percentage guiding the Seawolves -- was named Coach of the Year by his peers.

That Seawolves sweep marked the first time in the 11-year history of the conference that one basketball team -- women's or men's -- racked all four honors.

UAA's conference title earned it a first-round bye in the conference tournament this week in Lacey, Wash.

The Seawolves (25-4), defending tournament champions, and ranked No. 2 in the West Region and No. 8 in Division II nationally, open the tournament Friday at 6:30 p.m. AST. They play the winner of Thursday's first-round game between fifth-seeded Simon Fraser and fourth-seeded Seattle Pacific.

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Johansson, who was also a first-team All-GNAC pick for the second straight season, averaged 14.1 points per game overall, 9.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists, and shot 56.5 percent from the field. In 18 league games, she shot 58 percent and averaged a double-double with 15.1 ppg and 10.3 rpg.

She ranks third on UAA's all-time rebounding charts, fifth in both steals and blocks, seventh in points and ninth in assists. And second in field-goal percentage.

Holmstead, like Johansson a first-team All-GNAC honoree, averages a team-leading 15.1 points per game and shoots 50.7 percent from the field. Her 27-point outburst in a victory over Seattle Pacific on Jan. 7 marked a career high by current Seawolves.

Gritt averaged 5.6 ppg and 3.5 assists per game.

Moser's award was his third in the GNAC -- he also won in 2009 and 2007.

UAA senior forward Kaylie Robison and junior forward Alysa Horn were each voted honorable mention.

UAF senior center Nicole Bozek was voted second-team All-GNAC.

Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage Daily News

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