Saint Martin's upended the UAA men's basketball team Thursday night, scoring 12 of the game's final 14 points to pull off a 60-52 upset in Lacey, Wash.
The Saints prevailed against a red-hot Seawolves team that had won three straight and six of its last seven entering the game.
Four players scored in double figures for the Saints, who held UAA to 30.6 percent shooting. The Seawolves hurt themselves, too, managing to hit just 14 of 24 free throws.
The game featured teams at the opposite ends of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings. UAA (14-6 overall, 7-5 GNAC), is in third place, and Saint Martin's (7-12, 3-8), which had lost four in a row and six of its last seven before Thursday, is in ninth place.
But the contest was close for much of the night.
UAA led 25-21 at the half behind Teancom Stafford's 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Saint Martin's relied on 3-point shooting to turn things around in the second half. With seven minutes left, the Saints led by eight, 48-40.
Then it was UAA's turn to rally. Kyle Fossman scored seven points in a 10-point run, capping it with a 3-pointer that put the Seawolves back on top 50-48 lead with 3:38 to go.
But Fossman's trey was the last field goal of the game for UAA, and its last points for the next 3:35.
Saint Martin's tied it with a pair of Evan Coulter free throws and took the lead for good at 2:05 with a Roger O'Neill jumper. Brady Bomber drained a 3-pointer at 1:06 for a 55-50 Saint Martin's lead, and Coulter added two more free throws with 25 seconds left.
The game ended on a chaotic note, with an intentional foul, a technical foul and a personal foul filling the final six seconds. O'Neill sank two free throws after an intentional foul by Abebe Demissie, Fossman knocked down two after O'Neill was whistled for a technical, and Will Bond hit one of two for the Saints after drawing a personal foul.
Coulter finished with a game-high 18 points. O'Neill added 14, Bomber 11 and Bond 10.
The Saints put up 62 shots to UAA's 49, hitting 10 of 22 from 3-point range to compensate for 32.3 percent shooting overall.
After posting a double-double in the first half, Stafford got 10 more points in the second half but zero rebounds to finish with 20 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. He buried 5 of his 6 long-range shots.
Fossman added 13, Liam Gibcus grabbed 11 rebounds and Christian Leckband added seven boards for the Seawolves, who will try to bounce back Saturday at Western Oregon.
UAA (52) -- Stafford 6-14 3-4 20; Fossman 3-11 6-8 13; Gibcus 3-8 0-1 6; Demissie, 1-4 0-2 3; Erickson 1-2 0-0 3; Lauwers 0-2 2-2 2; Leckband 0-5 2-2 2; Spickerman 1-1 0-1 2; Little 0-0 1-2 1; Weitzel 0-0 0-2 0; MacKelvie 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-49 14-24 52.
SAINT MARTIN'S (60) -- Coulter 5-8 6-9 18; O'Neill 5-15 2-2 14; Bomber 4-7 0-0 11; Bond 3-10 1-2 10; Shannon 3-7 1-3 7; Norman 0-1 0-0 0; Dodson 0-5 0-0 0; Jensen 0-5 0-0 0; Taylor 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 20-62 10-16 60.
UAA 25 27 -- 52
Saint Martin's 21 39 -- 60
3-point goals -- UAA 8-22 (Stafford 5-6; Demissie 1-4; Fossman 1-7; Erickson 1-2; Leckband 0-3), Saint Martin's 10-22 (Bond 3-7; Bomber 3-4; Coulter 2-4; O'Neill 2-5; Taylor 0-2). Total fouls -- UAA 17, Saint Martin's 18. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- O'Neill. Rebounds -- UAA 44 (Gibcus 11), Saint Martin's 40 (Coulter 7; Shannon 7). Assists -- UAA 11 (4 players with 2 apiece), Saint Martin's 11 (O'Neill 6). Turnovers -- UAA 13 (Leckband 3), Saint Martin's 7 (Bomber 2). Steals -- UAA 5 (Fossman 2), Saint Martin's 9 (two with 3). Blocks -- UAA 3 (Stafford 3), Saint Martin's 3 (Dodson 2). A -- 542.
Anchorage Daily News