Christian Leckband carried UAA and Brian McGill finished in style to lead the Seawolves to a thrilling 62-60 Great Northwest Athletic Conference win over Western Washington on Saturday night at the Alaska Airlines Center.
McGill's driving lay-up with six seconds left was the game-winner for UAA, which improved to 3-1 in the GNAC and 7-7 overall.
"I thought we were very resilient tonight," said UAA head coach Rusty Osborne, whose team rallied from 11 points down.
The game-winning play almost didn't go off as planned. Osborne had to call back-to-back timeouts before the winning shot after McGill, in his own words, originally "screwed up the play."
McGill said he was happy Osborne decided to give him another chance.
"Coach stayed confident in me all game," said McGill, who finished with a game-high 20 points and dished five assists.
Leckband was energetic all evening, attacking the rim inside and dropping bombs from outside. The junior from Nome scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed five rebounds in the win, UAA's fourth straight.
"I just wanted to go out there and be aggressive," said Leckband.
Osborne said Leckband recovered nicely after missing two early shots.
"I coached him hard and he responded," Osborne said.
Joey Schreiber scored 18 points to lead Western Washington (0-3 GNAC, 7-6 overall), which also got 11 from Kyle Impero and 10 from Jeffrey Parker.
Senior guard Travis Thompson broke the UAA record for career 3-pointers, finishing with a pair of treys and scoring 11 points. He tied the record held by former teammate Kyle Fossman with his first shot, giving UAA a 3-0 lead one minute into the game with his 257th career trey. Thompson, a Dimond High alum, broke the record with a second-half bomb.
Freshman forward Sjur Berg, a 6-foot-7 Norwegian, had his best game as a Seawolf, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds and drawing a pair of charges that helped ignite his team on the defensive end.
"Sjur Berg showed everybody the kind of rebounder he can be," Osborne said.
UAA outrebounded the Vikings 38-31 and held them to 36 percent shooting in the second half.
"Our defense and our rebounding were really key tonight," Osborne said.
The hot-shooting Vikings were the better team early, outscoring UAA 21-11 in the first 10 minutes by hitting nine of their first 12 shots, including their first three 3-point tries.
Two days after putting up 108 points in a 22-point win over Simon Fraser, UAA struggled early on offense. The Seawolves shot 37 percent in the first half and trailed by as many as 11 points.They battled back behind McGill, who scored eight points during a late 8-3 run that cut the lead to 31-28 at halftime.
Leckband electrified the crowd early in the second half when he raced down the floor on a fast break and threw down an emphatic one-handed dunk in traffic.
Osborne said he was thrilled to see Leckband attack the rim with such gusto.
"I was yelling at him to throw it down," he said.
Leckband's aerial effort was soon followed by Thompson's record-breaking trey, a jumper from the left wing with 15:10 left that cut the Vikings' lead to 39-37. Thompson got the record despite an uncharacteristically bad shooting night. He made just three of his 14 attempts, at one point angrily slamming his palms on the bench during a timeout.
UAA took its first lead of the second half with a 7-0 run, going up 44-43 on Boomer Blossom's 3-pointer with 10 minutes to go.
Leckband tied his career high with back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second half, the second one giving UAA its biggest lead of the game, 54-50, with six minutes left.
Western Washington's Anye Turner tied the game 60-60 with 1:18 to play. The teams traded scoreless possessions, allowing Osborne to call timeout to diagram his team's final play. After McGill's mistake on the initial play, Osborne called another clear-out for the junior from Oregon, who drove into the lane, bounced off the contact and scored the game-winner.
"We're just trying to continue to build," said Osborne, whose team reached the .500 mark for the first time this season.
UAA returns to action Saturday for a conference clash against rival UAF in Fairbanks. The Nanooks defeated Western Washington on Thursday, and Osborne said he's expecting a tough test.
"It should be a good battle up there," he said.
WESTERN WASHINGTON (60) -- Turner 2-6 3-7 7, Parker 4-11 0-0 10, Johnson 3-6 0-2 6, Impero 5-12 0-2 11, Javier 1-2 2-2 5, Schreiber 6-10 3-3 18, Hopkins 1-1 0-0 3, Velasquez 0-0 0-0 0, Bowen 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 8-16 60.
UAA (62) -- Parrish 0-2 0-0 0, Diouf 1-7 2-2 4, McGill 6-11 8-8 20, Thompson 3-14 3-4 11, Bowman 1-3 0-1 3, Leckband 6-9 2-3 16, Berg 1-4 1-3 3, Fain 1-2 0-0 2, Blossom 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 20-54 16-21 62.
WWU 31 29 -- 60
UAA 28 34 -- 62
3-point goals -- WWU 8-19 (Parker 2-5, Impero 1-4, Javier 1-2, Schreiber 3-6, Hopkins 1-1, Bowen 0-1), UAA 6-16 (Parrish 0-1, Thompson 2-8, Bowman 1-2, Leckband 2-3, Berg 1-3). Rebounds -- WWU 31 (Turner 8), UAA 38 (Berg 13). Total fouls --WWU 21, UAA 18. Fouled out -- Diouf. Assists -- WWU 18 (Javier 8), UAA 10 (McGill 5). Turnovers -- WWU 16 (3 with 3 each), UAA 13 (McGill 4). Blocks -- WWU 9 (Turner 5), UAA 1 (Leckband). Steals -- WWU 6 (2 with 2 each), UAA 6 (2 with 2 each). A -- 1,423. Officials -- Crider, King, Paz.