A meeting between two hot teams on a snowy Thursday night ended with the UAA women basketball team extending its winning streak while snapping Western Washington's.
Inside domination combined with their usual feisty defense carried the Seawolves to their fifth straight win, a 71-58 victory that cooled off Western Washington, which saw its five-game winning streak end.
The win gives UAA sole possession of first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. UAA and Seattle Pacific shared the lead coming into the night, but Western Oregon knocked off the Falcons 67-62.
UAA junior Megan Mullings owned the paint, scoring a career-high 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting, with all of her points coming from inside, many of them uncontested.
"We talked about how the bigs need to be active, to keep moving and make them have to guard us in a lot of spots," said Mullings, a 6-foot post. "It was so open because the girls kept looping around and they had to decide who to guard."
UAA scored 50 points inside the paint, with 16 points coming off offensive rebounds. Among the Seawolves who flourished inside were 6-foot KeKe Wright with 11 points and 5-9 Sierra Afoa with eight.
A trapping, pressing defense resulted in 13 steals for the Seawolves (17-1 overall, 7-1 GNAC) and 22 turnovers for the Vikings (11-6, 5-3). Though guard Jenni White racked up 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting, Western Washington guard Taylor Peacock was held to six points, eight below her average, and the Vikings as a team shot 36.1 percent.
"One thing we focused on was taking away their strengths -- perimeter shooting and guard play," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "We did a very good job limiting three really talented guards and forcing Western Washington into some tough shots."
UAA shot 46.7 percent for the game and for stretches shot much better than that, thanks to numerous easy layups.
Adding balance to the UAA attack was Jessica Madison, who hit three treys on her way to 11 points. Two of her 3-pointers came back-to-back early in the second half after the Vikings cut UAA's lead to 12 points.
The Seawolves led by double digits for the final 21 minutes. Western Washington scored four points in a 33-second span late in the first half to cut UAA's lead to 29-24 with just under two minutes remaining. UAA responded with six points in the final 1:46 of the half for a 35-24 lead at the break.
Mullings had 15 points by halftime. With point guards Kiki Robertson and Adriana Dent consistently feeding the ball inside, the Seawolves wound up with assists on nine of their 14 first-half buckets and 19 of their 28 total field goals.
Robertson finished with eight assists to go with eight points.
UAA's lead reached 21 points -- 63-42 with six minutes left in the game -- but Western Washington stayed within 12 to 15 points much of the way.
"Even up by 30, I'd still be a little paranoid they'd come back," McCarthy said.
UAA must still play Western Washington in Bellingham next month, but now is no time to think about a rematch. The Seawolves return to action on Saturday against second place Simon Fraser, which defeated UAF 78-70 on Thursday in Fairbanks.
Contact ADN sports editor Beth Bragg at bbragg@alaskadispatch.com