Sports

UAA men fend off furious Vikings comeback

With a huge lead whittled down to nearly nothing, the UAA men's basketball team hung tough and hit its free throws to secure an 81-76 road win over Western Washington on Thursday.

The Seawolves, who led by 25 points early in the second half, sank nine out of 10 free throws in the final minute to win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference game in Bellingham, Washington. It was the first time UAA has won in Bellingham since 2009.

"We tightened up for a few minutes but we did a good job holding off their run," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said by phone.

Dom Hunter poured in a team-high 22 points and hit 12 of 13 free throws, including four in the final minute, to lead UAA. Derrick Fain hit three of four free throws in the final minute to finish with a career-high 19 points.

UAA (11-9 overall, 7-3 GNAC) scored its final 10 points from the foul line, beginning with the free throw that completed a traditional three-point play by Travis Thompson that gave the Seawolves a 73-67 lead with 70 seconds left.

Western Washington (10-10, 3-7) on three occasions came within three points of catching UAA in the final minute, but the Vikings couldn't complete their impressive comeback.

A 3-pointer by Western's Jeffrey Parker made it 79-76 with 8.9 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, UAA had to call timeout twice because it couldn't find an open man. After the second timeout, Thompson got the ball to Brian McGill, who was immediately fouled. With 8.1 seconds, McGill hit both free throws to cement the victory.

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Thompson finished with 15 points and McGill and Travis Parrish each scored 10, with McGill dishing a game-high six assists and Parrish adding a team-high six rebounds.

Fain's game included 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range and marked his best performance since joining UAA this season.

Both he and Hunter, another first-year player, have been hampered by injury much of the season -- Fain by a dislocated finger, Hunter by a broken toe -- but both are back now and showing what they can do.

"Derrick's seeing the ball go through the hoop for the first time in a long time," Osborne said. "I'm really proud of how we stuck together. It's a long year, and there's plenty of time to still make this a special year."

UAA's win came despite a great game from WWU's Anye Turner, who racked up 24 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out late.

Among Turner's points were a dozen from the foul line in a game that had 46 total fouls -- 23 for each team. The Seawolves were 31 of 37 from the line and the Vikings were 25 of 33.

Combined with a home-court victory earlier this season, Thursday's win marked the first time since the 2007-08 season that UAA has scored a season sweep of the Vikings.

UAA stays on the road for a conference game Saturday against Simon Fraser.

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