Sports

UAA women win again despite slow pace, low score

The third-ranked UAA women's basketball team earned a W on the scoreboard and an A from their coach Thursday after facing -- and passing -- a stern test in Ellensburg, Washington.

The Seawolves scored about 25 points below their average and never owned a comfortable lead in a 58-50 win over Central Washington.

Down by two with less than nine minutes to play, UAA outscored the Wildcats 13-3 the rest of the way to tightened its grip on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference lead.

"I thought we showed a lot of toughness," coach Ryan McCarthy said. "I'm real pleased with the defensive effort when we needed to get a stop. We out-toughed the other team in the last four minutes."

Post players Keke Wright (13 points) and Megan Mullings (10 points) allowed UAA to survive a tremendous game from Jasmin Parker, a 6-foot post who piled up 11 rebounds, seven points, five blocks, four assists and two steals for Central. "She's really good," McCarthy said.

Mullings picked up three fouls in a four-minute span of the second half and fouled out with 5:32 remaining and UAA clinging to a 52-50 lead.

But Wright provided enough inside muscle and heart to see the Seawolves through -- she scored seven points once Mullings got into foul trouble, including five in a row that turned Central's 47-45 lead into UAA's 50-47 lead.

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Alli Madison stole the ball on Central's next possession and drove for a layup to make it 52-47, and UAA never trailed again.

"Alli and KeKe did a really good job showing senior leadership," McCarthy said. "Each came up with plays where they were refusing to lose."

UAA played without Adriana Dent, a sparkplug guard who next week will have surgery to repair of stress fracture in her foot. She's the second big loss to injury -- an injury ended freshman post Leah Bonner's season earlier this month -- but McCarthy hopes to have Dent back in time for the postseason.

UAA (19-1 overall, 9-1 GNAC), which averaged 83.4 points a game before Thursday, played at a slower pace than usual. Central Washington (10-8, 5-5) played a half-court offense and used much of the shot clock before setting up a shot, McCarthy said.

"It showed we can play shut-down defense," he said.

The game was one of the closest of the season for the Seawolves, who on Saturday go to Northwest Nazarene, where they hope to avenge their only loss of the season.

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