Sports

Top-ranked UAA women run winning streak to 15

Challenged by a highly motivated opponent and the late arrival of mayhem, the UAA women's basketball team had to battle from behind to muster its 15th straight victory Saturday afternoon.

The Seawolves, the top-ranked team in Division II basketball, ran their record to 27-1 with a scrappy 74-64 win over Montana State-Billings from front of a matinee crowd of 1,910 at the Alaska Airlines Center.

"It wasn't pretty but we got it done," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "Huge credit to MSU -- they were playing with their season on the line. The credit goes to them for some of our struggles, but our pace and pressure wore on them."

Billings needed a win in order to qualify for next week's Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament -- which is being held in Billings. The loss means the Yellowjackets (14-14 overall, 6-12 GNAC) will be spectators instead of participants at the playoffs they are hosting.

With so much at stake, the Yellowjackets played as if on a mission. They built an early 11-0 lead, led for most of the first half and kept it a two-possession game for much of the second half.

They weathered UAA's full-court press and defensive traps and employing a zone defense that troubled and temporarily stalled the Seawolves (17-1, 27-1).

"I was impressed," junior Jenna Buchanan said. "They came out with a plan and they stuck to it. They tried to slow the game down."

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A slow tempo is kryptonite to the Seawolves, who thrive when the pace is full-speed-ahead. Their motto is mayhem, which they create with aggressive defense that generally produces a bounty of steals for them and turnovers for the opponent.

Coming into the game, opponents were averaging almost 25 turnovers a game against the Seawolves, who were averaging about 17. At halftime, Billings had surrendered the ball seven times to UAA's 10. Mayhem, it seemed, spent most of that half on the bench.

"We have a tendency to come out flat at times, and they exposed that," senior guard Alli Madison said. "But we corrected it, thank God."

Mayhem made an appearance at the start of the second half, which began with UAA clinging to a 29-27 lead.

Madison turned a steal into a layup and then Jessica Madison rebounded a Billings miss and got the ball to point guard Kiki Robertson, who passed up an open 3-pointer in favor of penetrating the lane and burying a jumper. In 70 seconds of play, UAA stretched its lead to 33-27 -- its first two-possession lead of the game.

A 3-pointer from Annie DePuydt cut UAA's lead to three, but UAA answered immediately with a 3-pointer from Buchanan -- a shot that effectively blew the lid off the basket for the Seawolves, whose 2-of-9 3-point shooting in the first half improved to 7-of-11 in the second half.

"There just needed to be a play to get everybody going," Buchanan said.

Four of UAA's next five buckets were treys, including one by Alli Madison with the shot clock about to run out. That made it 50-42 with a little more than 11 minutes left in the game. The 3-point barrage helped UAA open up a 58-45 lead with eight minutes left.

Billings managed to come within seven points twice in the final three minutes, but the Seawolves hit enough free throws at the end to pull away.

Buchanan hit 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range -- including 2 of 3 in the second half -- to finish with 14 points, and Jessica Madison hit 3 of 7 en route to 13 points. Junior post Megan Mullings shook off several first-half traveling violations to finish with 14 points, nine rebounds and five blocks.

Robertson and Alli Madison each delivered nine points. Robertson added 10 assists, three steals and four rebounds and Madison supplied nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. Keke Wright contributed nine rebounds to help UAA control the boards 50-35, an effort that included 17 offensive rebounds.

The Yellowjackets got outstanding games from a couple of players. Senior post Kayleen Goggins battled for her 14 points and nine rebounds while handing out five assists, sophomore forward Alisha Breen scored a game-high 16 points, dished eight assists and blocked three shots, and senior forward Quinn Peoples scored 15 points and blocked two shots.

Breen and Peoples were a combined 4-of-17 from 3-point range, and most of the triples they knocked down were uncontested. But by the end of the game, Breen and Peoples were on the bench with five fouls.

UAA's most glaring deficiency was at the foul line, where the Seawolves hit a pitiful 55.9 percent -- 19 of 34.

"One area we need to work on is free throws," McCarthy said. "In the postseason we know at least one game is gonna come down to free throws."

Postseason for the Seawolves begins this week in Billings. They celebrated the end of the regular season after Saturday's game by accepting the trophy they earned as the GNAC regular-season champions and cutting down a net in celebration.

"It's a great feeling," Alli Madison said.

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