Sports

For UAA men's basketball team, it's all about survival

As the UAA men's basketball team heads into the survive-and-advance portion of the season -- also known as the postseason -- the Seawolves already know all about surviving.

For almost the entire season they have survived, with varying degrees of success, an assortment of injuries. At times the starting lineup changed week to week, sometimes even game to game.

Of the 13 players on the roster for Thursday's game against Western Washington at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament in Billings, Montana, nearly half have missed games with injuries.

Most significantly, guard Dom Hunter, who is averaging 13.5 points a game, missed a dozen games with a toe injury, and center Nicho Burgard, who showed promise in the Great Alaska Shootout and other early games, has been shelved since December with a back injury.

Backcourt mainstays Travis Thompson and Brian McGill each missed a game with an ankle injury, and Thompson's injury continues to limit how often and how long he can practice with the team.

If that wasn't enough to test the team's resolve, there was this: UAA's roster includes eight first-year team members. With that many new players, the Seawolves needed time to mesh -- a task complicated by the injuries.

"We stayed resilient," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said. "I'm proud of that."

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After struggling to get to .500 -- something that didn't happen until early January, when a win over Simon Fraser lifted them to a 7-7 record -- the Seawolves starting coming together. They won five straight GNAC games in a stretch that ended in mid-February to move to 14-9.

Although that streak was followed by a three-game skid, UAA turned things around last week in its final home games. The Seawolves knocked off GNAC regular-season champion Western Oregon by two points and then buried Saint Martin's by 34 points.

The Seawolves will ride that two-game winning streak into the tournament in Billings, where the GNAC's top six teams will play for the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division II West Region tournament.

At-large berths will also be available for the region tournament, but with a 16-12 record, the Seawolves' only realistic route to regions is as GNAC champion. If they survive, they advance.

Given the way his team is playing, Osborne is OK with that.

"We're happy with where we're at," he said. "From now on out we'll play as many games as we win."

UAA will face Western Washington in Thursday's first round. The Vikings are 18-10 and have won their last eight games.

Their last loss, in fact, was to UAA -- an 81-76 decision in Bellingham, Washington. UAA also beat the Vikings in Anchorage, 62-60.

The winner of the UAA-Western Washington game will meet top-seeded Western Oregon (23-5) in Friday's semifinals.

Thursday's other game pits Northwest Nazarene (13-15) against Central Washington (17-8). The winner of that game advances to a semifinal against second-seeded Seattle Pacific (21-7).

Though UAA has hit the 100-point mark five times this season, Thompson thinks the team's ability to survive and advance could come down to defense.

"Especially this time of year, if you can play defense you can always stay in a game," he said.

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