Sports

Dream season ends as UAA women fall in NCAA tourney

A dream season came to a nightmare finish Friday night for the top-ranked UAA Seawolves.

Point Loma, a poised, first-time NCAA tournament team, got the winning basket from a fearless freshman with 2.1 seconds left to beat UAA 64-63 in the first round of the NCAA Division II West Region tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center.

With the clock winding down, the Sea Lions broke UAA's full-court press and freshman Roya Rustamzada drove the lane for a layup to rob the Seawolves of their only lead of the game.

A desperation, halfcourt shot by UAA senior Alli Madison -- the final shot of her career -- banged off the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.

UAA ended the season with a 29-2 record, the best in school history.

"The unfortunate thing is, all good things come to end," said an emotional Ryan McCarthy, UAA's third-year coach. "When you give your heart to something, sometimes it gets broken.

"Our hearts are broken."

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The end came against a California team that only recently moved from the NAIA to the NCAA. Point Loma, which claimed an at-large bid in the eight-team regional tournament, wasn't eligible for the NCAA tournament until this season.

The win by the Sea Lions (20-11) capped a day of upsets. All four of Friday's winners were seeded lower than their opponents.

No outcome was more shocking than the UAA loss. The Seawolves have been Division II's No. 1 team for the last month and came into the game on a 17-game winning streak.

Megan Mullings and Jenna Buchanan scored a team-high 12 points to lead the Seawolves, who also got eight points and seven rebounds from KeKe Wright. Point guard Kiki Robertson had five points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals but also committed five turnovers.

If Point Loma was intimidated, it didn't show. The Sea Lions, the third-place team in the Pac West Conference, had won 15 of their previous 18 games before Friday.

The plan for the game-winning shot, Point Loma coach Bill Westphal said, "was exactly what happened" -- including putting the ball into the hands of a freshman, who took the ball after the Sea Lions broke the UAA press.

Rustamzada drove to her right, spun past Buchanan and beat Mullings with a shot from about six feet out.

"I knew if I could get past the first person, I was gonna have, like coach says, poise and control," Rustamzada said.

McCarthy said the Seawolves didn't expect Rustamzada to get the ball. And that's what the Sea Lions counted on.

"It was the perfect play to end the game," Point Loma senior Jessica Escorza said. "Anchorage knew either me or (Madison West) would get the ball. There was no more perfect person to take that shot than Roya."

UAA called timeout after the shot, but with 2.1 seconds and the length of the court to go, the Seawolves needed a miracle and didn't get one.

After the game, the players gathered at center court and then, as is their practice after home games, broke their huddle and faced the crowd of 2,518, giving one final wave. Then they escaped to their locker room.

That the game came down to a final shot was improbable given how dominant Point Loma was, especially in the first half.

The Seawolves were done in by their own poor shooting and Point Loma's lights-out shooting.

The Sea Lions hit 43.9 percent of their shots -- including a staggering 51.9 percent in the first half -- and were 9 of 20 from 3-point range. The Seawolves hit 32.9 percent and were 4 of 23 from 3-point range.

"It didn't come down to X's and O's," McCarthy said. "It came down to shots."

Point Loma raced to a 14-0 lead in the first four minutes, burying three uncontested 3-pointers in the opening 90 seconds to silence one of the biggest crowds of the season.

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The lead swelled to 11-0 before UAA got off its first shot -- a 3-point airball by Jessica Madison, the first of many first-half misses for the Seawolves.

The Sea Lions drained 7 of 10 shots from 3-point range to grab a 36-23 halftime lead that felt bigger than 13 points.

The Seawolves, who trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half, showed a mix of defenses in the second half and went on a 10-0 run to get within five points in the opening four minutes.

But every time UAA looked like it might come to life, Point Loma answered. The Seawolves were down by 12 points with 3:44 to go and by eight with 2:02 to go.

But they scored nine straight points in a hurry -- an outburst fueled by two Point Loma turnovers -- and took their only lead of the game when Buchanan sank a 3-pointer with 9.1 seconds left.

The crowd erupted in deafening cheers. Point Loma called a timeout to set up the final play, which involved using Escorza (13 points) and West (17 points) as decoys and getting the ball to Rustamzada.

The Sea Lions will play in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal against Cal Baptist.

Though Escorza said the Sea Lions were determined to show they didn't make it to the West Region on a fluke -- "We were very motivated to prove we belong," she said -- at least one person on the Point Loma bench was a little surprised that the team was still alive after the first round.

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"I guess I'm gonna have to get more underwear," said Westphal, the team's 16-year coach. "I only brought two pair."

Asked what he'll remember from this season, McCarthy paused before gathering his thoughts.

"I get to coach at UAA, which I believe to be the best institution in the country," said the man who was born across the street from the arena at Providence Alaska Medical Center, "in a state that I believe is the best state in the country, with a group of ladies that have committed themselves, I believe, to be the best in the country.

"And I love it all."

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