Sports

Seawolves' winning streak ends in final game before Shootout

Instead of taking a winning streak into the Shootout, the UAA men's basketball team will try to bounce back from a narrow loss.

A last-second turnover foiled UAA's comeback bid against Cal State Dominguez Hills in an 81-78 loss Saturday in the final game of the two-day Seawolf Jamboree at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Seawolves (6-3), whose next game is Thursday against Division I Middle Tennessee in the GCI Great Alaska Shootout.

The Toros (2-2) led by as many as 17 points before UAA rallied late in the game.

Tournament MVP Suki Wiggs poured in 25 points and handed out nine assists to lead the Seawolves, but his 35-foot buzzer attempt to tie the game was off target.

A 9-0 run gave UAA a 76-75 lead at the five-minute mark, and with 2:15 to go the Seawolves led 78-77 on two free throws by Wiggs.

The Toros' Shaquille Hunter knocked down a 3-pointer with two minutes left to give his team an 80-78 lead.

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With less than 10 seconds remaining and the score still 80-78, UAA got a defensive stop and called a timeout to set up an in-bounds play. But Dominquez Hills guard Ivan Dooley stole the ball and with five seconds left Wiggs fouled Jonathan Nichols, who hit one of two free throws.

Christian Leckband's defensive rebound put the ball in UAA's hands, but Wiggs' desperation shot at the buzzer missed.

"The turnover at the end was as much my fault as the team's fault," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said. "We drew something up for one thing and they gave us the ball at a different spot than I thought they were going to. I should've called time out when I saw that."

The Toros used lights-out shooting to beat the Seawolves. They buried 19 of 31 3-pointers, shattering the single-game school record for treys by five. They hit nine of their first 11 3-pointers to grab a 48-35 halftime lead.

Dooley was the deadliest shooter for Dominguez Hills, hitting 7 of 9 from behind the arc for a team-high 22 points. Hunter sank 4 of 7 en route to 16 points.

"I really thought we came out soft in the first half both offensively and defensively and we let them get comfortable," Osborne said. "We never really got into a rhythm ourselves and dug ourselves into a hole.

"That being said, at halftime we were able to regroup and I thought we played a really, really good second half and we gave ourselves a chance."

UAA outscored the Toros 43-33 in the second half.

Corey Hammell racked up his fifth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds, helping UAA to control the boards 38-31. Spencer Svejcar added 20 points; he was 4 of 7 behind the arc to lead UAA to a 10-of-23 showing from 3-point range.

"We've gotta shake this one off and learn from it and get ourselves ready Thursday for a very good Middle Tennessee team and action three days in a row," Osborne said.

UAF 90, Life Pacific 75

The Nanooks emerged as the only undefeated team in the four-team Seawolf Jamboree by beating Life Pacific 90-75.

Travante Williams tallied 18 points and five assists to help UAF go 2-0 in the round-robin tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center.

Joe Slocum added 13 points and seven rebounds and Alex Duncan provided 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting for the Nanooks (4-0).

Life Pacific (1-5) was hurt by 27 turnoves. The team from San Dimas, California, was led by 15 points and nine rebounds from reserve forward Steven Murphy.

Seawolf Jamboree all-tournament team

Bangaly Kaba, UAF

Vincent Golson, Dominguez Hills

Corey Hammell, UAA

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Travante Williams, UAF

Ivan Dooley, Dominguez Hills

Most Outstanding Player – Suki Wiggs, UAA

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