A strong defensive effort made up for a sluggish start offensively, and the No. 16 in Division II UAA Seawolves ran away from Brevard College in the second half for an 80-48 win Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
Chris Bryant had 19 points and Luke Cooper recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists to lead the Seawolves (2-0).
"We started out a little bit slow," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in phone interview afterward. "Our focus wasn't there, which sometimes happens when you play these guys back-to-back.
"Both Carl (Arts) and McCade (Olsen) picked up two fouls within the first 10 or 12 minutes of the first half and had to sit big portions of the first half."
That provided Jeremiah Trueman and Colin Voreis an opportunity. Trueman, a junior transfer, scored nine points in 24 minutes. Freshman Voreis turned in a good defensive effort.
"It was good for Jeremiah and Colin to get the minutes," Osborne said. "They're just starting off in the program, so even though we didn't have great success scoring, they did a pretty good job defensively when they were in there. They actually played better defense than those two (Arts and Olsen)."
Arts and Olsen picked it up in the second half. Arts finished with 15 points while Olsen grabbed a career-high 10 boards to go along with nine points.
"As the game wore on we picked up our defense and became a little bit more focused and were able to put together a pretty good defensive performance," Osborne said. "They shot 31 percent and only scored 48 points, so you have to be pretty happy about that."
Jonathan Whitson led Division II Brevard of North Carolina with 17 points and six rebounds.
A night after winning by 27, UAA led just 35-22 at the half. The Seawolves buckled down in the final 20 minutes, limiting Brevard to 28.6 percent shooting.
Cooper, a preseason All-America candidate, ignited UAA offensively in the second half, dishing assists to Olsen and Bryant, draining a three of his own, then stretching the lead to 47-26 with another dish to junior guard Doug Hardy.
"He sparked us," Osborne said. "He was one of the guys who was there the whole night and was focused the whole night and his stat line shows that.
"We had good moments from some other guys too. Trueman had nine, it was a good bounce back for him after being sick the first game. He felt a lot better tonight. It's something to build on."
After two games, Osborne is pleased with what he's seen so far.
"We're very unselfish, and sometimes to a fault -- we turn down some opportunities," he said. "But in the system we employ, that's not that uncommon early in the year. Guys will figure out what their limits are and when they can take advantage of things."
The Seawolves now turn their attention to the Great Alaska Shootout and Division I Texas Tech, UAA's opening opponent on Thursday night.
BREVARD COLLEGE (48)
Whitson 4-11 9-11 17, Ferretti 3-7 0-0 6, Freeman 1-6 3-4 6, Chilton 2-8 0-0 6, Taraldsen 2-5 0-0 4, Young 1-2 2-3 4, Tanner 1-1 0-0 3, Siniard 1-3 0-0 2, Galloway 0-2 0-0 0, Babic 0-1 0-0 0, Galloway 0-1 0-0 0, Lance 0-1 0-0 0, Benson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-48 14-18 48.
UAA (80)
Bryant 5-9 4-4 19, Arts 6-9 3-3 15, Cooper 4-7 1-2 11, Trueman 4-6 1-1 9, Olsen 4-8 0-0 8, Hardy 2-5 3-3 7, White 2-5 0-0 5, Ridgeway 1-4 2-2 4, Burney 1-3 0-0 2, Kettler 0-1 0-0 0, Voreis 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 29-57 14-17 80.
Three-point goals -- Brevard College 4-25 (Chilton 2-7, Freeman 1-5, Tanner 1-1, Young 0-1, Siniard 0-2, Galloway 0-2, Babic 0-1, Galloway 0-1, Lance 0-1, Taraldsen 0-3, Ferretti 0-1); UAA 8-22 (Bryant 5-8, Cooper 2-4, White 1-4, Olsen 0-1, Hardy 0-2, Ridgeway 0-1, Burney 0-2). Fouled out -- None. Rebounds -- Brevard College 25 (Whitson 6), UAA 33 (Olsen,McCade 10). Assists -- Brevard College 12 (Ferretti 4), UAA 20 (Cooper 11). Total fouls -- Brevard College 19, UAA 20. Technical fouls -- Ridgeway. A -- 1,022
Brevard College 22 26 -- 48
UAA 35 45 -- 80
