Anchorage Daily News

It's not every game that provokes a woulda-coulda-shoulda lament from both teams when it's all over. And thank goodness for that.

The UAA women's basketball team squeaked out a 55-54 victory Thursday night over Colorado Christian College in a nonconference game that ended with two disheartened teams.

The Seawolves (3-1) were unhappy, because they would've won by more if they could've shot and rebounded better, which is certainly something a team that's ranked fifth in the nation should've been able to do.

Colorado Christian (1-2) was disappointed, because the Cougars would've won if they could've held onto the ball, a problem they should've solved sooner than they did.

"They're over there saying they should've beat us," UAA coach Tim Moser, nodding to the Cougars locker room. "And we're saying we should've won by more."

As for the 448 fans in attendance, they couldn't have found an uglier game to watch even if they would've tried.

The final minute was a nightmare for all involved. Heck, you could say the same about the first 39 minutes, with the lone exception of UAA's Dasha Basova, a 6-foot-3 forward who knocked in seven 3-pointers on her way to a career-high 25 points.

But in the final minute, with UAA clinging to a one-point lead gained by Kiki Taylor's free throw with 2 minutes, 4 seconds left, the teams combined for four fouls, four turnovers and at least seven missed shots, including three free throws.

Abby Rosenthal missed a pair of free throws for Colorado Christian with 20 seconds left, but her team rebounded the second miss to keep the Cougars in the game. The rebound was typical of the entire contest, during which the strong-rebounding Seawolves were dominated on the boards 46-29.

Then came a flurry of activity, none of it textbook, all of it futile -- at least from a Colorado Christian perspective.

In the final 20 seconds, the Cougars missed a layup, a 3-pointer and then lost the ball on a traveling call.

The game-winning play? Taylor's clean catch of Elisha Harris's inbounds pass from under the Colorado Christian basket, which came with two-tenths of a second left.

"We had three looks at the buzzer," Colorado Christian coach Tim Hays said. "That's as good as you can hope."

The Cougars led 29-25 at the half but crumbled early in the second half when UAA came out with a trapping, pressing defense that sped up the pace of the game. On their first seven possessions, the Cougars committed turnovers without getting off a shot.

"They changed the pace," Hays said, "and it took us seven possessions to figure it out."

Remarkably, all those turnovers barely cost them. On a night when UAA hit only 31.7 percent of its shots, the Seawolves managed to turn two of those turnovers into points. They missed shots every other time, and failed to work the offensive boards for any second-chance shots.

In the end, UAA won because at least Basova was hitting her shots. Take away her 8-of-15 shooting effort, and the rest of the Seawolves were 12 of 48 -- a 25 percent shooting accuracy. Rebecca Kielpinski, UAA's All-America center, was held to five rebounds and 13 points, and Nicci Miller, the team's second-leading scorer and rebounder, sat out with an injured hamstring.

Talmai Aguirre, a deadly long-range shooter, led the Cougars with 19 points, and Rosenthal had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Hays was pleased his team played the Seawolves as hard as it did. "Early in the year, to take the No. 5 team in the nation to the wire on their floor? We are happy."

And Moser was hoping his players learned something from the experience. The Cougars outshot and outrebounded his team, but ultimately couldn't overcome the pressure defense and their own ball-handling mistakes.

He's afraid every opponent this season is going to be a Colorado Christian -- a team on a mission to knock off a top-ranked team.

"I don't think they understand they've got a big bull's-eye on their backs," he said.

The teams meet again tonight at 7 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

Colorado Christian 29 25 -- 54

UAA 25 30 -- 55

COLORADO CHRISTIAN -- Aguirre 7-16 1-2 19; Rosenthal 5-8 3-5 14; Barratt 4-9 0-1 8; Krall 3-9 0-0 7; Finley 1-7 2-3 4; Allen 1-1 0-0 2; Hert 0-0 0-0 0; Valdez 0-0 0-0 0; Verbitsky 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 21-52 6-11 54.

UAA -- Basova 8-15 2-3 25; Kielpinski 6-13 1-4 13; Taylor 2-8 2-4 6; Harris 1-7 2-2 4; Gruwell 1-7 0-0 3; Johansson 1-3 0-0 2; Aden 1-7 0-0 2; Wohlers 0-0 0-0 0; Dekel 0-0 0-0 0; Burnett 0-0 0-0 0; Thiel 0-3 0-0 0; Collins 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-63 7-13 55.

3-point goals -- Colorado 6-20 (Aguirre 4-12; Rosenthal 1-1; Krall 1-2; Verbitsky 0-2; Finley 0-2; Barratt 0-1), UAA 8-31 (Basova 7-13; Gruwell 1-6; Taylor 0-2; Harris 0-3; Johansson 0-1; Aden 0-3; Thiel 0-3). Fouled out -- Colorado-None, UAA-None. Rebounds -- Colorado 46 (Rosenthal 10), UAA 29 (Harris 6). Assists -- Colorado 14 (Finley 4), UAA 15 (Thiel 5). Total fouls -- Colorado 19, UAA 15. Technical fouls -- Colorado-None, UAA-None. A -- 448.

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