Anchorage Daily News

Just when it looked like UAA might win its game of catchup Wednesday night, the smallest guy on the court came up huge and sent the Seawolves reeling.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments (0)

E-mail a friend

Print

Share on Facebook

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Follow on Twitter

Font size : A | A | A

Back-to-back 3-pointers by a guard who seldom shoots from long-range allowed Hampton University to pull away from UAA late in the second half and helped the Pirates to a 69-61 win in the first game of the men's portion of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout.

The loss dropped UAA to 0-4, the second-worst start in school history. In 2001-02, the Seawolves were 0-6 before winning their first game.

"In no way am I happy with the result, but I'm encouraged about some things," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said. "I think better things lie ahead."

UAA is a brand-new team from the squad that racked up 29 wins and made it all the way to the NCAA Division II semifinals last season. Not a single starter is back from that team, and two players who were expected to start and lead this season -- 6-foot-6 forward Casey Robinson (knee) and 6-5 swingman Chris Neal (back) -- are out with injuries and no one's sure when, or if, they'll be back.

So Osborne was encouraged by those who stepped up with big games Wednesday, a list led by 6-9 Jeremiah Trueman (21 points, six rebounds) and 6-3 Brandon Walker (23 points, six rebounds).

But the player of the game was Hampton's Jordan Brooks, a 5-9 sophomore who celebrated his 19th birthday by discovering his shooting touch.

Hampton was leading 47-31 when the Seawolves did what they'd done two or three times already in the game -- mount a comeback that whittled a healthy Hampton lead down to single digits.

UAA went on a 15-4 run that made it 51-46 and inspired a Sullivan Arena crowd to get behind the Seawolves. But the chant of "UAA! UAA!" had barely rose from the stands when Brooks hit the first of his deadly 3s.

Kevin White answered with an 18-footer for UAA, but Brooks responded with another 3. That made it 57-48 with 5 minutes, 20 seconds left, and even though the Seawolves didn't go away, they never got within seven points the rest of the way and spent most of the final five minutes down by 8 or 10 points.

Brooks was an unlikely hero. Last season, he never made more than two 3s in a single game and never attempted more than four in a game, and that happened rarely.

This season, until Wednesday, he had attempted only six 3-pointers and had hit one of them. Before his big shots late in the game, he had tried two 3-pointers against the Seawolves, hitting one of them.

"Today was my birthday," Brooks said, grinning, as if that was all the explanation needed for his big shots. "I was pretty much just open."

Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry was grateful for Brooks's clutch shots, but he would've preferred it if his team had been able to hold onto its double-digit leads and not needed such heroics.

The Pirates led 20-9 early in the first half and Nickelberry thought maybe the game was in hand.

"I thought we jumped on them and we thought midway through the first half they'd go away," he said. "But they didn't.

"They fought and they fought and they fought."

And much of the time, the Seawolves fought without the services of Kenny Barker, a senior transfer who is expected to be one of the team's top players this year. Barker got into early foul trouble and played only eight minutes in the second half. And when he was in the game, he struggled with his shot, hitting just 1 of 10 attempts.

The rest of the Seawolves shot well -- hitting 22 of 44 shots for a 50 percent accuracy rate. Not bad, except Hampton was busy burying shots too. The Pirates were 11 of 22 from 3-point range, and that ultimately was the difference in the game.

UAA has today off and then resumes play Friday at noon against the loser of Wednesday's late game.

Hampton 30 39 -- 69

UAA 27 34 -- 61

HAMPTON -- Brooks 3-5 2-2 11; Freeman 3-5 5-5 11; Ntoko 4-5 0-0 10; Simpson 3-10 0-0 9; Tolson 3-4 0-1 8; DeGroat 2-6 1-2 5; Morgan 2-4 0-0 5; Tunnell 0-1 4-6 4; Smalling 0-3 4-6 4; Harrison 1-1 0-0 2; Lola-Charles 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 16-22 69.

UAA -- Walker 7-12 5-7 23; Trueman 9-11 3-4 21; Doerr 2-4 2-2 6; Ridgeway 2-8 0-0 4; Nye 1-4 0-0 3; Barker 1-10 0-0 2; White 1-5 0-0 2; Voreis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-54 10-13 61.

3-point goals -- Hampton 11-22 (Simpson 3-8; Brooks 3-4; Ntoko 2-3; Tolson 2-3; Morgan 1-3; Tunnell 0-1), UAA 5-17 (Walker 4-7; Nye 1-3; Ridgeway 0-1; Barker 0-3; White 0-3). Fouled out -- Hampton-None, UAA-Barker. Rebounds -- Hampton 24 (Freeman 5), UAA 37 (Barker 8). Assists -- Hampton 17 (Tolson 5), UAA 15 (White 5; Doerr 5). Total fouls -- Hampton 12, UAA 17. Technical fouls -- Hampton-None, UAA-None. A -- 5599.

ADVERTISEMENT