College of Charleston pulls away to deny UAA a win in its final Shootout game

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UAA head coach Rusty Osborne discuses a technical foul with an official as several of his players get between him and the official as the Seawolves play College of Charleston in the 2017 Great Alaska Shootout basketball Tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017. Charleston won 55-46. (Bob Hallinen / ADN)

After the UAA men's basketball team's loss to the College of Charleston on Saturday in Great Alaska Shootout, Seawolves coach Rusty Osborne choked up in the postgame press conference while talking about his final Shootout team.

Charleston beat UAA 55-46 in front of 2,229 fans in the tournament's fourth-place game at the Alaska Airlines Center.

It was the 120th game for the Seawolves and 81st for Osborne in the Shootout, which is ending after a 40-year run.

"We talked about making sure we gave worthy effort win or lose today that would represent the way we've played in this tournament for 40 years," Osborne said. "I think they can hold their heads up high even though they lost and they're not happy with it.

"I think the 40 years of players that came before them, the 40 years of coaches, the 40 years of administrators — all those people can be proud of the effort that this group gave today despite not winning. It's been a great run."

The game was a physical, defensive battle for all 40 minutes and at times several minutes rolled off the clock before either team scored.

Charleston used a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter to increase its lead from 32-31 to 41-33 and UAA couldn't recover.

A pivotal moment during that run came when UAA's Kylan Osborne, Rusty's son, was charged with a technical foul for a comment he made after UAA guard Maleke Haynes was charged with a foul during a block attempt. The Cougars led 38-33 at the time of the foul with nine minutes to go.

"They said he made a comment," Rusty Osborne said. "Nothing vulgar or anything like that, just another comment by a player out there that had been going on all night. They decided to call it at that time."

Charleston's Joe Chealey and Grant Riller went a combined 3 of 4 on the ensuing free throws to put the Cougars ahead by eight.

Charleston received a boost from a pair of senior guards who did most of their damage in the second half. Chealey scored 10 of his 15 points in the latter period and Cameron Johnson scored all of his eight points in the second half.

Chealey also tallied eight assists and 6-foot-10 forward Nick Harris controlled the paint with 12 points, including a couple big dunks.

"A lot of guys made big shots, made big plays, and we had good balanced scoring," Charleston coach Earl Grant said. "That was our approaching going in to the game was we wanted to share the ball, be unselfish."

UAA senior forward Jacob Lampkin was the Seawolves' leading scorer (13 points) and rebounder (8) and senior guard Malik Clements added 10 points and seven boards. Haynes failed to score and went 0 of 4 from the field two days after he scored 22 points and nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send UAA to overtime in 78-73 overtime win over Santa Clara.

The Seawolves led the Cougars in most of the major statistical categories — UAA outshot Charleston (38.8 percent to 36.5 percent), garnered more assists (17 to 16) and grabbed more rebounds (35 to 31) — but the Cougars won the battle at the free-throw line. Charleston made 11 of 16 free throws to only 3 of 6 for UAA.

"We didn't get to the free-throw line, so that was the difference in the game," Osborne said.

The Seawolves (4-4) finished their final Shootout with a 1-2 tournament record. UAA won 39 games since the tournament began in 1978.

Although the offense sputtered at times, UAA showed it will be a tough defensive team this season after holding two Division I opponents under 60 points in their three Shootout games. Saturday's 55 points allowed tied the lowest for UAA this season.

"I thought we made it tough on that team," Osborne said. "The second half they had 33 percent from the field and 26 percent from the 3-point line.

"I think as we get better offensively we'll be able to take advantage of it."

The Seawolves don't have much time to recover from playing three games in four days because the UAA returns to the Alaska Airlines Center on Tuesday for a game against instate rival UAF.

"Hopefully we can have some success next week and start conference off right at home," Osborne said.