No blowout this time, but the UAA women's basketball team put enough distance between itself and Saint Martin's on Thursday night to run its winning streak to 17.
The top-ranked Seawolves stole the ball 16 times and boasted five players with nine or more points in a 71-59 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory in Lacey, Washington.
Megan Mullings led the way with 19 points, nine rebounds and five steals, Jenna Buchanan extended her school-record stretch of games with at least one 3-pointer and Jessica Madison reached the 1,200-point career mark with her parents watching from the bleachers.
The Seawolves (29-1 overall, 16-1 GNAC) didn't come close to their average margin of victory, which coming into the game was 29.1 points, the second best in Division II.
"We'd get the lead to 14 and instead of making a 3 or getting a layup, we weren't hitting those, and they'd come back and hit a 3," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said.
UAA was at its best in the first quarter, when it forced five turnovers while racing to an 8-0 lead. The Seawolves led 26-15 at the end of the quarter and stretched their lead to 16 points in the second quarter, but they couldn't pull away for good.
The Saints (5-19, 3-14) used a 10-2 run to cut UAA's lead to 41-33 at the half and pulled within 46-41 early in the second half, although they never got closer than that.
"We jumped on them early and had a really good first quarter (but) I didn't think we did a great job defensively," McCarthy said. "They hit some tough shots and we sent them to the free-throw line too many times for such a low-scoring game."
Mullings, a 6-foot senior, provided critical rebounding in a game in which UAA was outrebounded 39-29.
Alysha Devine, back after missing a game with illness, drained three of four shots from 3-point range en route to 14 points, and Buchanan added 11, hitting three triples to extend her streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 34.
Madison and Tara Thompson each chipped in nine points. Madison, a senior guard from Port Angeles, Washington, upped her career total to 1,208 points, becoming the eighth player in school history to top 1,200 points.
The Seawolves played without senior guard Keiahnna Engel, who is out with a knee injury and will miss the final three regular-season games, McCarthy said.
Thompson, a redshirt freshman, stepped up in Engel's absence, hitting twice from 3-point range.
"Tara hit some big shot," McCarthy said. "With Keiahnna out, Tara is the next person up and she did a really good job."
Saint Martin's got a double-double from Megan Wiedeman (11 points, 13 rebounds), 10 points from Krista Stabler and 13 points off the bench from Shelbie Dray, who hit all six of a her attempts from the field.
UAA point guards Kiki Robertson and Adriana Dent combined for 12 assists against one turnover, with Robertson handing out a game-high seven assists and Dent contributing three steals.
The Seawolves head to Seattle Pacific for a game on Saturday before returning to Anchorage for their final two home games of the regular season.