The UAA women's basketball team opened its season by clobbering one of the game's greatest players Friday night at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Of course, Cheryl Miller's many talents are confined to the bench these days.
The Seawolves rode a balanced offense and an unforgiving defense to a 84-41 drubbing of Cal State-LA. In the process, they ruined Miller's debut as head coach of the Golden Eagles.
A pair of newcomers — Autummn Williams and Shelby Cloninger — scored 15 points apiece and veteran Alisha Devine came up with seven of UAA's 19 steals to lead the Seawolves.
Devine is one of only five players back from last season's 38-3 team that was the Division II national runner-up. But coach Ryan McCarthy seems to have reloaded nicely.
Williams is a Division I transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock who provided six assists and five rebounds and hit 6 of her 11 shots. Cloninger is junior college transfer from North Idaho College whose 6-of-13 shooting included a 3-of-6 effort from 3-point range.
Two other new players provided big boosts off UAA's bench, which outscored the Golden Eagles' bench 41-15.
Kaitlyn Hurley, a shooting guard from Utah's Snow College, supplied 13 points, four rebounds and two assists, and Dominique Thomas, a forward from Kilgore College of Texas, was good for nine points, six rebounds, a steal and an assist.
All 10 players grabbed at least one rebound for UAA, which forged a 40-26 advantage on the boards. And seven players came up with steals to help the Seawolves forced many of the Golden Eagles' 27 turnovers.
Returning point guard Kiki Robertson scored 10 points, handed out eight assists against two turnovers and added three steals. The assists give Robertson 536 for her career as she begins her senior season, making her the all-time leader in that category in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
UAA built a 39-22 halftime lead and then pulled away with a huge 28-12 third quarter.
For Miller — Basketball Hall of Famer, NBA analyst, scorer of 105 points in a single high school game and scene-stealer of an ESPN 30-for-30 documentary about brother Reggie Miller — the loss marked her second setback in Anchorage.
In 1986, Miller came to town with USC for the old Northern Lights Invitational. She scored 30 points in USC's first two wins — 121-61 over SMU and 115-48 over Utah State — but she and the Trojans lost the championship game 70-68 to Northeast Louisiana.