No. 10 UAA pours it on in 99-32 thumping of Post University in women’s basketball

Playing a UAA women's basketball team known for its relentless defense, Post University struggled to score in the post, or anywhere else for that matter Thursday night.

The visitors from Connecticut finished with far more turnovers than points in the 99-32 demolition at the Alaska Airlines Center.

"Sometimes when the score gets lopsided like this, people tend to play sloppy and I thought our girls did a good job of making the extra pass and taking good shots," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "(I'm) overall pleased with the effort."

McCarthy's full-court defense — called "mayhem" for short — forced the Eagles (0-3) into 49 turnovers. UAA's 37 steals were the second most in program history and the most against a Division II opponent.

All eleven Seawolves who played tallied at least one steal and five had at least five, led by freshman point guard Yazmeen Goo with six.

Goo put in work on offense too with a UAA freshman-record 13 assists.

"I was impressed with the effort from Yazmeen in particular," McCarthy said. "She is such a good defender and is really coming into her own as a point guard because last year as a redshirt she was not getting repetitions at point guard, she was getting repetitions at wing. So she is kind of relearning the position."

UAA (3-0) allowed only two points in the second quarter and rushed out to a 56-11 lead at halftime, equaling its largest halftime lead against a Division II opponent.

The Seawolves kept up the pressure in the third quarter and grew the lead to 70-20 on an Alysha Devine layup with 1:20 remaining in the quarter.

Forward Autummn Williams, a senior transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock, led UAA with 20 points on 8 of 15 shooting to pace six Seawolves in double figures.

Sophomore forward Hannah Wandersee added 17 points and nine rebounds.

UAA's other double-figure scorers were Devine (13 points), junior forward Shelby Cloninger (11), sophomore guard Tara Thompson (11) and junior guard Kaitlyn Hurley (10).

Dericka Sims was the only Eagles player in double figures with 10 points off the bench.

UAA and Post will play in a rematch at 8 p.m. Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center.

McCarthy said preparing for the quick turnaround against Post is good preparation for next week's GCI Great Alaska Shootout.

"I think it gets us all on the same page in a short amount of time," McCarthy said. "This is actually good because it will be interesting to see (what Post thinks) our weaknesses are, what ways they want to attack us."

McCarthy said he's still learning about his team and what combinations of players work best together. Throughout the game, he subbed in players every few minutes to create different lineup combinations.

"I'm learning just as much as they are about the team and what different rotations work best and what ways we can diversify our looks," he said.