Western Washington's top-ranked offense faced UAA's top-ranked defense in a fight for first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference on Saturday, and the Vikings prevailed behind a brilliant shooting performance from guard Taylor Stafford.
Stafford hit a cold-blooded 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer with 38 seconds remaining to put the nationally ranked Vikings up by eight points, and Western Washington held on for a 91-84 victory in Bellingham, Washington.
"It was a very well-played college basketball game between two talented teams," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said by text. "Great shot making and very few turnovers."
Stafford was nearly unstoppable all game long. The senior guard was 6 of 10 from 3-point land and 8 of 8 from the foul line on his way to a game-high 32 points.
The Vikings' victory, which snapped UAA's six-game winning streak, puts them alone atop the GNAC with a 5-1 record (11-3 overall).
The Seawolves (10-4, 4-2) fell into a second-place tie with Central Washington.
UAA can't dwell on the loss for long. The Seawolves host in-state rival UAF at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The game was a matchup between the GNAC's best offensive team and best defensive team. Coming into the game, the Vikings were scoring an average of 90.8 points a game, and the Seawolves were giving up an average of 60 points a game.
Senior guard Suki Wiggs led UAA with 24 points, but he went 5 of 12 from the free-throw line — well below his season average of 74.5 percent. UAA went 19 of 29 from the line.
Western Washington went 30 of 32 from the line.
"The difference in the game turned out to be the free-throw line," Osborne said. "We typically have an advantage there, but tonight (we) struggled. At the same time, they had some poor shooters step up and make them."
Despite trailing nearly the whole game, the Seawolves stayed within reach of the Vikings. They just couldn't get over the hump.
Guards Spencer Svejcar and Diante Mitchell combined for 38 points and went 7 of 8 from 3-point range for UAA. Senior forward Corey Hammell added 10 rebounds and six points, and sophomore guard Damien Fulp went 3 of 3 from the field in 10 minutes on the court.
Both teams hit more than 57 percent of their shots from the field in the first half. Western Washington led 45-44 at halftime after a Wiggs floater was ruled too late at the buzzer.
The Vikings, ranked 24th in the nation, extended their lead to 12 points in the second half before UAA stormed back with an 8-0 run capped by a Mitchell trey with 1:41 left to play, cutting Western Washington's lead to 80-76.
Deandre Dickerson hit two free throws for Western Washington and Mitchell made one of two before Stafford hit his big 3-pointer to make it 85-77. The Vikings closed out the game with six free throws in the final 30 seconds.
"I thought despite the score, we played excellent defense and made them take tough shots," Osborne said. "Credit to them that they were able to knock them down.
"We now have to put this behind us and concentrate on a very well-coached UAF team. I expect us to be ready Tuesday evening."