Forced to the bench after hurting his heel midway through the second half, senior forward Corey Hammell returned to the court Saturday night in time to help the UAA men's basketball team hold off Concordia University 77-75 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Hammell's double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds included a huge putback with 36 seconds remaining. The bucket put UAA in the lead for good, 74-72.
"That was a tough one, but I'm going to do what I can to be out there and fight through it," Hammell said in the postgame press conference. "It goes back to our senior leadership — we all want to win."
The UAA victory, combined with Central Washington's loss to league-leading Western Washington, vaulted the Seawolves into a two-way tie for second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. UAA and Central Washington are both 7-3 in GNAC games.
Aggressive moves to the basket put the Seawolves (13-5 overall) at the free-throw line much of night, and they made the most of their chances. They sank 25 of 31 to outscore Concordia 25-3 from the foul line.
Hammell was 10 of 10 and Suki Wiggs hit 13 of 14 en route a team-high 21 points. Spencer Svjecar added 19 points, draining five 3-pointers while going 7 of 10 from the field.
The final minute produced a flurry of action. Concordia tied the game 72-72 with 57 seconds left on Jarrett Gray's 3-pointer, but Hammell — Division II's third-leading offensive rebounder — answered when he converted the rebound from a missed bank shot by a driving Svejcar.
Wiggs added a pair of free throws after a Concordia turnover to make it 76-72, but Concordia cut it to 76-75 on Latrell Wilson's 3-pointer with 7.9 seconds remaining.
With 6.8 seconds left, Wiggs was back at the foul line, where he made his first free throw but missed his second.
The Cavaliers (7-10, 3-7) got a good look on a game-tying attempt, but Drew Martin's contested mid-range jumper clanged off the rim at the buzzer.
Martin finished with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting and added team-highs of eight rebounds and eight assists. Gray added 21 points and five assists for the Cavs, who had 28 assists on 30 field goals.
UAA's defense got a big boost from Connor Devine, who blocked five shots to go with 10 points and six rebounds. Devine, a 6-foot-10 senior from Wasilla, had been a shot-blocking machine in recent games — he has 19 in the last four games and has 44 on the season.
The Seawolves hit the road next week with games Thursday at Saint Martin's and Saturday at Seattle Pacific.