UAA Athletics

700 3-point attempts? All in a day’s work for UAA freshman

College is hard. Kimani Fernandez-Roy will tell you that, as soon as she's done rubbing her sore arm.

Fernandez-Roy is a freshman on the UAA women's basketball team, and she still is a little shell-shocked about the difference between the high school and college games.

"I probably never shot a 3-pointer in high school," she said. "Here we're required to make 300 a day."

As a 5-foot-10 forward, Fernandez-Roy was never expected to put up shots from long range for her high school team in Hawaii.

But at UAA, nearly everyone feels comfortable shooting triples — last season, the Seawolves shot 711 in 32 games, 128 more than their opponents (they made 232, or 32.6 percent). Even 6-1 center Hannah Wandersee operated behind the arc at times, shooting 31 treys (although she only made four).

UAA's queen of 3s is senior Tara Thompson, who buried a team-high 49 on 38 percent shooting last season. The first time the Seawolves were assigned to sink 300 during practice this season, no one completed the assignment faster than Thompson.

"For Tara Thompson, it took 45 minutes," Fernandez-Roy said. "For me it took over two hours."

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She's gotten faster, she says. Now it takes her about 70 minutes.

"It was definitely hard at the start," she said. "My body's kind of used to the motion (now). It was a little sore to begin with."

Fernandez-Roy has yet to shoot a 3-pointer during a game, but two games into the season she has played some productive minutes nonetheless. She is averaging 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 14.5 minutes per game.

She said she took more than 700 shots en route to her first 300 3-pointers. "I think I won in that category," she said.

Hoops, hoops and more hoops

Let's play four. But let's not play the Nanooks.

A pair of basketball quadruple-headers are on tap at the Alaska Airlines Center on Friday and Saturday. Games are scheduled for noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. each day, with the UAA men playing each day at 5 and the UAA women playing at 7:30.

The men are 3-1 after a road trip to Hawaii during which they edged Hawaii Pacific and lost a close one against Chaminade.

Coach Rusty Osborne said he's still experimenting with lineups as the teams works to blend in eight players who weren't on last season's 15-14 team. So far eight players have been in the starting lineup.

"It's a fun group to coach," he said. "We're nowhere near our ceiling, and I think it'll be a fun team to watch."

Each game and practice is a learning experience, Osborne said: "You find out new things, good and bad. I'd be worried if we were at our ceiling, but we're not."

Newcomers Tyler Brimhall (21.5 points, 8.3 rebounds per game) and Nico Bevens (16.8 points) have made an instant impact coming in as junior transfers.

A trio of Alaska freshmen — Travis Adams of Utquigvik, Tobin Karlberg of Grace Christian and Austin White of Nikiski — are all getting minutes too. White was a redshirt last season; Adams and Karlberg are true freshmen.

Brimhall, Bevens and veteran guard Jack Macdonald (13.5 points per game) are all shooting close to 50 percent from the field to give UAA three players averaging double figures.

As a team, the Seawolves are shooting 46.8 percent through four games — a promising stat considering last season's team shot 39.9 percent.

"When you're coming off a shooting year like we (are), you never think you're going to make another shot," Osborne said. This season the shots are falling to the tune of 75 points per game. Last season, UAA averaged 61.2.

Hockey team’s goal: Goals

The hockey team begins a stretch of 10 games on the road this week when it heads to Northern Michigan for a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series in Marquette.

The Seawolves are coming off a good news/bad news weekend against 10th-ranked Bowling Green.

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The good news: They ended a four-game losing streak by playing the Falcons to a scoreless draw on Friday before losing 3-0 on Saturday.

The bad news: They didn't score a goal all weekend and have been shut out in three of their last four games (they lost 2-0 to Bemidji State on Nov. 2).

Scoring is a concern and a priority at practice, first-year coach Matt Curley said.

"We try a million different things," he said. "We do a lot of skills stuff every practice. "It looks like a U10 practice — a lot of shots."

The goal is to increase productivity player by player, a little at a time.

"I use this analogy all the time: You're not going to take a 5 points-per-game basketball player and turn him into a 20-point scorer, but you can turn 5 points-per-game into 7 points-per-game," Curley said. "It's a lot of repetition, and putting guys in positions where they feel comfortable."

Curley said an early goal against Northern Michigan on Friday would be an excellent way to start the long stretch away from Sullivan Arena, where the Seawolves don't play again until Jan. 4-5.

"I hope we can get one early and get the gorilla off the back," he said.

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Bound for more glory?

The UAA cross-country team will race for trophies and championships Saturday at the West Region championships in Billings, Montana.

And while more hardware for the trophy case is always nice, the Seawolves are running for more than that. At stake at the championships are berths in the NCAA Division II national championships.

The top three teams, men and women, will qualify for the Dec. 1 championships. Both UAA teams are ranked seventh nationally, and both are coming off victories at the GNAC championships. The Seawolves swept the team titles and got individual wins from Emmah Chelimo and Welsey Kirui.

This weekend at the Alaska Airlines Center

Seawolf Hoops Classic (women)

Friday's Games

2:30 p.m. — UAF (2-0) vs. Cal State Dominguez Hills (2-0

7:30 p.m. — UAA (2-0) vs. Cal State East Bay

Saturday's Games

2:30 p.m. — UAF vs. Cal State East Bay

7:30 p.m. — UAA vs. Cal State Dominguez Hills

Seawolf Jamboree (men)

Friday's Games

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Noon — UAF (0-3) vs. Lake Superior State (0-0)

5 p.m. — UAA (3-1) vs. Northwood (0-2)

Saturday's Games

Noon — UAF vs. Northwood

5 p.m. — UAA vs. Lake Superior State

Beth Bragg

Beth Bragg wrote about sports and other topics for the ADN for more than 35 years, much of it as sports editor. She retired in October 2021. She's contributing coverage of Alaskans involved in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

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