A conference cellar-dweller gave the 12th-ranked UAA women’s basketball team a scare Saturday night in Portland, Oregon.
But UAA’s trademark pressure defense produced several fourth-quarter turnovers that sparked a 75-68 win over Concordia-Portland.
The win keeps the Seawolves (15-1 overall, 7-1 conference) in second place in the 11-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Concordia (7-9, 2-6) sits in ninth place.
The Seawolves never led by double digits and saw their lead fade to a single point a couple of times in the fourth quarter.
The Cavs never stole the lead though, because UAA kept stealing the ball from them.
The final 10 minutes featured an offensive explosion -- both teams shot 70 percent while scoring a combined 48 points.
But ultimately defense made the difference. Kian McNair had two steals and Sydni Stallworth and Safiyyah Yasin each had one in the final quarter to deny Concordia’s upset bid.
The Seawolves, who led 49-46 after three quarters, forced a total of six turnovers in the fourth quarter and converted all of them into points -- 11 of their 26 fourth-quarter points came off turnovers.
“Concordia’s ball handlers did a good job for most of the game against our press, but our pressure finally started to pay some dividends late,” UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said in a release from the school “Kian and Sydni made a couple huge steals during our closing run, and Hannah (Wandersee) showed lots of poise offensively with some clutch shots down the stretch.”
Wandersee, a 6-foot-2 senior center, continued her high-scoring ways with 21 points on 9 of 20 shooting. Yasin came off the bench to contribute 16 and Tara Thompson sank 4 of 7 from long range to finish with 14 points.
McNair, Yasin and Yazmeen Goo each nabbed four steals and Stallworth had three as the Seawolves robbed the Cavs 19 times. Concordia finished with 26 turnovers to UAA’s 12.
Concordia produced the game’s leading scorer (Keesha Sarman with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting) and leading rebounder (Erin Higbie with 10). The Cavs outrebounded UAA 39-29.
The Seawolves return home for games Thursday (Saint Martin’s) and Saturday (Seattle Pacific) at the Alaska Airlines Center.