UAA Athletics

UAA men pull off another upset by knocking off Northwest Nazarene

Don’t sleep on the Seawolves. Don’t send them to the free throw line either.

The UAA men’s basketball team sank 32 of 37 free throws and made a big second-half run to upset Northwest Nazarene 85-73 Saturday night at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The win marked the second time this month the Seawolves surprised one of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s top teams.

They knocked the Nighthawks out of first place on Saturday, and earlier this month they snapped Western Oregon’s 22-game winning streak against GNAC opponents.

UAA (9-7 overall, 4-4 GNAC) is tied for fifth place in the 11-team conference with Western Washington and Montana State-Billings.

Northwest Nazarene (11-3, 6-2) is tied for second place with Western Oregon and Seattle Pacific, which beat UAA 87-74 last week in Seattle. In first place, with a half-game lead, is Saint Martins (7-1 GNAC).

“Our guys have been playing with more confidence and that really shone through tonight,” UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in a press release from the school. “We continued to be aggressive offensively once we got the lead, and we were able to take advantage of that at the foul line.”

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Three Nighthawks fouled out and two others finished with four fouls apiece. NNU was called for 29 fouls to UAA’s 21.

Tyler Brimhall (10 of 12), Jack Macdonald (9 of 10) and Niko Bevens (8 of 8) were a combined 27 of 30 at the foul line for the Seawolves. Brimhall finished with 22 points, Bevens with 19 and Macdonald with 18.

Brennan Rymer supplied nine assists, eight points, three rebounds and zero turnovers before fouling out. Macdonald added six assists to help UAA tally 19 assists on 22 field goals.

“Our shooters were patient in looking for their opportunities tonight, and Brennan did an incredible job of both finding the open man and taking care of the ball, especially having to fight through foul trouble himself,” Osborne said.

For more than 30 minutes the teams went back and forth, trading the lead nine times. With less than nine minutes to go, UAA grabbed the lead for good with a 10-0 run that erased a 57-52 Northwest Nazarene lead.

The first seven points of the rally came in a 62-second span that started with 8 minutes, 26 seconds to go. Keenan Dowell scored a Macdonald-assisted layup, Macdonald hit a pair of free throws and Bevens buried a 3-pointer to give UAA a 59-57 lead at the 7:24 mark. With 6:12 remaining, Rymer provided a bucket and a free throw to make it 62-57.

Sjur Berg helped the UAA cause with eight points and a team-high six rebounds, leading UAA to a 32-30 rebounding edge, Brian Pearson blocked four shots.

Leading the way for Northwest Nazarene was Adonis Arms, who pumped in 26 points on 8-of-17 field goal shooting and 9-of-9 free throw shooting to go with six rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Obi Mega added 15 points.

UAA outscored the Nighthawks 32-18 from the foul line and 27-9 from 3-point range. Bevens and Macdonald both drained three triples.

Next up for the Seawolves are road games Thursday at Simon Fraser and Saturday at Western Washington.

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