UAA Athletics

Opposite outcomes on the road for UAA -- the men win a basketball thriller and the women’s winning streak ends

One streak ended and another started Thursday night for the UAA men’s and women’s basketball teams, which had opposite outcomes in a pair of road games.

The men won back-to-back games for the first time since this first week in December, while the fifth-ranked women saw their 13-game winning streak come to a crashing halt against Western Washington.

Oggie Pantovic scored the game-winning basket with 2.7 seconds left to lift the men to an 81-80 win over Montana State-Billings.

The thrilling finish gave the Seawolves their second win a row despite a demanding turnaround between those victories — they beat UAF 105-86 Tuesday night in Anchorage and flew to Montana on Wednesday.

In Bellingham, Washington, the Vikings pulled off a 71-64 upset to hand the UAA women their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference loss in more than a year.

In Billings, Tyrus Hosley, Tobin Karlberg and Pantovic all scored 16 points for the Seawolves, who moved to 13-8 overall and gained sole possession of third place in the GNAC with a 6-4 record.

UAA trailed by 11 points with a little more than 12 minutes left but mounted a big comeback to tie the game seven minutes later, 71-71. Fueling UAA’s 20-9 run was Hosley, who scored nine points in the stretch.

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“That was an extraordinarily gutsy effort by our guys tonight,” UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in a release from the school. “Down by double figures in the second half, we continued to stick to our plan and not panic, and our big-time shooters hit some big-time shots in the clutch.”

Thirty seconds after the Seawolves tied the game, DeAndrew Oswuige stole the ball and Karlberg converted with a 3-pointer for their first lead of the half, 74-71.

The teams traded the lead four times after that. Billings (8-9, 3-6) took its final lead, 80-79, on two free throws by Zharon Richmond with 1:15 left.

Hosley stole the ball with 25 seconds left and the Seawolves spent the next 22 seconds trying to score. They missed four shots but got the rebound every time, with Pantovic finally getting the put-back. The junior center from Serbia sealed the win by stealing the in-bounds pass.

Richmond finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Yellowjackets, who were guilty of 24 turnovers.

Niko Bevens added 11 points for UAA, Karlberg had five steals and a perfect night from 3-point range (4 of 4) and Hosley had four steals a perfect night from the foul line (7 of 7). Hosley and Pantovic each grabbed six rebounds.

The game marked the end of an arduous stretch for the Seawolves. They played four games in four states and three time zones in eight days, winning two and losing two. Now they get six days off before they play again next Thursday in Anchorage.

“We will be happy to get home and get some rest this weekend as we get ready for the second half of league play,” Osborne said.

The women will try to get back on track Saturday when they head to Canada to play Simon Fraser.

On Thursday they ran into a hot-shooting Western Washington, which shot 61.7 percent from the field and buried UAA early by racing to a 13-1 lead.

“Western deserved to win that game,” UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said in a release from the school. “We dug ourselves a big hole at the beginning of the game, which we couldn’t afford to do that against such a talented opponent.

“Clearly, preparation in terms of coming out and simply competing wasn’t there, and that’s on me.”

It was the second loss of the season for UAA, which slipped to 18-2 overall and 8-1 in the GNAC.

Freshman guard Rachel Ingram led the Seawolves with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. She hit four 3-pointers to bring her season total to 39, setting a school record for freshmen. The previous record was 35, set by Jessica Madison in 2012-13.

Tennae Voliva added 10 points and Lauren Johnson had nine but Safiyyah Yasin, UAA’s leading scorer, was limited to four points in 15 minutes because of foul trouble. The Seawolves had 15 steals and a slim 28-25 rebounding edge but were hurt by 38.2 percent shooting.

Western Washington (12-5, 6-3) got a game-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from Emma Duff.

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