UAA Athletics

UAA men’s basketball team works overtime for another win

Fans got bonus basketball for the second time in three nights at the Alaska Airlines Center, where the UAA men’s basketball team scraped out another dramatic overtime victory.

Tyrus Hosley was Saturday’s hero, hitting a 3-pointer to tie the game in regulation and sinkng a jumper with one second left in overtime to lift the Seawolves to a 70-68 win over Central Washington.

It was UAA’s third straight overtime game – a first in program history. The Seawolves beat Northwest Nazarene 90-89 on Thursday and lost 85-81 at Western Washington last week.

This week’s two victories were huge. The Seawolves are fighting for one of six spots in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference playoffs, and their overtime wins vaulted them into a fifth-place tie with UAF with four games remaining.

Hosley finished with 18 points and Oggie Pantovic had his eighth double-double of the season with 24 points and 15 rebounds o help UAA move to 16-11 overall and 9-7 in the GNAC. Niko Bevens helped the cause with nine points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal and Tobin Karlberg added six points, eight rebounds and three assists.

UAA snapped a five-game winning streak for Central Washington, which slipped to seventh place in the conference.

The Wildcats (15-9, 8-8) put four players in double figures and benefited from 15 UAA turnovers, but they were outrebounded 40-26.

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“We had some mental lapses and committed some turnovers that let them take back the momentum in the second half, but our guys persevered and got some big stops and hit some big shots down the stretch,” UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in a release from the school. “Oggie and Tyrus did a terrific job of carrying us on the offensive end, and defensively Tobin Karlberg did a great job against their leading scorer, really shutting him down in the last 10 minutes and overtime.”

Though UAA led 36-26 at the half, the Wildcats came back to lead by eight, 54-46, with seven minutes left in the second half and were up 61-56 with 1:17 on the clock.

Pantovic, who hit the game-winner against Northwest Nazarene, made two free throws and the Seawolves got the ball back on a Central turnover. Hosley tied it with a 3-pointer, 61-61, and the Wildcats missed a shot as time expired.

Hosley hit 6 of 11 shots and Pantovic hit 8 of 15. A 6-foot-7 junior center from Serbia, Pantovic was coming off a 26-point, 15-rebound game against Northwest Nazarene and has scored a minimum of 21 points and 12 rebounds in each of his last four games.

Neither team led by more than two minutes in overtime.

The Seawolves head to Fairbanks for a Tuesday game against Nanooks before returning for their final home game next Saturday against Montana State Billings. They wrap up the regular season with road games against Western Oregon and Concordia.

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