Senior Night isn’t until Saturday, but UAA women’s basketball fans will forgive Safiyyay Yasin and Yazmeen Goo for turning Thursday into senior night too.
The only seniors on the team, Yasin and Goo combined for 35 points on 11 of 17 shooting to lift the Seawolves to a convincing 85-61 victory over Simon Fraser at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The game pitted two of the West Region’s top 10 teams — UAA is ranked third and Simon Fraser is ranked ninth — but it was a one-sided affair.
The Seawolves, ranked seventh nationally, never trailed while improving to 26-2 overall and 16-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The game was tied twice early, but by the end of the first quarter UAA led 23-10.
Yasin, a 5-foot-6 guard from Oakland, California, poured in 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting while adding three assists and two steals.
Goo, a 5-10 point guard from Daly City, California, supplied 16 points and six assists and had a nearly perfect shooting night — 4 of 4 from the field and 6 of 7 from the foul line.
Goo scored all 16 of her points in the first half, and Yasin had 12 of her 19 in the second half.
“Our two seniors – Yazmeen in the first half and Safiyyah in the second – really stepped up again with outstanding performances,” UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said in a release from the school. “Those two were not about to let us lose this one.”
UAA led 30-10 early in the second quarter but Simon Fraser cut the gap to nine points with 34 seconds left in the half. The Seawolves finished with a 9-1 run, aided by a technical foul and two personal fouls by the Clan.
Goo scored six points in the final 12 seconds, stealing the ball and drawing an intentional foul for a traditional three-point play and then sinking an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 44-27 at the break.
The game was plagued by 49 fouls — 27 for UAA, 22 for Simon Fraser. UAA was 20 of 28 from the free throw line and Simon Fraser was 18 of 25.
The Seawolves outrebounded the Clan 41-37 and had seven players with seven or more points, including Lauren Johnson (10 points), Sala Langi (8 points, 8 rebounds), Kimani Fernandez (7 points, 9 rebounds), Tennae Voliva (7 points, 6 rebounds) and Jahnna Hajdukovich (8 points).
Simon Fraser (16-11 overall, 11-6 GNAC) got a game-high 23 points from Jessica Jones and a nine-point, 10-rebound contribution from Sophie Klaassen.
The victory assures the Seawolves of a first-round bye in the GNAC tournament and puts them one win away from clinching the regular-season GNAC title. They have three games left, but only one more at the Alaska Airlines Center — Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. game against Western Washington. Yasin and Goo will be honored before tipoff.