UAA Athletics

UAA basketball teams pick up transfers from other Division II schools

Know thy enemy. And sometimes, recruit them.

The UAA men’s basketball team is getting a point guard from Hawaii Pacific who helped defeat the Seawolves back in the 2017-18 season.

David Rowlands, whose 12 points and four assists sparked a victory over the Seawolves a couple of years ago, will join UAA for his senior season.

He’s a 6-footer who shot 47.3% from the field in four seasons with the Sharks, a West Region rival and frequent nonconference opponent of the Seawolves. He played in 88 games, started 55, and averaged 15 points, 4.4 assists and 3.1 rebounds in Hawaii Pacific’s abbreviated 2020-21 season.

Because of the NCAA’s eligibility waiver for all athletes during the 2020-21 pandemic school year, Rowland gets one more year of basketball, and he’s spending it at UAA.

The UAA women also picked up a Division II transfer. Jazzpher Evans, a 5-foot-6 guard, will join the Seawolves as a freshman even though she spent the 2020-21 season playing for Quincy University of Illinois — again, because of the NCAA waiver.

Evans averaged 11.4 points and 2.8 rebounds in her first collegiate season. Among her best games was a 16-point effort against Drury University, Division II’s national runner-up this season.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Jazz will come in as a freshman and has a full season of D-II basketball under her belt in a league very comparable to the GNAC,” UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said in a press release from the school. “She has proven she can have big games against some of the best teams, and we fully expect her to build on that here.”

Evans and Rowlands will lend backcourt depth to both teams.

Rowlands, who is from Dayton, Ohio, “fills a huge need for us in the backcourt,” said UAA coach Rusty Osborne, whose team lost guard Tyson Gilbert to an Achilles’ injury in April.

”David has four years of extensive D-II experience, and having competed against him three times, we have always been impressed with his ability. ... When we saw that David had entered the transfer portal, we felt he might be a perfect choice to help us through next season,” Osborne said.

Rowlands is Osborne’s second signing of the spring, joining 6-7 wing Darius Guinn, a Division I transfer from Bryant University.

Evans is the fourth member of McCarthy’s recruiting class, joining 5-8 freshman forward Sunny Pedebone of Anchorage Christian, 5-8 freshman forward Taysia ‘Tubby’ Tovia of Las Vegas and 6-0 forward Miyah Lewis-Hampton, a Division I transfer from San Jose State.

ADVERTISEMENT