ANCHORAGE, Alaska. – Another hot shooting night and four players in double-figures in scoring helped the Western Oregon University men's basketball team pick up a big 85-78 road victory at Alaska Anchorage Thursday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action. It was the first home loss for the Seawolves who entered at 9-0 on the season and had won their past 12 games at home dating back to last season.
"Tonight, the guys were locked in and connected on the offensive side and defensive side of the ball. Winning on the road is hard, especially against an opponent like Alaska Anchorage, but the guys stayed the course. That finishing group of John, Yosani, Tyreek, Cam and Q sustained a run down the end to finish the game," head coach Wes Pifer said.
WOU (7-16, 6-9 GNAC) made over 50 percent from the field for the sixth time this season and went for over 55 percent for the fourth time this season. The Wolves nearly shot the exact same percentage from the field that they did the first time against the Seawolves as WOU made 55.6 percent on Thursday and made 55.4 percent back on Dec. 4 in Monmouth.
The Wolves went 30-54 (55.6) from the field, 11-26 (42.3) from three and 14-17 (82.4) at the foul line. It was the 11th time this season WOU has made at least 10 three-pointers in a game. Yosani Clay led the way with 21 points, while adding eight assists and five rebounds. Cameron Cranston tallied 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in playing all 40 minutes. John Morrill-Keeler was also close to a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds. He also added three assists. Tyreek Price rounded out the four in double-figures with 17 points, along with five rebounds and three assists. Qiant Myers went for six points and six assists.
WOU limited Alaska Anchorage (13-8, 8-6 GNAC) to just an 8-32 (25) effort from three-point range and went 29-71 (40.8) overall from the field. They also went 12-13 (92.3) at the foul line.
UAA came out on fire on their home court scoring the first seven points of the game two minutes in. After that, WOU took over and never looked back. The Wolves came back with a 13-2 run and never relinquished the lead. Price and Cranston hit back-to-back threes before Morrill-Keeler closed the run with a layup for the 13-9 lead.
After the Seawolves got back to within a point, WOU went on a 14-2 run to push the lead out to 13. RJ Veliz put together a stretch of two impressive baskets in the paint and after Price converted a three-point-play, Cranston wrapped up the run with an offensive rebound and putback for the 30-17 lead with 8:32 to play in the half.
UAA got as close as seven the rest of the half before Morrill-Keeler and Clay accounted for five points down the stretch to send WOU into the break holding a 44-34 lead.
The Seawolves trimmed the deficit back to eight nearly two minutes into the second half, but just like earlier in the game, WOU had an answer. Cranston converted a steal by Clay connecting on a three-pointer and then a three-point-play by Clay off of a steal by Myers jumped the lead to 14.
WOU had the lead as high as 17 on a three-pointer by Clay and then again on a layup by Morrill-Keeler with 12:50 to play left WOU with the 62-45 lead.
UAA made one more push to pull to within seven with just over a minute to play, but WOU hit their foul shots down the stretch to seal the victory. Clay went 9-10 over the final few minutes from the foul line to help WOU take the 85-78 victory.
The win gives WOU a regular season sweep of the Seawolves and have now won three straight in the series. The Wolves improve to 6-14 at UAA since 2002 and the road win snapped a two-game losing streak in Anchorage. After the teams split the past two seasons, this is the first regular season sweep of UAA since the 2017-18 season.
WOU also keeps the momentum going having won four of their last five games and stay alive for a possible top-six seed in the upcoming GNAC Championships which would give the Wolves a first round bye into the quarterfinal round.
Oggie Pantovic led UAA with 21 points and seven rebounds. Tobin Karlberg tallied 17 points and five rebounds. David Rowlands and Hunter Sweet each went for 12 points. Rowlands added seven assists and five rebounds. Sweet added eight rebounds.
WOU will close the regular season playing at Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday starting at 4:15 p.m. (Pacific).
