THIS WEEK IN SEAWOLF MEN’S BASKETBALL
Tuesday, Jan. 12 – 7 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, AK
Montana State Billings (6-8, 3-3 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (13-4, 6-0 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Jan. 16 – 7 pm AST – Patty Center – Fairbanks, AK
Alaska Anchorage at Alaska Fairbanks (11-3, 5-1 GNAC [1/14 vs MSUB])
TV: Tuesday’s MSUB game will be shown live throughout Alaska on GCI cable Ch. 1 (SD) and Ch. 999 (HD) ... none Saturday.
RADIO: None
LIVE VIDEOSTREAM & STATS: Both games free at portal.stretchinternet.com/uaa
TICKETS: $10 at the door, online at alaskaairlinescenter.com, or by calling 907-786-1562 ... discounts apply for UAA staff/faculty, alumni, senior (60+), youth (3-18) and military ... groups of 10 or more can purchase in bulk for $6 per ticket ... UAA students free with valid WolfCard ... more information at GoSeawolves.com.
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2015-16 stats)
G—Diante Mitchell, 6-1, Jr. (11.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.3 apg, .526 FG, .491 3FG, .870 FT)
G—Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs, 6-4, Jr. (23.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 4.1 apg, 1.6 spg, .449 FG, .326 3FG, .764 FT)
G—Spencer Svejcar, 6-4, Jr. (12.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.5 apg, .439 FG, .344 3FG, .829 FT)
F—Corey Hammell, 6-6, Jr. (13.5 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.5 apg, .468 FG, .805 FT)
F—Tayler Thompson, 6-8, Jr. (4.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, .652 FG, 7-10 FT, 12.5 mpg)
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @UAAMBB (for in-game updates) and @UAASeawolves
Facebook: Alaska Anchorage Seawolves
Instagram: UAA_Seawolves
YouTube & SnapChat: UAA Seawolves
Hashtags: #SeawolfHoops #UAASeawolves
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Montana State Billings had its season-high 3-game win streak halted last week when it dropped a pair of tight road games, 98-98 at NW Nazarene and 87-75 at Central Washington ... the Yellowjackets are led by 6-2 Jr. G Marc Matthews (14.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, .449 3FG, .889 FT) and 6-7 Fr. F Preston Beverly (11.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, .422 FG, .308 3FG, .680 FT) ... Alaska Fairbanks is enjoying its best campaign in more than a decade, winning seven of its last eight, with the only loss being a 100-99 overtime setback against Western Washington last week ... the Nanooks are led by 6-4 Sr. F Travante Williams (17.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.1 bpg, 2.9 spg, .473 3FG) and 6-6 Jr. F Bangaly Kaba (14.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.1 apg, .548 FG).
TEAM COMPARISONS UAA MSUB UAF
UAA Home/MSUB Road 8-2 3-4 --
UAA Road/UAF Home 2-0 -- 7-1
Points per Game 86.1 76.9 87.5
Points Allowed/Game 71.6 82.4 75.1
Rebounding Diff. +6.9 -2.3 +1.9
Assists per Game 17.4 13.3 18.1
Turnovers per Game 12.0 15.7 11.7
Steals per Game 5.8 5.3 9.7
Blocks per Game 2.8 3.6 4.4
FG% .474 .437 .465
3-pt FG% .363 .389 .362
FT% .786 .746 .676
THE SERIES vs MSUB: UAA leads 41-29
In Anchorage: UAA leads 28-5
Last Meeting: UAA 82-68 (2/12/15 at UAA)
Streak: UAA 2
Notes: UAA has won five of the last seven meetings, including a sweep of both games last season ... UAA leads 12-4 in GNAC regular-season meetings since MSUB joined the league in 2007-08 … MSUB is UAA’s 2nd-most common opponent (70 meetings) … teams met at least twice per season each year between 1981-82 and 2000-01 as members of the Great Northwest and Pacific West conferences ... first meeting was in 1977-78.
THE SERIES vs UAF: UAA leads 75-22
In Fairbanks: UAA leads 32-17
Last Meeting: UAA 74-72 (2/7/15 at UAA)
Streak: UAA 2
Notes: UAA has won 18 of the last 19 meetings after sweeping last year’s season series, including a 76-64 decision in Fairbanks ... UAF’s 70-68 home win to close the 2013-14 regular season snapped UAA’s series-record 16-game win streak and marked the Nanooks’ only triumph since 2007 ... six of the last eight games have been decided by six points or less … UAA leads 22-6 in GNAC meetings (since 2001-02) and 45-10 since 1990 … teams have met at least twice each year since both became NCAA Div. II programs in 1977-78.
’WOLVES DEFEND TURF AGAINST CLAN, VIKES: The Seawolves extended their winning streak to seven games and took over sole possession of first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with home victories over Simon Fraser (96-83) and preseason coaches’ poll favorite Western Washington (87-84), Jan. 7 & 9 ... on Thursday, Jr. G Suki Wiggs had with 23 points (7-14 FG, 7-8 FT), 8 rebounds and 3 assists, while Sr. F Christian Leckband came offf the bench 21 points (9-13 FG, 2-4 3FG) and 5 rebounds to help UAA stay undefeated in 14 all-time meetings against the Clan ... Sr. G Brian McGill added 17 points (7-12 FG) and 6 assists and Jr. G Spencer Svejcar had 13 points (6-9 FG) and 4 rebounds as the Seawolves shot 52 percent from the field and outrebounded SFU 43-31 ... on Saturday, Svejcar had 18 points (7-11 FG, 2-4 3FG, 2-2 FT), 5 assists and sank the go-ahead basket with just over 4 minutes remaining to help UAA beat WWU for the third time in four tries ... Wiggs had 6 assists and a team-high 21 points (8-10 FT), McGill tallied 14 points (6-11 FG), 7 assists and 5 rebounds, and Jr. G Diante Mitchell had 16 points (6-7 FG, 4-5 FT) as the Seawolves shot 51 percent from the field and 86 percent (19-22) on free throws.
TEAM NOTES: UAA has equaled its second-best GNAC start in the league’s 15-year history, trailing only the 2007-08 Final Four squad that won its first 11 league contests ... the Seawolves’ current 7-game winning streak is its longest since winning 10 straight early in the 2011-12 campaign ... the Seawolves skyrocketed five spots to No. 5 in Monday’s weekly D2SIDA NCAA West Region poll (see pg. 5) ... UAA leads the GNAC in both scoring margin (+14.5) and free throw percentage (.786), along with top-3 league ranks in rebound margin (2nd, +6.8), 3FG% defense (2nd, .330), offensive rebound pct. (3rd, .351), rebounds per game (3rd, 32.9), FG% defense (3rd, .409) and assists (3rd, 17.4 apg) ... UAA ranks 5th in the NCAA Div. II national stats in FT pct., along with top-50 marks in scoring margin (17th), assist/turnover ratio (21st, +1.45), rebound margin (29th), FG pct. defense (31st), scoring offense (36th, 86.1 ppg) and defensive rebounding (42nd, 27.9) ... UAA needs five more wins to clinch the program’s 11th straight winning season and the 33rd in 39 years … last year’s Seawolves earned the the program’s fifth straight top-4 GNAC finish and plus-.500 league record ... UAA has qualified for the GNAC Tournament each year since the event was instituted in 2011.
SUKI SMOOTH: Div. I transfer Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs has lived up to his billing as a Preseason All-GNAC selection so far, setting Seawolf program records by scoring at least 20 points in 17 straight games – both overall and to start a season ... in the GNAC stats, he paces the 11-team league by 2.5 points per contests with 23.8 ppg (9th nationally), along with ranks of 6th in rebounding (7.1 rpg), 8th in assists (4.1 apg) and 2nd in defensive rebounds per game (6.0) ... the former Seattle O’Dea High star started early by setting the CCA Div. II Tip-Off Classic single-game scoring record with 34 points against Cal Baptist on Oct. 31, and he tallied a combined 50 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists in UAA’s 2- and 4-point wins over Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific in November ... more recently, Wiggs posted his fourth double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds in UAA’s 61-59 road upset of No. 8 Seattle Pacific, and followed with his third 30-plus effort when he totalled 32 points and 8 rebounds at Saint Martin’s ... Wiggs tied another program mark with 14 made free throws (on 16 attempts) against Saint Martin’s, equaling Jason Kaiser’s UAA road record from 1994 ... at his current pace of 7.4 FTs made per game (126 of 165), Wiggs is on pace to break Jesse Jackson’s single-season UAA record of 167 FTs made (1986-87) on Jan. 30 ... in late November, he earned GNAC Player of the Week and GCI Great Alaska Shootout all-tourney honors after breaking the 38-year-old tournament’s scoring record with 98 points, surpassing the 97 by Purdue legend Glenn Robinson from 1993 ... Wiggs tied for the 2nd-highest scoring game by a Seawolf in Shootout history with 35 in the opener against eventual champ Middle Tennessee, and he led the tourney in scoring by more than 10 ppg, becoming first player to tally at least 30 in all three games ... a double-digit career scorer in two seasons at Idaho, Wiggs was the Western Athletic Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman in 2013-14.
HAMMELL TIME: Jr. F Corey Hammell has shown why he averaged a double-double as a sophomore last season at Santa Rosa Junior College, leading the GNAC and ranking 4th nationally with nine such performances ... Hammell also leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game (4.7) and is 16th in rebounds per game (10.0) ... the Californian is on pace to become the fifth Seawolf to average a double-double and the first since Peter Bullock in 2002-03 ... Hammell is also on pace for one of the most productive free-throw campaigns in program history, getting to the line 133 times in his first 17 games and ranking 11th in the GNAC with a .805 FT%; he has made at least 3 FTs in every game and had a streak of 27 in a row from Nov. 28-Dec. 14 ... the 6-6, 225-pounder leads the GNAC by 2.6 rebounds per game and ranks 19th in scoring with 13.5 ppg ... Hammell scored a season-high 24 points and matched UAA’s best rebounding total of 2014-15 with 15 boards in the 69-65 win over Hawaii Pacific, converting a key three-point play with 15 seconds left ... in the GNAC openers against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene, he averaged a crazily efficient 19.5 ppg, 14.5 rpg and 2.5 apg in 26 minutes per contest, shooting 12-15 FG, 2-2 3FG and 15-17 FT ... with 17 points and 17 rebounds against NNU, Hammell grabbed the most boards for a Seawolf since 2009 and matched UAA’s program-best in a GNAC game (Bullock, twice, 2002-03), while his 17 rebounds and 15 rebounds at Saint Martin’s marked his third ‘15/15’ outing.
B-MAC IN TOWN: Sr. G Brian McGill – the Seawolves’ leading returning scorer (13.8 ppg) and assist man (5.8 apg) from 2014-15 – hasn’t taken long to make an impact since regaining his eligibility recently, averaging 13.5 points and 3.8 assists, while shooting .513 on FGs and .846 on FTs ... the Oregon native has scored double figures in all four of his appearances and is connecting at .680 (17-25) from inside the arc, including the game-winning layup at Seattle Pacific with 5 seconds left ... a Preseason All-GNAC selection, McGill has now scored double figures in 23 of his last 32 outings dating to last year, including eight times with 20-plus ... after just 62 games, McGill is already 4th on UAA’s career list with 345 assists, while his 5.6 assists per game rank 3rd; he also holds UAA career ranks in scoring average (16th, 14.6 ppg), FTs made (11th, 225; needs 2 to reach top 10), 3FG% (12th, .420), FT% (14th, .821) and FTs per game (11th, 3.6) ... the former Western Oregon transfer garnered All-GNAC Second Team honors in 2013-14 and was honorable mention last year.
TERRIFIC TRANSFERS: Junior college rivals for the past two seasons, Jr. G Diante Mitchell (Western Nebraska CC) and Jr. G/F Spencer Svejcar (Larmie County [Wyo.] CC) have been critical additions to UAA’s starting lineup this year, combining to average 24.1 ppg and 5.6 apg, with both shooting at least 83 percent from the foul stripe ... a former NJCAA Academic All-American, Mitchell ranks 2nd in the GNAC in 3FG% (.491), along with 7th in FT% (.870, 50th nationally), 10th in assists (3.3), 8th in A/T ratio (1.8) and 15th in FG% (.526) ... Mitchell had perhaps his most solid week in UAA’s GNAC-opening wins over CWU and NNU, totaling 41 points (15-20 FG, 6-8 3FG, 5-6 FT) and 10 assists ... Svejcar was an NJCAA All-Region IX First Team selection as a sophomore after averaging 16.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 2.5 apg, while shooting .405 3FG last year ... the Colorado native has tallied double figures in 13 of 17 games as a Seawolf, including 18 points (8-9 FT) in the win over Chaminade, 20 points (8-12 FG) against CSUDH, and 18 points (7-11 FG)/5 assists against Western Washington ... Svejcar also has a solid 42/20 assist/turnover ratio in 506 minutes (29.8 mpg).
LECKBAND TOGETHER: Sr. F Christian Leckband is the most experienced Seawolf on the roster, with his 100 career games now tied for 17th in program history ... coming off the bench in 16 of 17 contests this year, he has improved on his career scoring (10.6 ppg from 5.3 ppg) and rebounding (4.5 rpg from 3.2 rpg) averages, boosted by his clutch 21 points in Thursday’s win over Simon Fraser ... after a slow start in the first two games this year, Leckband has averaged 12.1 ppg on .536 FG% since then ... the Nome native equaled the second-most rebounds of his career with 9 in the win over Hawaii Pacific, and he dished a season-high 4 assists in the loss to Div. I San Jose State ... in the GNAC stats, Leckband is 17th in FG% (.507) and 20th in 3FG%.
BERG SIDELINED: UAA suffered a blow Nov. 6 when So. F Sjur Berg suffered a broken elbow in the Seawolves’ home opener ... following surgery, Berg is expected to miss at least two months and possibly the rest of the season ... the Norwegian ranked second on the team (15th GNAC) last year with 5.2 rpg and was averaging 7.0 rpg through the first three games this year.
THE OSBORNE FILE: Now in his 12th year as head coach, Rusty Osborne (221-123) has led the Seawolves to 10 straight winning seasons, along with five NCAA Tournaments and a trip to the 2008 NCAA D-II Semifinals in his tenure at the helm … with UAA’s victory over Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 10, 2015, he became the first UAA basketball coach to reach 200 career victories … Osborne captured his first career GNAC and NABC West District coach-of-the-year awards in 2008 after becoming the second coach to lead UAA to three consecutive NCAA berths (2006-08), and in 2011-12 his Seawolves posted a 24-10 record to equal the 2nd-most victories in program history; Osborne’s 2007-08 club holds that record with a 29-6 mark … before taking over the head job in 2004-05, the Texas native previously served 13 seasons (1991-04) as a UAA assistant, including 11 years as the top assistant … the Seawolves have won over 60 percent of their games with Osborne on the staff, claiming four conference titles and eight trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Osborne is assisted in 2015-16 by Cameron Turner (5th season) and Kasey Riley (1st season).
SEAWOLVES TABBED 4TH: The Seawolves were picked to finish fourth in the 2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll, released Oct. 15.
2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference
Preseason Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Poll
Rk Team (1st-pl. votes) ‘14-15 Records Pts
1. Western Washington (5) 20-11/11-7 (t-5th) 114
2. Western Oregon (4) 23-7/15-3 (1st) 106
3. Seattle Pacific (2) 24-8/13-5 (2nd) 100
4. Alaska Anchorage 16-13/12-6 (t-3rd) 92
5. Central Washington 17-9/12-6 (t-3rd) 80
6. Alaska Fairbanks 7-19/4-14 (8th) 63
7. Saint Martin’s 6-22/3-15 (t-9th) 41
Montana State Billings 5-23/3-15 (t-9th) 41
9. Northwest Nazarene 14-16/11-7 (t-5th) 37
10. Concordia, Ore. 25-7 1st Yr in GNAC 32
11. Simon Fraser 11-15/6-12 (7th) 20
(Votes awarded on 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis)
2015-16 Seawolf Individual Honors
Corey Hammell
GCI GNAC/Pac West Challenge All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Jamboree All-Tournament Team
Brian McGill
Preseason All-GNAC Team
Suki Wiggs
Preseason All-GNAC Team
GCI GNAC/Pac West Challenge All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Jamboree Most Outstanding Player
GCI Great Alaska Shootout Player of the Game vs Middle Tennesssee
GCI Great Alaska Shootout Player of the Game vs Drexel
GCI Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament Team
GNAC Player of the Week, Nov. 23-29
Nate Sagan
Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Dr.
Anchorage, AK 99508
(907) 786-1295 / nate@uaa.alaska.edu
GoSeawolves.com
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