THIS WEEK IN SEAWOLF MEN’S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Feb. 4 – 6 pm AST – Whatcom Pavilion – Bellingham, Wash.
Alaska Anchorage (16-7, 9-3 GNAC)
at Western Washington (14-7, 8-4 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Feb. 6 – 6 pm AST – SFU West Gymnasium – Burnaby, British Columbia
Alaska Anchorage at Simon Fraser (1-17, 0-12 GNAC [2/4 vs UAF])
TV/RADIO: None
LIVE VIDEOSTREAM & STATS: Both games free at portal.stretchinternet.com/uaa
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2015-16 stats)
G—Brian McGill, 6-2, Sr. (15.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.1 spg, .516 FG, .913 FT)
G—Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs, 6-4, Jr. (23.3 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.4 spg, .436 FG, .326 3FG, .770 FT)
G—Spencer Svejcar, 6-4, Jr. (13.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.3 apg, .458 FG, .393 3FG, .865 FT)
F—Corey Hammell, 6-6, Jr. (12.6 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.6 apg, .445 FG, .811 FT)
F—Tayler Thompson, 6-8, Jr. (4.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, .667 FG, .667 FT, 12.6 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: Western Washington has reeled off four straight wins since a home loss to Western Oregon on Jan. 16 ... the Vikings – who are playing their home games at Whatcom Community College while their own Carver Gymnasium is under renovation – are led by 6-6 Jr. F Jeffrey Parker (17.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, .448 FG, .376 3FG, .788 FT), 6-0 Sr. G Ricardo Maxwell (16.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.7 apg, .506 FG, .760 FT) and 6-4 Sr. G/F Kyle Impero (14.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.4 spg, .526 FG, .771 FT) ... Simon Fraser has gone winless against fellow NCAA Div. II opponents thus far, losing 16 straight since a 78-58 win over Douglas on Nov. 17 ... the Clan are led by 6-4 Sr. G/F Michael Harper (14.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1.3 spg, .440 FG, .825 FT) and 6-3 Fr. G Oshea Gairey (12.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.3 spg, .747 FT).
TEAM COMPARISONS UAA WWU SFU
UAA Road/Opp. Home 4-1 7-3 1-9
Points per Game 84.4 86.8 70.6
Points Allowed/Game 72.3 75.9 85.3
Rebounding Diff. +5.9 +5.4 -5.7
Assists per Game 16.4 16.0 12.4
Turnovers per Game 11.2 10.9 15.6
Steals per Game 5.3 7.5 6.9
Blocks per Game 2.8 3.1 3.5
FG% .467 .479 .404
3-pt FG% .367 .363 .308
FT% .797 .724 .724
THE SERIES vs WWU: WWU leads 17-14
In Bellingham: WWU leads 9-5
Last Meeting: UAA 87-84 (1/9/16 at UAA)
Streak: UAA 1
Notes: UAA has won three of the last four meetings – by a combined 10 points – after WWU took eight straight between 2011-14 ... WWU avoided a 3-game sweep at the hands of the Seawolves with last year’s triumph in the GNAC Tournament quarterfinals in Billings ... UAA won 81-76 in Bellingham last season ... WWU leads 16-13 in GNAC regular-season meetings (since 2001-02) … first and only non-GNAC meeting came when both teams were Pac West foes, with UAA winning 89-77 at home, Jan. 20, 2000..
THE SERIES vs SFU: UAA leads 14-0
In Burnaby: UAA leads 8-0
Last Meeting: UAA 96-83 (1/7/16 at UAA)
Notes: UAA has won all 11 meetings since SFU joined the GNAC in 2010-11, posting eight double-digit victories ... the Seawolves have topped the century mark in three of the past five games, including last year’s 115-98 victory in Canada ... teams met twice in UAA’s first year of Div. II membership in 1977-78, with UAA winning twice at home … teams also met when SFU was a provisional NCAA member in 1999-00 and both teams were in the Pac West Conference.
SEAWOLVES EDGED BY SAINTS, FALCONS: The Seawolves suffered their first back-to-back GNAC losses of the season in a pair of down-to-the-wire finishes, falling 73-70 to Saint Martin’s on Jan. 28 and 74-71 to Seattle Pacific on Jan. 30 at the Alaska Airlines Center ... against the Saints, Sr. G Brian McGill tallied 16 points (5-10 FG, 2-3 3FG, 4-4 FT), 7 assists, 1 turnover and 2 steals, but SMU hung on for the upset and claimed just its second win in 21 trips to Anchorage ... Jr. F Corey Hammell added 16 points (5-6 FG, 2-3 3FG, 4-4 FT), 6 rebounds, 3 assits and no turnovers, and Sr. F Christian Leckband had 11 points and 5 rebounds as UAA’s 5-game home winning streak was ended ... on Saturday, Jr. G Spencer Svejcar torched the nets for a career-high 23 points (5-7 3FG), however a last-second halfcourt heave was off-line again against the Falcons ... Jr. G Suki Wiggs had 15 points, McGill added 14 points (5-9 FG), 6 assists and no turnovers in his first start of the season, and Fr. G Damien Fulp came off the bench for his best effort in a GNAC game, delivering 7 points, 2 rebounds and 3 steals.
TEAM NOTES: At 8-0, UAA had its second-longest unbeaten start to GNAC play in the league’s 15-year history, trailing only the 2007-08 Final Four squad that won its first 11 league contests ... the Seawolves’ 9-game winning streak tied for the 6th-longest in program history and was the longest since winning 10 straight early in the 2011-12 campaign ... the Seawolves dropped two spots to No. 9 in the D2SIDA NCAA West Region poll this week (see pg. 5) ... UAA leads the GNAC in both scoring margin (+12.1) and free throw percentage (.797), along with top-3 league ranks in rebound margin (2nd, +5.9), assists (16.4 apg), rebound defense (2nd, +33.0), 3FG% (3rd, .367), 3FG% defense (3rd, .334), and offensive rebound pct. (3rd, .337) ... UAA ranks 3rd in the NCAA Div. II national stats in FT pct., along with top-40 marks in assist/turnover ratio (15th), scoring margin (21st), defensive rebounding (28th, 28.3 drpg), fewest turnovers per game (28th, 11.2) and rebound margin (31st) ... UAA needs two more wins to clinch the program’s 11th straight winning season and the 33rd in 39 years … the Seawolves are seeking the program’s sixth straight top-4 GNAC finish and plus-.500 league record ... UAA has also qualified for the GNAC Tournament each year since the event was instituted in 2011.
SUKI SMOOTH: Jr. G Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs has made a strong push for All-America honors in his first season since transfering from Div. I Idaho, leading the GNAC in scoring (23.3 ppg, 15th nationally) and defensive rebounding (6.2 drpg), along with league ranks of 4th in rebounding (7.2 rpg), 5th in steals (1.5 spg), 8th in assists (3.7 apg) and 8th in A/T ratio (1.5) ... Wiggs set UAA and GNAC records by scoring at least 20 points in 21 straight games – both overall and to start a season – including four 30-plus efforts; although the NCAA does not keep official records on streaks, Wiggs’s 20-plus string is known to be the longest in Div. II since at least the 2011-12 season ... 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 and fifth double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds in UAA’s 61-59 road win over then-No. 8 Seattle Pacific, and a 30-point, 11-rebound effort in the OT win at UAF ... at his current school-record pace of 7.0 FTs made per game (161 of 209), Wiggs is on pace to break Jesse Jackson’s single-season UAA record of 167 FTs made (1986-87) this weekend ... 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 ... the Preseason All-GNAC selection was a double-digit career scorer in two seasons at Idaho, winning 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 last season at Santa Rosa Junior College, leading the GNAC and ranking 6th nationally with 10 such performances ... Hammell leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game (4.5) and is 15th in rebounds per game (10.1) ... 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 169 times in his first 23 games and ranking 10th in the GNAC with a .811 FT%; he had a streak of 27 in a row from Nov. 28-Dec. 14 ... the 6-6, 225-pounder leads the GNAC by nearly three rebounds per game and ranks 20th in scoring with 12.8 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, and he averaged an efficient 19.5 ppg (12-15 FG, 15-17 FT), 14.5 rpg and 2.5 apg in the GNAC-opening wins over Central Washington and NW Nazarene ... 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 19 points and 17 rebounds at Concordia marked his fourth ‘15/15’ outing.
B-MAC IN TOWN: Sr. G Brian McGill – the Seawolves’ leading returning scorer and assist man from 2014-15 – didn’t take long to make an impact after returning to the lineup on Dec. 31, averaging 15.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 10 GNAC games ... in the GNAC-only stats, he ranks 10th in scoring and FG% (.516), 7th in assists and 2nd in FT% (.923), boosted by his school-record 16-of-16 free-throw effort at UAF ... the Oregon native has scored double figures in nine of his 10 appearances and is connecting at a .619 FG% from inside the arc, including the game-winning layup at Seattle Pacific with 5 seconds left ... McGill has now scored double figures in 28 of his last 38 outings dating to last year, including nine times with 20-plus ... the former Western Oregon transfer No. 3 on UAA career lists for assists (369) and assists per game (5.4), needing two more to catch Jim Hajdukovich (371 asst, 1995-99) for 2nd place ... on UAA’s other all-time lists, he is 16th in scoring average (14.8 ppg), 8th in FTs made (256), 12th in 3FG% (.417), 11th in FT% (.834) and 10th in FTs per game (3.8) ... a 2015-16 Preseason All-GNAC pick, McGill 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 (Laramie County [Wyo.] CC) have been critical additions to UAA’s starting lineup this year, combining to average more than 23 points and 5 assists per game, with both shooting over 85 percent from the foul stripe ... a former NJCAA Academic All-American, Mitchell ranks 2nd in the GNAC in 3FG% (.460), along with 6th in FT% (.852), 10th in assists (2.9), and 15th in FG% (.500) ... 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 17 of 23 games as a Seawolf, including 22 points (7-13 FG, 4-6 3FG) at UAF, 18 points (8-9 FT) against Chaminade and 18 points (7-11 FG)/5 assists against Western Washington ... after starting the year 20 of 70 (.286) from 3FG range, he has nailed 28 of his last 52 (.538), including the game-tying trey at UAF to force overtime ... Svejcar has a solid 52/28 assist/turnover ratio in 706 minutes (30.7 mpg), and he holds GNAC overall ranks of 17th in scoring (13.1 ppg), 3rd in FT% (.865), 8th in 3FGs per game (2.1) and 15th in 3FG%.
LECKBAND TOGETHER: Sr. F Christian Leckband is the most experienced Seawolf on the roster, with his 106 career games now tied for 12th in program history and set to move into the top 10 this weekend ... coming off the bench in 22 of 23 contests this year, he has improved on his career scoring (9.9 ppg from 5.3 ppg) and rebounding (4.0 rpg from 3.2 rpg) averages, boosted by his 21 points against Simon Fraser and 16 points against MSUB ... Leckband currently ranks 17th in the GNAC in FG% at .489, while on UAA’s other career lists he is 36th in scoring (717 pts) and 20th in 3FGs made (107) ... the Nome native has 11 double-figure scoring efforts this year, and he equaled the second-most rebounds of his career with 9 in the win over Hawaii Pacific.
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 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 (224-126) 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)
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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