Werner And Halejian Combine For 29 In The Loss.
Anchorage, AK – Right out of the gate, Alaska Anchorage utilized full-court pressure and wildly aggressive play to jump out to an 11-0 start in the first four minutes in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout. The Seawolves never looked back, beating the Yale women's basketball team, 72-63, in a physical game on Tuesday night.
With the win, Alaska Anchorage (5-0, 0-0) will play for the Shootout championship on Wednesday against Long Beach State, while the Bulldogs will face Boise State in the consolation game.
Playing a home game in their brand new Alaska Airlines Arena in front of a crowd of 2,643, the Seawolves proved to be as tough as advertised, showcasing their "mayhem" style of basketball to attack and disorient the Bulldogs all night. The host entered Tuesday's game having won all four of its games this season by 36 or more points.
Alaska Anchorage, a six-time winner of the Shootout tournament (most recently in 2009), used intense defensive pressure to force the Elis into long-range shots, which did not fall for the Bulldogs on Tuesday.
Yale (1-3, 0-0 Ivy) went 4-of-28 from three-point range, a mere 14.3-percent from behind the arc. Over the last two games, the Bulldogs have shot a combined 28-percent and 33-percent from the field.
After the initial shock of the Seawolves' 11-0 run subsided, the Bulldogs settled down with consecutive buckets by junior guard Nyasha Sarju (Seattle, Wash.) and Meredith Boardman (Oak Park, Ill.) to cut the lead to six.
Alaska opened up its biggest lead of the night with 5:21 to go in the first half, leading by 17 after a three-pointer by Leah Bonner and a layup by Megan Mullings. However, the last five minutes belonged to the Elis.
Yale finished the half on a 16-6 run, narrowing the Alaska lead to seven at halftime due to 13 first half points by sophomore forward Katie Werner (Phoenix, Ariz.). The Elis would get the lead down to four, but never led in the game.
The second half started with both squads exchanging baskets with the Bulldogs hovering and staying within single digits for the first nine minutes. Four points apiece though for Alli Madison and Adriana Dent over a three-minute span pushed the lead to 16 for Alaska at the 7:41 mark.
Having one final push left in them, the Bulldogs trimmed the Seawolves' lead to eight with two minutes remaining, but couldn't take advantage of open jumpers at key times, allowing Alaska to expand its lead and put the game out of reach.
The Bulldogs were led by Werner, who scored 15 on the night and shot a perfect 100-percent from the field (5-5 FG, 1-1 3FG, 4-4 FT), boosting her scoring average to 10.5 in the first four games.
Senior captain Sarah Halejian (Wyckoff, N.J.) wasn't far behind, scoring 14 points of her own while tying a career-high with nine assists. It was her fourth consecutive game scoring in double figures.
Boardman played a hard 26 minutes for the Elis, scoring nine and grabbing eight rebounds against a tenacious glass attack from Alaska. The junior forward even took an elbow to the face in the second half, which was not called a foul, and she kept playing.
For the second straight game, the Bulldogs were out-rebounded (44-38) and fell prey to the tough Seawolves' defense that recorded nine steals in the game, which was well short of their 20.5 steal average coming into Tuesday.
The Seawolves, who qualified for the Division II NCAA Tournament last season, saw significant production from many players, with six finishing with eight points or more. Mullings led with 13, KeKe Wright had 12, and Madison had 10.
The Bulldogs remain in Anchorage to play Boise State on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. (ET) in the consolation matchup. Yale looks for the program's first-ever win in the state of Alaska in five tries.
Live stats and video stream for the game can be seen HERE.
Filed by Steve Lewis, Yale Sports Publicity Assistant
