LACEY, Wash. – Coming into Saturday's matchup with Alaska-Anchorage (12-6, 4-5 GNAC) head coach
Christy Martin had never tasted victory against the squad from Alaska's largest city. Well, that all changed when the Saint Martin's women's basketball team (7-10, 3-6 GNAC) eeked out a narrow victory thanks to an ice cold five straight free throws made for
Kiana Rios to close out the game, plus a miraculous block by
Chenoa Louie told prevent the best look at the basket for a potential game-winner.
Let's start at the top. The first quarter was fairly even until Rios came up big to start with two straight threes to tack on to another bucket. That, plus
Anjel Galbraith getting fouled with no time left on the clock in the quarter and making a free throw, had the Saints finishing that quarter on an 11-4 run and entering the second up 22-15.
Sarah Lamet and Galbraith sandwiched two shots together to start the second and continue the run. That woke up the Seawolves quite a bit, however, as UAA responded with an 11-0 run to tie the game. After Anchorage took a 31-30 lead with 1:26 to go, a converted and-one from
Lauryn Morris plus two free throws from Galbraith and a buzzer beater from
Rian Clear sent SMU into the locker room on a 7-0 run and a 37-31 lead.
The Seawolves controlled the third, but Lamet kept the Saints in it by scoring six of 11 points in the frame. Despite that, SMU went into the final quarter down by a pair. UAA launched the first attack to hit a bucket and go up five, before Morris answered with two shots to draw within one. Then it was Galbraith with a wide open look from downtown to splash it home and put SMU up two. Two straight shots from Anchorage vaulted them back in front before Clear fired in a bomb from downtown, followed by Louie winding up to splash her first three of the season to the delight of the Saint Martin's bench that she hit it in front of.
With 3:12 left and the score tied at 61, Clear wound up from deep to fire a three ball, and even though the shot missed, Clear took a hard hit to absorb the foul and fall to the ground. Still feeling the effects of the hard fall, Clear exited the game, while Coach Martin was forced to sub on her freshman shooter Rios to take the three free throws in the biggest of moments. Swish. Swish. Swish. Ice in her veins, the rookie sunk all three to put SMU up. Anchorage promptly answered with a shot before both sides exchanged a few misses, and eventually, the Seawolves hit a shot with 11 second to go to take the lead. After the first play drawn up for SMU ended with the ball out of bounds off of UAA, Galbraith inbounded the ensuing throw-in to Rios who took one dribble to the rack and go her shoulder grabbed in the process earning two more huge shots at the charity stripe. Déjà vu all over again as Rios was unphased by the big moment and put Saint Martin's up by one.
With 2.4 seconds left, each side called a separate timeout to create their plan for the final UAA chance. When it finally happened, the Seawolves launched a cross-court pass where Louie reached to the sky to block a potential game-winner and cement the first Saint Martin's win over Alasak-Anchorage since March of 2014.
Four different players scored in double-figures for the Saints including 16 from Rios, 15 from Galbraith, 12 from Lamet, and 11 from Morris. Both Morris and Lamet chipped in eight rebounds while Galbraith had eight assists.
The Saints now head out on the road where they'll do battle with Western Oregon (8-9, 2-7 GNAC) on Saturday, February 28
th. That game will tipoff at 2 PM in Monmouth, Oregon.
