UAA Athletics

UAA women’s basketball team runs its winning streak to 9 games

When the 10th-ranked UAA women’s basketball team plays its first home game in more than a month Thursday, it will be riding a nine-game winning streak.

The Seawolves ran their record to 14-1 Saturday with a 73-63 victory over Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Washington.

It wasn’t an easy win. UAA, which beat Saint Martin’s 107-47 a year ago in Lacey, never led by more than 12 points.

Safiyyah Yasin led a trio of double-figure scorers with 18 points — Yazmeen Goo had 13 and Sala Langi 12 — and freshman Rachel Ingram knocked down three big 3-pointers for nine points.

UAA took the lead for good early in the second quarter on Yasin’s 3-pointer, but Saint Martin’s stayed within single digits for most of the game.

Ingram hit two of her triples late in the third quarter to keep the Saints at bay after they had closed the gap to one point.

“That was a terrific test for our ladies tonight against a team that is going to get its share of GNAC victories this season,” coach Ryan McCarthy said in a release from UAA. “They pushed us to the limit but we showed resilience by answering each time they made a run. Then we had shot-makers — like Rachel — step up and take advantage of some good looks at clutch moments.”

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Yasin drained three triples and had six rebounds, two assists and two steals to help UAA improve to 4-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Tennae Voliva delivered another strong effort in the post with eight rebounds, six points, three steals and two blocks, and Stephanie Jackson (6 points on 3 of 5 shooting, 2 assists, 1 steal) and Lauren Johnson (4 points on 2 of 2 shooting, 3 rebounds and 2 assists) provided a lift off the bench.

Saint Martin’s dropped to 6-5 overall and 1-3 in the GNAC despite 27 points from Claire Dingus, last season’s Freshman of the Year in the GNAC. Dingus was 7 of 11 from the field and 11 of 11 from the free throw line pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.

Freshman Bria Thomas added 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting but the rest of the Saints shot a combined 5 of 29. But they cashed in at the foul line, where they were 24 of 30. Saint Martin’s shot 41.5 percent to UAA’s 43.5 percent.

The Seawolves return to the Alaska Airlines Center for two games this week, Thursday against Central Washington and Saturday against Northwest Nazarene.

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