Say hello to the new guys.
Four newcomers -- Suki Wiggs, Diante Mitchell, Corey Hammell and Spencer Svejcar – fueled a monster comeback in the final eight minutes to carry the UAA men's basketball team to a season-opening victory Friday night at the Division II Tip-Off Classic in Anaheim, California.
UAA rallied to beat Upper Iowa 74-71 in a game the Seawolves trailed by 11 points with less than eight minutes to play.
Upper Iowa led 63-52 when Wiggs, a transfer from Division I Idaho, hit a layup to ignite a 17-0 run by the Seawolves.
Wiggs, a 6-foot-4 guard, scored six of his team-high 20 points during the run. Mitchell, a 6-1 junior transfer from Western Nebraska, scored five of his 12 points and Hammell, a a 6-6 junior transfer from Santa Rosa, scored four of his 18 points in the rally.
Svejcar, a 6-4 junior transfer from Laramie County, hit a pair of free throws with 1:47 remaining to complete the run and put UAA on top, 69-63.
Svejcar added four more free throws down the stretch to keep Upper Iowa at bay. He was 12 of 12 from the line for the night and finished with 14 points.
"I'm really proud of the fight that our guys showed tonight," UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in a game report from the school. "With so many new faces and so little time to come together, they did an excellent job of staying with our game plan and executing what we needed to do in order to make that comeback."
Once UAA took the lead, it never trailed again. Upper Iowa made it a two-point game, 73-71 with 37 seconds left, with a 3-pointer by Jernell Hughes. The teams traded steals – Jimmy Rush stole the ball for Upper Iowa with 17 seconds left, but Wiggs got it back with six seconds left.
Wiggs was fouled on the play and hit the second of two free throws to make it 74-71. A 30-foot heave at the buzzer by Upper Iowa's Carson Parker missed the mark.
Hammell scored a double-double in his UAA debut, grabbing 10 rebounds – five on the offensive end -- to help the Seawolves take a 47-39 rebounding advantage. Sjur Berg, a returner from last season, had a game-high 11 rebounds.
UAA shot 31.6 percent from the field (22 of 61) and fired up just 16 shots from behind the arc – a change from last season, when the 3-pointer was a major component of the team's offense.
The Seawolves return to action Saturday at 12:30 p.m. with a game against Cal Baptist.